Will Rossbach - Maplewood, MN

A Day of Sorrow

2010-05-03T13:06:00.009-06:00

On Saturday May 1st just before 7am Maplewood Police Sergeant Joe Bergeron was gunned down by two assailants as he was investigating a carjacking report from earlier in the morning. Sergeant Bergeron had not even exited his squad car when the two assailants rushed in on him and shot him.

You can read or watch the details of this story by going to any Twins Cities media outlet. They all have been covering this incident since its beginning on Saturday. These are just three links that you can use to learn more of the story: WCCO, KSTP, KARE.

It is difficult to make any sense out of an incident like this, which is why it is so difficult for any of us to deal with it. We want it to make sense. We want a justification, some way to make it work in our minds.

A few years ago I visited Washington DC. On that trip I had some free time so I decided to visit the Capitol Mall area. There was different art work and of course memorials to past presidents and to the veterans of the wars America has fought. It was all just an interesting afternoon until I came to the Vietnam War Memorial. As I walked down the ramp alongside of the wall covered with the names of all of the people who gave their lives in that war I started to cry. I didn't at the time understand why. It was one of the few times that I did not immediately try to control myself. Somehow it seemed right to let my emotions run their course. After, I tried to reflect on what it was about that Memorial that had triggered my emotions. I think it was that nothing about that war made any sense to me. All of these young people gave their lives and what did we gain?

The murder of Sgt. Bergeron has affected me in the same way. Both on Saturday and again today at different times my emotions have gotten the best of me. Sgt. Bergeron was not a close friend. I spoke to him on occasion. He was however a part of the Maplewood family. All of us that live here or work for Maplewood are part of the family. Joe was one of the people that was willing to take on the role of protecting the rest of us. He was good at his job. He was well trained. Joe had many friends who have talked about his unique outgoing personality. He was the type of person who liked people. Although his seniority and abilities would have allowed him to choose a variety of job duties he wanted to be on patrol duty because it allowed him to work directly with people.

As near as I can tell the assailants in this case are people whose lives are a mess. Lengthy run-in's with the police, prison time, a history of hurting people. They certainly seemed to view most people as not having value, as a "mark" to make a buck. Both of them were on the opposite end of the spectrum from Joe.

To me there is no sense to the outcomes from this event. It is troubling in many ways. It is frustrating that there seems to be little any of us can do. For now we are left to show our respect for Sgt. Bergeron and to all of those who choose to risk their lives so that the rest of us can feel secure.

There will be a visitation at the Maplewood Community Center on Wednesday May 5th, 4pm-8pm. The funeral will be on Thursday May 6th at 10am at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Also on Thursday there will be a funeral procession, part of which will pass through Maplewood. The details for this are being finalized and will be posted on the Maplewood website. I would ask that if at all possible you attend, to stand with others and show your respect for our fallen officer. I certainly believe he would or has been there for you.

The LOLlie Preview is OUT!!!

2010-04-01T16:40:00.006-06:00

This morning I anxiously took a look to see if there was a current addition of the Lollie Preview. I was disappointed that I was not able to find a new issue.

For the last two years on April 1st. Someone has posted on the Internet the best Maplewood political humor that I have ever read. So I was naturally hoping that there would be a other issue. Tonight I took one more look and I was delighted to see that the latest issue is out. You can view it by clicking here.

Don't miss the past issues link in the Preview to remind yourself of what was in the past issues. Although the publisher is a mystery I have to take my hat off to them. To quote The cable guy, " I don't care who you are that right there is funny".

Magellan Pipeline Maintenance

2010-03-31T18:37:00.009-06:00

This spring the Magellan pipeline management company will be doing maintenance of their pipeline easement in Maplewood. The work will involve removal of brush and trimming of trees. It may be that some trees will have to be removed. The city has been in contact recently with Donald Jensen the pipeline maintenance foreman for Magellan. Mr. Jensen has indicated that this work is required for safety and access within their easement. Magellan will be contacting property owners in the area about the work. If you have some questions you can contact Mr. Jensen at 612-991-0141.

The picture above shows where they will be starting their work in the south portion of Maplewood.

Future Mayor?

2010-03-29T21:26:00.009-06:00

At about 6:30 pm on Sunday Maplewood's latest future voter was brought into the world. The addition of Carter Matthew Rossbach adds Grandpa Rossbach to my title. Carter's stats were 8lbs 9oz, 21 inches. That's a big boy!

Spring Clean Up

2010-03-29T19:46:00.006-06:00

Are you totally into getting rid of that trash that has been accumulating around your yard? Then you don't want to miss the Maplewood Spring Clean Up Day, April 24th, 8am to 1pm at Aldrich Arena. Along with that garbage maybe you you have some gently used items which could benefit others through Bridging, or a bike that you don't use anymore that with a couple of repairs could work well for someone else. Then there is that old paint or other hazardous material that you have been meaning to dispose of, well you can take care of it all at the clean up day. I'll see you there.

Goodbye to Bob

2010-03-27T16:26:00.019-06:00

At the end of April Bob Mittet will be leaving his Maplewood position of Director of Finance for new challenges. Mr. Mittet submitted his resignation at the end of January. He is scheduled to work until the end of April of this year.

Mr. Mittet first came to Maplewood in March of 2007 which was chronicled in the Maplewood Review . As indicated in the story, Mr. Mittet joined the city at a pretty crazy time. As you may recall Greg Copeland was the City Manager and the council was Longrie, Hjelle, Cave, Juenemann and myself. Many city employees had left or had been "reorganized" out of a job. Bob came into a bad situation in the Finance Department. All but two of the previous employees had left, so Bob was pretty much on his own to figure things out.

I have to tell you that I was impressed then and now with Bob's attitude and dedication to the job. He was continually putting in extra hours to try to get the department back on line and to have the work done on time. Mr. Antonen expressed similar feelings in the letter he sent to the staff letting them know of Bob's departure, "Bob's kind demeanor and work ethic will be missed".

Due to the difficult position that Mr. Mittet stepped into, each step along the way was a struggle. It was difficult to get the yearly budgets done in the time frame that we were hoping for. The yearly city audits were particularly difficult. Imagine the frustration you would feel if you had to account for the actions and procedures of people who were there before you, knowing the information was there but not having the benefit of being able to just ask someone where the information was , or what procedure had been followed booking the information. I would have to think that the first year would have been especially bad since I was told that Mr. Copeland would not allow Bob to contact the previous staff to ask for some help. After Mr. Copeland was gone Bob was able to have Dan Faust and Gayle Bowman come back as consultants to help with some training and knowledge transfer.

2007 and 2008 were tough years for the Maplewood Finance Department due to the whole restaffing of the department, but Bob hung in there and did his best to bring the department back on line. During that time Chuck Ahl commented on the state of Maplewood's finances to reassure the public.

The good news is that his hard work paid off. Each year since Bob took over the Finance Department was able to improve on their performance. In the early years the department required some additional help to prepare the audit and budget information. This year they have been able to operate on their own. Some additional training was needed to bring everyone back up to speed on the computer software programs and procedures we use to track all of our financial information. This has allowed the staff to return to more of a "normal operating" mode. In a normal mode our financial staff is able to provide all the information requested by the external auditing firm that the city hires to perform the annual audit. During the last three years we had to hire additional help to provide this information. Every few years we bring in a different auditing company to insure that fresh eyes are reviewing our finances. It is also worth noting that even with the difficulties that we have had to work through, the Finance Department has continued Maplewood's over thirty year record of being awarded a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. Click here to view the 2007 certificate.

The last odd item was that the staff could not track down a $93,000.00 balance deficit. They finally were able to locate some expense items from electric franchise fees that had been booked twice. This made it appear that we were missing the $93000.00 when it was there all along.

The posting for a new Director of Finance has closed as of last Friday. I of course am hoping that we have received some good applicants for the job. Only time will tell, but I want to thank Mr. Mittet for all that he has done to help us stabilize the situation and bring us back to a functional state. I wish the best for Bob in whatever he does next.

Wrapping up the Trip

2010-03-20T17:10:00.009-06:00

Tuesday I attended the Opening Session which featured four speakers but I only had time to hear Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration and then we had to head up to Capitol Hill for our scheduled meetings.

We spent time during the day meeting with the staff of Senator Klobuchar and Franken and with Betty McCollum and staff. Neither Senator was available for the meeting but we did get a chance to speak to them briefly later on in the trip. We did have about an hour to spend with Betty McCollum. We presented the same information to all three offices which highlighted a surface water project at Gervais Pond, phase two of the Fire Fighter Training Center, and a energy proposal at the City Hall campus.

The Gervais Pond project is tied to the replacement of the stop light at English and Highway 36. The pond has seasonal flooding and impairment issues which need to be resolved before the actual intersection project can proceed.

We were a little handicapped on Phase two of the fire Training Facility due to the fact that Governor Pawlenty had line item vetoed the final funding of Phase one on Monday. But we introduced the concept and told them we would be back.

The city campus energy project is a concept of photovoltaic, wind power, and geothermal energy. We want to explore all of these options but first need to do some engineering studies to determine which form of energy generation or what combination of systems would work best for our situation. No matter what the results of the study indicate, a project that could provide for all of the city campus energy and possibly more would be expensive, and we would need every grant or earmark we can get.

There was a reception for everyone back at the convention that evening which was capped off with a performance of The Capitol Steps. If you ever get the chance I would certainly recommend them. They pick on everyone and were extremely funny.

On Wednesday we attended Senator Franken's weekly breakfast and went to a gathering of the MN delegates from the convention and all of Minnesota's nationally elected officials. The officials who showed up spoke for five to ten minutes and answered some questions. After that we headed for the airport and home. It was an interesting trip and we learned some things that we will have to improve on for the lobbying side of the trip. The convention was worthwhile both from the learning opportunities and the networking side. I would guess that we will go again next year but for now it is nice to be back in Maplewood.

Working in Washington.

2010-03-16T19:41:00.003-06:00

Monday's start of the NLC Conference was the Opening General Session. Ronald Loveridge, the current president of the NLC kicked it off with a report on the conference and the many activities in which the NLC's involves itself. We then heard from Valerie Jarrett the Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President on Intergovernmental Affairs and Engagement. The keynote speaker was Judy Woodruff of PBS and Washington News Hour. Ms. Woodruff spoke to current issues in a well balanced way. She spoke at the end of her presentation about the divisions in Washington and across the country between political parties and her belief that at no time in her history has she seen it so bad. She made an appeal to local elected officials to set the example and return to bi-partisan government practices. It struck a chord with me. It is about doing what is best for the people and areas which we represent and that can not be compromised by political one upsmanship. As an aside, without regard to any person's political beliefs, everyone that I spoke to in Washington had the same response, just vote and quit fighting about it.

The first workshop of the day for me was Advocacy 101:Strategies for Lobbying Congress. Tomorrow Mr. Antomen will spend most of our day doing just that so it seemed like a good choice.

There was a networking lunch were I hooked up with the mayor of Coon Rapids and a mayor from Florida and compared some of our recent city activities. We also had some discussion with representatives from Kansas who were at out table but they had a group of their own and were more focused on their discussion. After lunch I attended Successful Neighborhood Stabilization Programs, which was interesting but not exactly what I expected. However at the meeting a gentleman asked a question of interest on the topic and identified himself as from St. Paul. We talked after the session was done and shared some ideas that were more on track with what I had hoped the session would be about. I was glad that I had attended that session just to have had the opportunity to met him.

The conference wrapped up with the Afternoon General session where we heard from Ray LaHood Secretary of the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Steven Chu the Secretary of the Department of Energy, and Arne Duncan the Secretary of the Department of Education. All were interesting but Steven Chu presented some particularly interesting information about the country's efforts to move towards a new "green" economy.

I then went to a reception on Capitol Hill for Minnesota delegates and our representatives in Washington and rounded out the day by having dinner with the mayor and a council member from Moorhead. Those guys must have gotten ten updates on this year's flooding problems while we were there. I was interested to hear about their twenty year program to make trips to Washington to meet with their representatives and some of the results from those trips.

I was very tired by the time I returned to the hotel and slept well that night.

A Trip to Washington

2010-03-15T05:46:00.003-06:00

After a less than stellar start to the trip, weather made us miss our connecting flight in Chicago, we made it to Washington DC in the evening on Saturday. We are staying at the Days Inn on Connecticut Ave. It is a little removed from the conference so you have to ride the Metro but the rooms are nice and the price was better than the other hotels.

Yesterday I attended two seminars, Managing Communication Style Differences and Dealing with Difficult People: Managing Conflicts and Differences. Both seminars were interesting and at the end left me wanting to hear more.

The full conference starts today and I have a full slate of activities that should provide some useful information. We will see.

Hill Murray In Tournament Again

2010-03-12T07:33:00.008-06:00

Hill Murray is in the state high school hockey tournament again for the twenty fourth time since 1975. During that time they have brought home the championship three times, took second place six times, came in third two times, and won the consolation two times.

Last night they battled back from a two goal deficit to win their game in the quarterfinals to advance to today's semifinals. The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran this story about the game.

If you check out their web page you will see that they excel in many areas, not just hockey. Way to go Pioneers!

Poor Decision

2010-03-10T07:01:00.011-06:00

Today, Wednesday March 10th The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran the article Maplewood Mayor Pays for Hunting Lapses. The story lays out an event of which I am not proud. The events reported in the story however are true. I shot a deer while standing on a roadway and I was within 500 feet of a house. I have no defense of my actions. In the process that followed I cooperated with the DNR and the Cook County prosecutor. I appeared in court and took responsibility for my actions.

If I was a normal individual that would have been the end of the story. But, I am the Mayor and my actions will reflect poorly on Maplewood. This above all else I wish I could change, but I can not. I issue this apology to all the citizens, staff, and friends who have put their faith in me. I have let you down.

I found long ago that excuses tend to diminish an apology so I am not offering any. On the contrary, I understand that this may lessen your opinion of me or cause you to question any beliefs you may have developed. All I can say is that I will work as hard as I can to make up for this error.

Honoring Russell W. Anderson

2010-03-09T07:40:00.030-06:00

At our council meeting last night (March 8th 2010) we were honored to be part of an effort to try to get a long overdue Purple Heart for Russell Anderson. Below is a copy of the staff report for the effort.

Recently, on Veterans Day, fifth grade students from Weaver Elementary honored Infantryman Russell Anderson for his service in WWII. In preparation of honoring Mr. Anderson it was learned that he served two tours in WWII and was injured by enemy shrapnel on D-day. After being hospitalized for nine months, he was honorably discharged. Mr. Anderson, now 93 years old, has never received a Purple Heart for that injury. Weaver Elementary Grade 5 teacher, Ms. Sara Paul and the following students made a commitment to work on Mr. Anderson's behalf to get his long overdue recognition in the form of a Purple Heart.

Kayla Anderson, Robert-Noel Anihbogu, Makda Araya, Nathanael Arnquist, Jeni Barrera-Marin, Tyler Bayers, Anthony Benitez, Madison Brenhofer, Kevin Clothier, Cory Griffin, Jada Harthan, Miftah Hassan, Ashley Hermann, Nicole Jensen, AmberLea Johnson, Brandon Johnson, Mariah Larson,Brandon Lee, Zoo Nkauj Lee, Olivia Mortenson, Jeffrey Munter, Emma Nelson,Hayley Ness, Gabriel Rodriguez Donch, Peterson Thao, Naree Vue, Tianna Welk, Ethan Yang, Kevin Yang, Elizabeth Zoya.

Russell and all of the other veterans who have served our country throughout history are of course the heroes we need to honor, but sometimes it takes the kids to point out the obvious. It was this class of fifth grade students who, after their Veterans Day celebration, said "we need to honor our veterans every day, not just on Veterans Day". They also were the ones who, upon learning that Russell had never received the Purple Heart that he deserved, said "why don't we get the medal for him?" They produced this video as part of their effort.

[Linked to video on external animoto website, not embedded]

They also sent out information to any elected officials or government units they could think of who might help in their effort. They have gotten the attention of Maplewood, Oakdale (Russell's home town), State Senator Wiger, Representative McCollum, and Senators Franken and Klobuchar. There may be others of whom I am not aware.

Their efforts also have gotten the attention of some of the media. I was interviewed by WCCO radio yesterday and KARE 11 covered our meeting last night, KARE 11 has this news item posted on their site. They also ran this news story on the 10pm news.

I am glad that Maplewood was able to help the students efforts and I am hoping that their work is rewarded. But if not at least Russell Anderson has a permanent place in local history as a reminder to everyone that we would not enjoy the quality of life we have with out him and everyone like him.

March Citizens Forum

2010-03-07T17:41:00.009-06:00

On Saturday March 7th I was honored to host my first Citizen's Forum. The Council had recently made some changes to the Citizen's Forum by rotating the host amongst all the Council members and moving the meeting location around the city to hopefully get a wider group of citizens involved in the meeting. The Council had also asked that each meeting have a theme or topic to start the meeting, so for now we are featuring a different city department at each meeting.

This meeting was held at Fire Station #4 which is in south Maplewood on Londin Lane. We had about twenty people in attendance and about nine were from the south leg. For at least four of those people this was their first Citizen's Forum.

Mychal Fowlds, the head of Maplewood's IT Department, was the featured speaker. He did a great job of explaining his department and explaining the many features and applications that are available on the Maplewood website. There were several suggestions from the participants on ways to improve the website or changes which we might what to consider. Some were: should we charge people who wish to access your advanced mapping system, we need a easier way to access individual employees contact information, rework a confusing arrangement of options that access the city council minutes, and include the meeting topic for the Citizen Forum in the published information.

The meeting then moved to open discussion of whatever topics the participants wished to discuss. One of the questions that was asked was whether we are planning on closing fire stations in the city. The short answer is no we are not. The person that asked this question is the same person who asserted at the last Council meeting that we were planning on closing fire stations. Chief Lukin addressed that issue at the meeting. You can watch the video by clicking here. On the streaming video page click visitor presentations or simply slide the button under the video to almost the end of the meeting. The Chief's responds immediately after Visitor Presentations is completed. There was a continuing discussion at the Forum about some of the various options and items that are being looked at by the Fire Department. There was then discussion about the recent police sting operation with a split on opinions about whether it was a bad thing to do or not. I would say the majority were not in favor of that type of sting. City Manager Antonin said that at least one good thing came of the sting and that was all the free press. In his opinion there are most likely more people buckling up now than there were before. The group indicated that if that was the case that we should do a better job of reporting all the stings to achieve that same effect. Some discussion took place as to whether the city is improperly storing snow off our streets in wetland areas in the south leg. Mr. Antonin and I indicated that there had been some discussion of this late last year and that it was being addressed. The meeting finished up with a discussion of administrative fines and whether they were a possibility for Maplewood.

The End of NEST

2010-03-06T07:17:00.009-06:00

The Northeast Suburban Transit (NEST) service will be ending on March 26, 2010. NEST has provided local dial-a-ride services for Maplewood, North St. Paul, and Oakdale for many years and was created to fill a void in bus service within the area. The three cities contributed to the funding although the majority of the funds were provided through the MET Council. The Met Council has determined that it's funds can be better utilized in its new Transit Link service. General information about the change in dial-a-ride services is available here.

In general the new service will provide an expanded area which you will be able to travel because the system is county based vs city based. However the new system is set up to supplement the fixed route services currently provided by Metro Transit so there will be some limitations on service based upon your proximity to fixed route stops.

We will have to wait and see how this new plan works before we can determine if it is comparable to the service that NEST delivered, but there is no doubt in my mind that Transit Link is a more efficient use of tax dollars. We should expect that in the future that many city services will have to be reviewed to see if a regional approach makes more sense financially and then balance our decisions with whether the new service provides what we want and need.

Extreme Green Makeover

2010-03-06T06:33:00.005-06:00

Maplewood has a long history of working to be a "green" city. Perhaps you have seen some of our over 600 rainwater gardens which have been installed through out the city or maybe you were involved in Maplewood's recent update of the wetland buffer ordinance. These are both efforts to enhance or protect our surface water resources. The problem is that even with over 600 rainwater gardens and protections of wetlands more is needed. We will not have the type of impact that is needed until and unless we all work to make our yards part of the solution and not part of the problem.

If you wish to learn more about what others are doing and what you can do you should consider becoming involved in the Extreme Green Makeover. This is an effort to provide information and resources to create sustainable yards in Maplewood. There is also one lucky Maplewood home owner who will win a $15,000 green yard makeover.

The kickoff event will be held at the Ramsey County Library on Thursday, March 18, 6:30- 8:30pm. The library is located by the Maplewood Mall at 3025 Southlawn Drive. At this event you will be able to see a presentation of residential landscapes, learn how to apply to win the Green Yard Makeover, and meet the landscape designer from Earthworks. There will be some refreshments and door prizes.

Pre-registration is appreciated by calling 651-249-2170.

2010 Basic Skywarn Spotter Course

2010-03-06T05:49:00.006-06:00

Do you want to learn more about how to interpret cloud formations and recognize potentially severe weather conditions and also learn more about how severe weather develops and the actions you should take? If so you should sign up for the 2010 Basic Skywarn Spotter course offered by Ramsey County and Maplewood Emergency Management.

The class will be held on Saturday, April 3, 2009 from 8:00am to 12.00pm at Maplewood fire Station #2 1955 Clarence Street.

After you complete the course you may become a volunteer member of the Ramsey County Skywarn Unit. The Skywarn Unit is activated when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) have indications that conditions exist which could develop into severe weather.

I had taken the class back in 2004 and found it to be full of interesting information. I did become part of the Skywarn Unit for a short period of time until my schedule did not allow enough time to continue. But if you are interested in the weather (and what Minnesotan isn't) this may be for you.

If you wish to be part of the class you should call 651-249-2800 no later than April 1st to reserve your spot.

March Citizens Forum

2010-02-15T19:17:00.004-06:00

The city council has decided that the monthly Citizens Forum should be moved around the city to allow easier access to all citizens who are interested in stopping in and discussing Maplewood. The meeting of March 6th will be held at Firestation #4. The meeting starts at 10am and runs through about noon. The station is located at the corner of Lower Afton Rd and Londin Lane in south Maplewood. I am fortunate to be the host of this meeting and look forward to seeing you there. The council is working to have a topic or theme for each meeting and we have started by highlighting different services provided by Maplewood. The final decision for the topic for this meeting has not been finalized as of yet so if you have a suggestion let me know.

Thank You and Moving Forward

2009-11-04T19:01:00.008-06:00

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped me in this campaign. People hosted lawn signs, walked and handed out literature, stuffed envelopes, hosted gatherings, tracked data, planned the campaign, and gave contributions. There were close to 300 volunteers. Without their help I would not have won.

I look forward to continuing to work to improve Maplewood. I will need your help to be successful. I would hope that we will all be able to put the campaign rhetoric behind us and work together to see if there is some common ground that we can put our collective efforts behind. I believe that it is important that we all work at being considerate and respectful towards each other as a first step. I will do my best as Mayor to do this and will expect each of you to do the same.

Now that the campaign is over I will on occasion put forward some thoughts on this site and other venues and I would hope that you will give your opinion on the topic. Your comments will hold more weight if you use your real name but if you insist on an alias that is your choice. I will not alter or edit your comments as long as they are respectful of everyone and do not contain foul language. Remember this will just be opinions of people who take the trouble to write. No one should look at it as a real survey, or representative of what the residents as a whole think about some issue.

So to keep it simple to start with what comments do you have on this idea?

VOTE NOVEMBER 3RD

2009-11-01T08:10:00.008-06:00

We started working on this campaign for Mayor back in May. Along the way we have sent out thousands of informational fliers, been a participant in two public debates, posted information on this site and walked neighborhoods knocking on doors to listen and answer questions. We even had a billboard ad on primary day. This was all done to get you involved or at least interested in the future of Maplewood.

Like I have always done, we have waged a positive campaign. In all of my literature and ads I have stuck to my qualifications and positions. However, there has been an effort by some others to distract your attention away from the issues. Efforts were made to indicate that I was involved in the accidental death of a Maplewood resident, that I am working to ban wood burning in Maplewood, that I want to sell our parks and open spaces, that I want to develop every square inch of the city, and several other off the wall assertions. None of these are true. My detractors know that I am the person they have to beat in this election. They know that I have the most supporters. In order to win they have to change your minds and make you question if you really know who I am and what I would do as Mayor.

It seems odd to me that after I have served Maplewood for twenty years they can not find anything that I have done or votes that I have made, or positions I have taken to hold up and say that I did the wrong thing, or that my vote created a poor condition in the city.

In the past few months from time to time these same people have indicated that for the last two years that I have been the de facto Mayor because the current mayor lost her majority vote in the last elections. I do not agree or disagree with this assertion. I have continually said that the role of the Mayor if done correctly is in the background, hardy noticeable. During these last two years there have been noticeable improvements in Maplewood. We have successfully completed our budgets, the Capitol Improvement Plans, and the financial audits of Maplewood while continually improving the time lines for these reports. We hired a new city manager, after conducting a thorough nation wide search, who has thirty years of experience. We have reduced the lawsuits against the city to a minimum thus reducing our insurance rates. Our Finance Department, which had been decimated by employees leaving the city, has gotten back on its feet. We have restored at least a portion of the Parks Department that had been eliminated. All of this was done, not on the over 10% levy increase the current mayor needed, but 2%. So if I have been the person viewed as the de facto Mayor things have gotten better. You should expect more of the same if you elect me to be the next Mayor of Maplewood.

Look back over the twenty years I have been working to improve the city and think about whether you have liked living in Maplewood. If you, like most residents, did not like the turmoil which came to a head three to four years ago but think Maplewood continues to be a good place to live, then I should be your choice on Tuesday.

I do need you to vote. If the turnout is large then chances are good you and I will win. But if you leave the voting to others assuming it is a done deal then be prepared for four more years of the same as we have now. I do not believe that the majority of the city wants that to happen. The majority includes you. Do your part.

Union Advocate News Article

2009-10-27T12:20:00.006-06:00

One of the organizations which granted me an endorsement during this campaign for Maplewood Mayor is the St. Paul Region Labor Federation. The Union Advocate is the official newspaper of that organization. On October 23rd they published an article(pdf) for all of their endorsed candidates in Maplewood - Kathleen Juenemann, James Llanas, and myself. I am providing it to you as just one more piece of information put out to the public during the campaign.

Halloween Hoedown

2009-10-25T08:46:00.006-06:00

The Maplewood Area Historical Society recently held its 10th annual Halloween Hoedown at the Maplewood Community Center. This is one of the many events that the Historical Society sponsors as a fund raising effort. The event offers a wide variety of games and crafts for the younger crowd along with a child oriented music/dance/sing along. There was also a silent auction for us older kids and the spooky room. My wife Beth and myself are lifetime members of the society and I try to help out where I can. At this event I was working the putting event. (which was very popular) This child in the pumpkin costume had to be the cutest youngster I saw that evening. ( Not to diminish the other great costumes I saw that night)

Please look at the link I provided above and consider becoming a member. It is a great way to help provide activities for our youth and at the same time learn about Maplewood's history.

St. Paul Pioneer Press Story

2009-10-24T06:53:00.002-06:00

The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a short story about Maplewood's election on 10/22/09. It includes short comments from the candidates.

LMV Candidate Forum

2009-10-23T15:15:00.006-06:00

Last night, Thursday the 22nd, the League of Women Voters hosted a candidate forum. The audience provided questions and each candidate was given two minutes to respond. The debate was taped and will be replayed many times between now and the election. This link will take you to the Maplewood website so that you may view the channel 16 schedule. The LMV also has information about the candidates in Maplewood you may wish to view.

This photo has nothing to do with the forum but it is snowing today and my mind wandered to the winter and the ice rink we build up north each year. This is the Northwoods Coliseum. (click to enlarge)

Lillie Review Candidate Information

2009-10-23T07:20:00.005-06:00

The Lillie Review has posted the information supplied by the candidates for the upcoming elections. Click this link to see what we had to say.

ELECTION DAY

NOVEMBER 3RD

GET OUT AND VOTE

2009-10-22T15:59:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I was honored to receive the endorsement for Mayor of Maplewood from the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation. The federation represents over 100 affiliated local unions and has almost 50,000 member households in the east metro area.

I am grateful to the labor federation and the other organizations who have given me their endorsements in this campaign.

The list of endorsements is now:

Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation
IBEW Local 110
St. Paul Area REALTORS
American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees,Council 5
Democratic-Farmer Labor Party
Maplewood Voters Coalition
Teamsters Joint Council DRIVE 32

IBEW Endorsement

2009-10-16T15:19:00.017-06:00

( Click to enlarge letter)

I received the letter above from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers yesterday.
I of course am excited to have received their endorsement.

The script is a little fuzzy in the attachment so I have repeated the body of the text below.

Mr. Rossbach:

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Local 110, which represents nearly 2,500 members, has chosen to endorse you for Mayor of Maplewood. You have represented our members and our interest well as a Council member and we are confident that will continue in the future.
Maplewood has gone through some turbulent times, but with your leadership on the Maplewood City Council, those times are in the past and we are looking forward to a bright future that all working men and women can be proud of.
With our endorsement, feel free to use our organizations name on all communications that you deem necessary.

In solidarity.
Michael J. Redfund
Business Manager/Financial Secretary
IBEW Local 110

My endorsements are now as listed below.

IBEW Local 110

St. Paul Area REALTORS
American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Council 5
Democratic-Farmer Labor Party
Maplewood Voters Coalition
Teamsters Joint Council DRIVE 32

SPAAR Endorsement

2009-10-13T16:04:00.009-06:00

I was notified today that I have received the endorsement of the St. Paul Area REALTORS. I am excited to have SPAAR's support as we move forward in this campaign. As I have stated in the past I enjoy going through the process of presenting myself to a group, answering their questions and listening to their concerns about Maplewood, or this particular election process. Different groups use varying processes but the most common involves a screening panel which conducts the candidate interviews and forms a recommendation for endorsement. The panel brings their recommendations to the main body of the organization which then chooses whether to ratify the recommendation. This is the type of process that SPAAR uses.

I am particularly excited about this recommendation because SPAAR represents a different set of viewpoints from some of my other endorsements. I believe that this shows my positions and my desire to work with a wide range of interests are understood by the organizations involved.

St. Paul Area REALTORS

American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Council 5

Democratic-Farmer Labor Party

Maplewood Voters Coalition

Teamsters Joint Council DRIVE 32

Teamster Joint Council DRIVE Endorsement

2009-10-07T17:42:00.008-06:00

I was pleased to be told today that I have received the endorsement of the Teamsters Joint Council DRIVE. DRIVE stands for Democrat- Republican-Independent-Voter- Education. I had screened with the Joint Council early in the campaign. Before the primary they had given their support to Marv Koppen which was not surprising since Marv has a long and well known history with the Teamsters. Now that we are past the primary and Marv is not on the general election ballot the Teamsters DRIVE organization still wanted to be involved, which I of course appreciate. As I have written in the past I enjoy the challenge of presenting myself and my ideas to different groups that are willing to make a decision as to which candidate is best qualified for the position from their perspective.

I have now been endorsed by:
American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees- Council 5
Democratic-Farmer Labor Party
Maplewood Voters Coalition
Teamsters Joint Council DRIVE 32

Upcoming Events Volunteers Needed

2009-10-01T16:04:00.008-06:00

If you want to help just raise your hand!

October will be a busy month on the campaign trail with a number of events if you wish to participate. I am hoping that you will all be able to pitch in and help see the campaign through to its conclusion on November 3rd.

The first big event will be a literature drop on Oct 10th. Scott and Julie Wasiluk have graciously volunteered their home as the base for the event. Their address is 1400 Curry Street North. We will have some pastry items and coffee etc as you arrive ( 9:30- 10am ) We can hit the streets and then return for sloppy joes and hotdogs for a late lunch. Bring your tennis shoes!

Phone Banks are planned at several times during October. First are the Wednesday night calls Oct 7th , 21st, and 28th. We are fortunate to have access to the Carpenters Hall phone room at 700 Olive Street in St. Paul. Each night we will start at 5:30 and go to about 8:30. Some minor refreshments will be provided. These calls are talking to people and seeking support. We also have Get Out the Vote calls on November 1st and 2nd at the same location. These calls are to people that we know are our supporters and we are just reminding them to vote. It is more fun than it sounds like. Really.

Will, Kathy and Jim Fundraiser. Oct 14th you have the chance to mingle with the candidates and your neighbors at a social event. We will be gathering 5:30-8:30pm at the Sheetmetal Workers Hall at 1681 East Cope Ave. in Maplewood. This is the classic campaign event with some food and beverage and the opportunity to find out what the candidates and your neighbors are doing, how the campaigns are going, and get answers to your questions. I hope to see you there.

If you wish to be a part of any of these events you can reserve your spot by either calling 651-484-5427 or email me at Will@willrossbach.com . Thank you for your help.

DFL Endorsement

2009-09-23T17:31:00.008-06:00

Last Thursday evening DFL Senate District 55 held an endorsing convention at the Ramsey County Library to consider candidates for endorsement in the Maplewood mayor and council races.

Only two of the candidates for council were participating: Kathleen Juenemann and James Llanes. Due to the fact that only two were seeking the endorsements and there were two endorsements to award the 50 delegates moved to set aside the rules of procedure and affirm both Kathy and Jim by voice vote. All but one person in the room voiced their vote to endorse them.

Both Diana Longrie and myself presented ourselves for the endorsement for mayor. We each made a two minute opening statement and then there was ten minutes of questions which had been submitted by the delegates. Each candidate responded to each question with a one minute answer. The fifty delegates then voted by written ballot for their choice to receive the endorsement.

The vote was 47 votes for me and 3 for Diana.

As I have written in the past I am excited to be able to go before different groups and present my ideas and positions on issues to see if they believe that I am best suited for the job. It is no secret that Maplewood is a DFL leaning city and that my base beliefs follow the DFL side of the political spectrum, so I am happy to accept their endorsement. I am hopeful that some of the business oriented groups will do some endorsements. I believe that by comparing candidates' views and positions on Maplewood, mine will be seen as the approach that best represents business interests.

As of this date I have been endorsed in this campaign by;

American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees- Council 5

Democratic-Farmer Labor Party

Maplewood Voters Coalition

Campaign Part two

2009-09-22T06:13:00.009-06:00

We passed the first test in the election cycle by winning the primary election. That sets up the second part of the process, the General Election on November 3rd. It will be important for all of us to continue to work hard to insure that our neighbors are informed and ready to head to the polls in November.

The good part of the primary results is that we are now left with two candidates who have clear records and differences. I believe that we need to ask ourselves some questions, is Maplewood a better place than it was four years ago? Are you as proud to be a resident of Maplewood as you were four years ago? From what I have been hearing on the campaign trail most of you would answer no. You want to be able to meet with friends from outside the city without the jokes, comments or questions about, " what the heck is going on over there?"

Many of you voiced your opinion in the primary election which I greatly appreciate, but I need your continued help as we move forward. There are many ways which you can participate.

Host a lawn sign supporting my campaign

Volunteer to help distribute literature.

Volunteer to help with phone calling

Give a contribution to the campaign.

Talk to your neighbors about the importance of this election.

If you wish to help you can send an email to will@willrossbach.com or call 651-484-5427. If you wish to contribute you can either do so on line with your credit card by clicking HERE , or by sending a check to

Volunteers for Rossbach

1386 Co. Rd. C East

Maplewood MN, 55109

If you send a check over $99 you need to include your name, address and occupation.

Thank you for you support. Lets move together toward a better Maplewood.

Primary Results

2009-09-17T11:47:00.004-06:00

As you probably know by now things went pretty well for me and my campaign volunteers in the primary. There are several websites out there where you can view the results but here at Volunteers for Rossbach we did not want to trust something so important to just anyone to verify the results so we brought in an expert. The video report of the close examination of the results is below.

Mayors Forum

2009-09-11T18:56:00.005-06:00

This morning the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commence held a Mayors candidate forum at St. Johns Hospital. Six of the candidates were in attendance for the debate. The debate was well run and started to help define some of the candidates positions on varies issues. The forum will be rebroadcast on both channel 16 and 19 several times before the primary on Tuesday on the following schedule. Check it out.

Channel 19
September 12 @ 11:30 a.m.
September 13 @ 10:30 a.m. and again at 3:00 p.m.
September 14 @ 9:30 a.m. and again at 7:00 p.m.
September 15 @ 3:00 p.m.

Channel 16
September 11 @ 8pm
September 12 & 13 @ 12am, 4am, 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm
September 14 @ 11am
September 15 @ 12am, 4am and 12pm

Position Paper 2009

2009-09-10T14:02:00.004-06:00

As I have done in the past, I offer this position paper so that citizens, city staff, and other elected officials are aware of my thinking on various issues involving the city of Maplewood. My positions grow from the comments and input that I have heard over the years from citizens, city staff, and professional people in fields relevant to city issues and activities, such as land planners, legal advisers, business associations, and civic management instructors.

The value of experience

While some would have you believe that I don’t listen to people and only advance my own agenda, the fact is my positions have steadily evolved over the twenty years I have been serving Maplewood. With each passing year my knowledge and prospective have grown, and in many cases changed. When I first started serving on the city’s Planning Commission I was in fact concerned about my own agenda. I had decided to get involved for personal reasons. I did not want any more traffic on my street. I didn’t want any more people to move into my neighborhood. I didn’t want businesses anywhere close to residential neighborhoods, to name a few. Only through listening to others did I come to realize and accept that most of my personal views were not necessarily in the best interest of the city. Many of my more vocal critics seem to be where I was twenty years ago. They are more concerned about what they think should or should not happen instead of what is best for the common good of the city.

Parks and open space

On occasion the discussion comes up that we need to further protect our open spaces. The suggested means of doing this is to apply conservation easements to those land parcels. In doing this control of Maplewood’s land would be turned over to an independent organization that we then pay to tell us what we can and cannot do with our land. These easements last forever (really, I mean it -- until the end of time). What right do we have to make irrevocable decisions for the people that will live in Maplewood after we are gone? How could we possibly even imagine what the needs and desires of those people will be? Currently if any change of use for the open spaces were to come before the city, a lengthy process would have to take place involving, at minimum, our Planning, Parks, and Environmental Commissions and three public hearings before the City Council. The council would then have to approve the change by a 4 to 1 vote. My position is that the city should continue to have the amount of open space that we currently have. If an opportunity were to come forward that would allow us to improve the city and maintain our stock of open space, it should be discussed. I am not aware of any such opportunities at this time.

Our Parks Department is on the rebound. Three years ago the Parks Department was eliminated from the city. I very much disagreed with this move and was happy to be able to find a way to start returning this very important part of the city’s services to our operations. I believe that the role of the Parks Department in providing activities for the young and the young at heart is a powerful force in the health of the city. In order for the citizens of Maplewood to feel good about living here they need to be satisfied with their quality of life. Our parks, open spaces, the programs that we offer through the Community Center, and our recreational programs are major contributors to that quality. We need to continue to reinvest in our parks and open space management, equipment, and programs. I believe that even in these hard times we need to provide funding on a continuing basis to maintain our existing parks and open spaces and continue to reestablish a full department.

The Community Center has been a source of debate since its inception. I view the Center in the same way as I view all the other parks in the city -- as an amenity that makes Maplewood a better place to live. All of our parks require a subsidy from the city. In the recent past the Community Center has received about $300,000 annually. It is projected to need about $220,000 in 2010. Certainly we need to continue to explore and review operations and fees, but I believe that the quality of life factors that are inherent in recreation and activities for Maplewood’s citizens need to be part of that discussion.

Public safety

The police and the amount of police coverage in different parts of the city are discussed from time to time. First let me say that on each opportunity that I have had, I have voted to maintain and improve our Police Department. It is true that we do not have the same level of police presence in all parts of the city. We do not have enough officers to provide that type of service. The city’s police are put where we have crime. A lot of crime equals a lot of police. Other than the peace of mind that a resident may momentarily feel to see a patrol car go by, there is no public safety advantage to extra patrols in a neighborhood that does not have a crime problem. The staff costs to provide enough officers for this level of coverage are not worth the benefit received. My position is that we should be staffing our police force to maintain the national average of 1.5 sworn officers per 1000 residents. With the current economic conditions this is not the time to increase the number of authorized sworn officers. We should, however, fill the two current open officer positions.

In the Fire Department we currently use a mix of full time and paid per call firefighters. This mix is the result of a long history in Maplewood. We started with several volunteer departments, which were combined into one paid per call city department. More recently we added some full time personnel to insure good around the clock coverage. The Fire Department, along with some help from the Police Department, also provides the emergency medical coverage for the city. I support the continued use of this hybrid model.

Government transparency

Transparency in government has been a topic that has gotten a lot of discussion at all government levels in the last several years. In my position paper from 2005 I talked about Democratic Governance, which is nothing more than finding good ways to involve the citizens in the governing process. I believe that this is extremely important and is required to fully represent the citizens' desires as Maplewood moves forward. Maplewood’s problem at the moment is that we have given too much emphasis to a small group of people in the city. I do not believe that this group’s views are the views of the majority of the citizens of Maplewood. In order to reflect the majority's view we need to hear from people beyond the select few who attend the council meetings or are frequent speakers at visitor presentations. I would advocate for setting up a citywide survey, which we have done in the past, to get input from a wide range of citizens. This information is critical to help the council assess which programs, activities, and projects are important to the citizens. Only with wide-ranging input can we make decisions that reflect the majority’s wishes while respecting various minority views.

Another side of transparency is giving the citizens the ability to view the process of governance. Maplewood has been continually improving the means for this to happen. We televise all public meetings and provide a tremendous amount of information online, along with the Maplewood Monthly and informational handouts on various topics at City Hall. The current effort to improve upon a citizen’s ability to view proceedings and research information is online streaming. This will not only allow you to watch a meeting in real time, but you will be able to go back to past meetings and review a single agenda item of interest. This will be a great asset to interested citizens. I support the continued efforts to involve as many citizens as possible in the government process, while remembering that the council is elected to represent all citizens whether they participate directly or not.

Goal setting

How can you run a large organization without setting goals? For the last four years the council has never met to set goals for the city. In my view this must change. I believe many of the problems that the city council has had during the last four years can be traced back to having no unified direction for the city. This affects not only the council’s ability to work together but also the city staff’s ability to use city resources in an efficient manner. I believe that the council’s first order of business in 2010 needs to be to hold a series of workshops to identify common goals that we have for the city, prioritize those goals, and identify benchmarks that we can use to track progress. This will go a long way towards fostering a cooperative environment for the council, the citizens, and the staff to work together and move the city forward.

Role of Mayor

I believe that the role of the Mayor in Maplewood is not understood by either the last couple of mayors or by many of the citizens of the city. In Maplewood the mayor is a council member. They have only one vote and no veto power. The mayor can only lead through creating an atmosphere that allows the city council to do its job. The city council meetings are meant to be the business meeting of the city at which the council attends to the people's business. There has to be consideration given to conducting that business in a set amount of time. It is not necessary to have council meetings running to midnight or two in the morning. This does not mean that we should rush through issues or not get all the comments from interested individuals. What the mayor, as chair of the meeting, must do is clearly convey to all the participants the agenda topic and the need to stay on topic, along with expecting the City Manager to have laid the proper groundwork with the city commissions and staff. Conducting the people's business openly, efficiently, and effectively is an area which the mayor has the responsibility to control, and is important for everyone involved that the mayor does so.

Development

Did you know that at one time the land use plan for Maplewood was set up to allow for a population of 90,000 people? Today it appears that we will be at less than one half of that amount as we finish initial development. Although there maybe some significant localized increases in density as the city redevelops chances are the majority of us will not be here to see it.

I believe that development or redevelopment in a city is necessary and good for the city. There is no single activity that brings in more funding to the city than development. Our parks, our infrastructure, our land values, our tax base, and the city’s fee revenue all benefit from development. New development also tends to bring another housing alternative to add to the wide variety that Maplewood currently has. The impact on jobs is far greater than the jobs that a small business would generate in many years of operation. There are the direct jobs of trades people building the sites, but also those developments need paint, flooring, cabinets appliances, furniture, etc. and the new residents will probably need to eat, buy clothes… you get the idea.

So although I am happy that we are not a city of 90,000 I do and will support development as a general rule. Each development has to be individually reviewed to insure that it will be a good fit for Maplewood. But with all the advantages which can be enjoyed by Maplewood and its residents from the development process, it would be foolish not to look for the opportunities that will continue to make Maplewood a better place to live.

Summary

I believe that if you are a typical resident of Maplewood that you did not find any of the positions or ideas that I have discussed above to be anything that is overly controversial, or way to the right or left of an issue. That is because the vast majority of the residents of Maplewood are people that are middle of the road. You appreciate common sense, are willing to listen, and are open to others' ideas. So am I. That is why I would be a good mayor.

AFSCME Independent Expenditure

2009-09-07T17:54:00.011-06:00

As I indicated in an earlier post AFSME endorsed me earlier in this campaign. They have been active in their support, which is of course appreciated. Last week they sent out a flier asking you to support myself, Jim Llanas, and Kathleen Juenemann (also endorsed by AFSME). In these cases anything that AFSCME provides has to done independently from the candidates' campaigns so I have no idea how many were sent out or to whom. I thought that it was a nice piece though so I have posted it so that you can see it.

League of Women Voters Candidate Information

2009-08-25T16:30:00.005-06:00

The league of Women Voters has posted their candidate information page for those who have chosen to participate. You can review my responses to their questions and those of the other candidates by clicking this link. Then click on voting and election information and follow the instructions..

Lillie News Filing Statement

2009-08-22T22:09:00.000-06:00

Recently the Lillie Suburban Maplewood Review posted the candidate filing statements. This link will take you to my statement.

St. Paul Labor Federation candidate questions

2009-08-22T20:19:00.009-06:00

As I have stated in the past I have worked in my campaigns to participate in a wide range of endorsement processes put forth by various organizations. Below are the questions that were asked of the candidates by the St Paul Labor Federation in 2009. Although each endorsing organization asks questions that will help them judge the candidates for their own purposes the questions often apply to city issues which help to define the candidates.
The SPLF has not finalized there endorsement process at this time.

1. Why are you seeking the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation’s endorsement?

A successful campaign involves bringing together a wide range of people and organizations in support of a candidate or idea. The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation represents a wide range of people who share a belief that employees need to, and should be, treated fairly by their employers. I agree with that concept. Endorsement by The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation helps me get that message to the voters.

2. Would you be willing to meet regularly with labor representatives (public, private, service, construction, industrial) to build a working relationship?

Yes

3. List your top three priorities as you take office.

In Maplewood first and foremost will be working to rebuild an organization which has been decimated by the existing Mayor and her supporters. This unfortunately will be an on going process that will require most if not all of the four year term I will serve when I’m elected.
Second of course will be to work with the Council, staff, and citizens to work through the difficult economic times, which we all are facing. There will be difficult decisions which all parties involved will have to make. It is important that we face them united.
Third is to return the city to a process of goal setting. Something we have not done for three and one half years. To my way of thinking the operation of an organization such as the city is based on goals. This allows for the citizens and staff to understand where the city is going so that all understands priorities, expectations, and focus. This will be the first step in returning Maplewood to the community it once was.

4. a) Organized labor supports economic development that results in long-term
benefits. What kind of development would you propose that would strengthen
the tax base, revitalizing your city neighborhoods and create financially
self- sufficient families?

Maplewood is a fully developed community. Our opportunities for development lie in redevelopment as the opportunities present themselves. To this end, Maplewood is working to put in place an Economic Development Authority (EDA). I support this move on the city's part. This will allow Maplewood to become an active participant in the redevelopment process. I support the continuation of Maplewood’s housing policy, which provides housing for all income levels. I also support expanding commercial development, which provides services to the citizens within the city and beyond. The EDA gives us a powerful tool to assist in these courses of action.

b) What can be done to support existing business and manufacturing in your city,
particularly those companies that offer good wages and benefits?

One of the opportunities we have with the EDA is to survey our existing commercial and industrial businesses within the city. We plan on working with the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce to visit our entire commercial base and find out directly from them what they believe the city’s role is in helping them to achieve their goals. I support this cooperative effort between government and private commercial organizations to identify and work together to create an environment beneficial to all parties.

5. a) Would you support a living wage ordinance for your city?
Yes

b) If yes, should it be applied equally to all businesses that qualify
and receive taxpayer money?

Yes, it should be applied equally to all businesses that qualify. In order to have an impact, it would be important that all businesses that qualify participate in this type of initiative.

6. Will you maintain and support prevailing wage and other laws that assure a good standard of living for working families? (i.e. – prevailing wage, pay equity, workforce safety, dislocated worker programs, training and education)

Yes. Maplewood currently has a prevailing wage ordinance, which we enforce. I support all of the laws and practices listed above.

7. What can your city do to improve housing opportunities for low and middle class families?

Maplewood has a long record of providing housing for all income levels. W exceed the guidelines
set forth by the Metropolitan Council for affordable or workforce housing. I have been a long
term supporter of this practice in the city.

8. While it is desirable to hold the line on taxes, do you have any concerns that your
city will not have the resources to meet future needs? If so, how would you
address these concerns?

Certainly, any elected official has concerns with the economic situation we are currently experiencing. Although Maplewood is in a better position than many cities throughout the state, we will have to make some very difficult decisions as to how to allocate our limited resources. I would like to use a process, which includes surveying the citizens, staff and elected officials so that we may prioritize which services are most valued within the city. The City Council should then compare our current funding of services with the survey information to determine if our funding matches our priorities. With this information we can make intelligent decisions in which areas we should cut or add to funding.

9. Do you support privatization of city services?

No. I believe we can provide higher quality services with our own staff.

10. Would you support project labor agreements?

Yes. However with Maplewood’s Prevailing Wage Ordinance our projects should already be covered.

11. In a strike situation, would you vote to hire replacement workers?

No.

12. Will you respect the right of workers to for and join unions?

Yes. This is clearly visible in my past voting record.

13. Do you support collective bargaining?

Yes.

14. Will you honor agreements reached though collective bargaining?

Yes. I have consistently voted to approve Maplewood’s union contracts

Yard Signs

2009-08-02T06:33:00.006-06:00

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs.

As of August 1st it is officially sign season for the election campaign. I have to wonder if with a total of 18 candidates in the mayoral and council races if we will be able to see down any street.

Signs are kind of a necessary evil in a campaign. They do not seem to actually project who will prevail but they do make people aware that there is indeed an election going on and also can serve to direct people to additional information as in my case to www. WillforMayor.com.

So that being said I do want to have my fair share out there to be seen. I do have a good supply of signs so I am not concerned about whether there are a lot in one neighborhood or if the location is on a no outlet street.

I would certainly appreciate it if you would consider hosting a sign. Nothing is required on your part except letting me know that you would like one and if it is damaged or goes missing that you give me a call.

Contact me at will@willrossbach.com or call 651-484-5427 and we will arrange to install one in your yard. Thank you

Campaign Events

2009-07-31T20:58:00.005-06:00

Campaign Event
August 8th
9:30am
Literature Drop
We are still in need of additional volunteers to help distribute literature on August 8th. We will be gathering at Will Rossbach’s House at 1386 Co. Rd C East at 9:30 am for coffee or juice and a snack. From there you will head out to your selected neighborhood to distribute literature.
We are estimating that you should be able to walk your route in no more than four hours. The more volunteers the better.
Although you can certainly do this as individuals if you bring a friend to partner with all the better.
For those who want to help but can’t make it that day just let us know and we will get a packet to you, which you can distribute on your own schedule.
We are cooperating with the campaigns of Jim Llanas and Kathleen Juenemann for this event and welcome their volunteers.

You can contact us at
651-484-5427
will@willrossbach.com

To RSVP or questions

Contact Information

2009-07-15T20:25:00.003-06:00

If during the course of the campaign you would like to contact me with questions or information you may do so in the following ways.

E-mail;
will@willrossbach.com

Phone;
651-484-5427

Mail;

Will Rossbach

1386 County Road C East

Maplewood, MN 55109

AFSCME Endorsement

2009-07-12T07:22:00.016-06:00

In the past couple of campaigns I have sought endorsement from groups willing to conduct endorsement processes for elections in Maplewood. These groups vary from one election to the next, but have tended to include labor groups, chambers of commerce, and business associations. In the 2007 elections I was endorsed by

DFL
AFSMCE Council 5
St. Paul Trades and Labor
St. Paul Building Trades
Maplewood Voters Coalition
St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS

If you break down an election campaign to its basics it is a process of presenting yourself and your ideas to people and winning their approval. The best way to do this is one on one, so that each person can ask the questions which are important to them in their decision making process.

This is not practical in Maplewood, however, due to its size and the number of voters. So, along with individual door knocking you look for opportunities to present yourself to groups, whether those are neighborhoods, candidate debates, or organizations.

So far this election I have screened with the Teamsters Joint Council 32 DRIVE, AFSCME Council 5,and the St. Paul Trades and Labor Federation. There will be other screening opportunities as the campaign progresses.

I was excited to be notified this week that I have gained the endorsement of AFSCME Council 5. AFSCME represents the largest number of Maplewood employees of all the labor groups. I find this to be particularly important, because I believe that it is important to the continued recovery of Maplewood that there is a good working relationship between the city employees and the management of the city. The City Council does not directly interact with the employees but through our directions to the city manager and budget decisions certainly we have an impact on the employment conditions in Maplewood. I have enjoyed a strong relationship in the past with the employees and I hope to continue that relationship in the future. This will be particularly important in these difficult economic times.

Most screening processes involve answering written questions presented by the screening organization. I have included the AFSCME questions and my answers below. They are one way to help you understand my positions on the issues they have raised.

Name:
Will Rossbach
Address:
1386 Co. Rd. C east Maplewood MN 55109
day & evening phone 612 363 6832

office seeking:
Maplewood Mayor
campaign committee:
Volunteers for Rossbach
campaign contact:
Will Rossbach/ Peter Fischer 651-770-4984

background information…

Provide a brief biography and explain your qualifications for this office.

Age 54, Resident of Maplewood.
Occupation- Remodeling contractor Employer- Rossbach Construction Inc. http://www.rossbachconst.com/Employed for 25 years.
Married to wonderful wife Beth, 29 years.
Three equally wonderful children Mara 26, Nora 23, Dana 18.
Education- North High School, Gustavus Adolphus College 1 1/2 years, Certificate of Apprenticeship State of Minnesota Carpentry Program, Minnesota Contractors License holder continuing education program credits from program inception, multiple government training programs, conferences, and seminars past 20 years.
Charitable work- Property Manager St. Marks Lutheran Church N. St Paul 12 years, Church Council, 4 years Habitat for Humanity site leader multiple times, MS 150 bike ride 17 years. Fund raiser American Cancer Society, Lifetime member of the Maplewood Historical Society, Chairman of the Training and Recruitment committee for the Builders Association of the Twin Cities.
Government related involvement-6 years Maplewood Council Member, Maplewood Planning Commission 14 years, Rush Line Corridor Task Force member, Past President of the Ramsey County League of Local Government, NEST Commission member, LOCATE Task Force alternate, Water Commissioner St. Paul Board of Water Commissioners.
Free time (if any) Outdoor activities, BWCA many, many trips. Hunting, fishing, hiking. Enjoying time at cabin property in northwest Wisconsin.14 years of service to Maplewood as a member of the Planning Commission.

· Why are you seeking AFSCME endorsement? Have you received it in the past?

AFSCME is the largest labor organization in Maplewood. It is important to me to work together with all of the individual and organized employees of Maplewood to form a team, which shares the concerns, challenges, and opportunities which are involved in running Maplewood. The screening process is another way of continuing that interaction. I have been endorsed by AFSCME in the past.

. What other endorsements do you have or are you seeking?
St Paul Building Trades Council, St Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, Trades and Labor Assembly, Joint Council 32 Drive, Pipefitters #455, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, SPAAR St. Paul Area Association of Realtors.

. How will you win this election?

This is my fourth campaign which gives me considerable experience in the process. In both of my council races I received the highest number of votes. In my past campaign for Mayor I fell just short of the votes needed. I have the best advisers in the city in my opinion. I have established volunteers and supporters. Most importantly though I am willing to work hard to get out and meet the voters at their homes and in the streets.

AFSCME Questionnaire…

In recent years, politics in Maplewood have been combative. How you would work to create a respectful tone between the city council and mayor, the city manager, citizens and city workers?

The simple answer would be “ win this election”. The combative nature to which you refer was brought to Maplewood by our current Mayor. In the elections of 2007 the voters started the process of change by taking away the Mayor's majority votes and electing more reasoned voices to the council. Since that time there has been a noticeable change in Maplewood. We recently hired an experienced manager and although we have some challenges ahead of us working together we can continue to return respect to the city.

What role should the City play in influencing the policies and/or terms and conditions of employment for independent boards and commissions that serve the City? Would you attempt to influence items during the budget process?

The people who serve Maplewood on our boards and commissions are not employees. They are volunteers. Their role is to represent the citizen’s viewpoints on issues which come before us. I consider their role to be vital to the decision making process. The council needs to insure that everyone involved treats each other with respect and needs to set the parameters of the process so that the business of the city can be conducted in a professional and logical manner. The budget for these groups is minimal and not a factor in the larger picture.

What is your position on the contracting out or privatization of public services? Under what circumstances would you support the privatization, contracting out of services currently provided by the city or the long term leasing of city assets?

I believe that you can build the best “team” by having your own employees. The process of creating focus and understanding of what the goals are for the city is better suited to an organizational structure, which has our own employees. I believe that the people who choose to work in the public sector have a commitment to the citizens, which is not duplicated by privatization. In those cases where there is the need for specialized skills or knowledge or if one time or short-term work is needed hiring those people on a case-by-case basis is the smart choice for the city and its citizens.

Our union worked to pass a Living Wage Ordinance in Minneapolis and St. Paul, assuring that jobs created through subsidy or contract would pay a living wage. Would you advocate for a Living Wage Ordinance in Maplewood?

I answered this question in the last screening process with AFSCME and believe that my answer is still the same.
“I do not have any strong objection to the notion of a Living Wage Ordinance. I would question, however, the impact that it would have in Maplewood. Maplewood has a prevailing wage ordinance which ensures wages that are substantially higher than those provided for in a Living Wage Ordinance. Most of the Living Wage Ordinances in place contain a minimum monetary level for them to kick in. In Maplewood’s case the $100,000 level that is in St. Paul’s ordinance would have very few applications. We would have to explore further how to make such an ordinance have an impact in Maplewood.”

What role have you played in either advocating for or against the privatization or managed competition of public services? What are you saying about privatization in your campaign to Maplewood voters, the media and other groups making endorsements in this race?

In Maplewood own experiences I have actively stood up for the city’s employees, going as far as providing testimony against the city’s actions to illegally terminate the Human Resources Manager, or the Assistant Police Chief whose termination violated the civil service laws. I have continuously voted to support employee structure and processes which the city has in place.
Certainly the main themes in this campaign will revolve around the current financial situation and returning Maplewood to a respected partner to its citizens and other elected bodies with which we interact. I believe that working with the labor organizations has the best potential for helping us get through this situation by allowing us to deliver the services we provide in an efficient and effective manner.

Do you agree with past City decisions to contract out the Human Resources functions within Maplewood? Please explain why or why not?

As I stated above the process used to make this change violated the law and Maplewood paid the price for this action. With that being said it is also important to consider the Class B structure that Maplewood operates under. In this form of government the staffing decisions for the city are made by the city manager. This does not allow me to be intimately involved in those decisions but as witnessed by my past actions I will vote to remove a manager whose actions put them at odds with the will of the citizens and the Council.

When the City is making decisions related to development, what are your priorities (affordable housing, economic development, senior housing, or open spaces)? Are safety concerns, like adequate lighting and sidewalks important to development decisions? Please explain.

All of the items you have listed above are important to development decisions. There is currently more emphasis needed on insuring that seniors have adequate housing choices and due to the economy economic development. Maplewood has a tremendous resource in our open spaces and although I do not believe that we need or should be working to acquire additional large parcels, we do need to maintain open spaces in Maplewood and look for opportunities to acquire strategic areas, which are part of our greenways or offer additional protection to environmentally sensitive areas. I personally believe that we should have sidewalks on all of our collector streets in Maplewood and around our schools and business areas. Sidewalks however are a tough sell to the public in many cases and I have respected their wishes.

Do you believe that Maplewood workers should get a COLA increase each year? Please explain why or why not. If so, where will you find the needed funding for COLA increases?

COLA increases are one of many items to be considered in the contract negotiation process. I believe that we must work together to insure that the city employees and the citizen’s needs are addressed in those negotiations. The current economic situation presents a good example of a situation where the city may not have the funds to offer a COLA increase. In these times job security may play a bigger role or what and how benefits are provided. The bottom line is that we must work together to determine what is the best for both parties involved.

How would you work with our Union in establishing a citywide policy of employee development?
( doing further research on this question)

Do you think additional property tax revenue is required to maintain Maplewood’s quality public services?

Yes, certainly with the state funding cuts and levy limits it will be difficult to maintain the level of services which Maplewood has offered in the past and with the public’s diminished ability to absorb additional property tax increases we are facing some tough decisions. We need to view this as an opportunity to come together create a plan to get us through this period of time and look forward to getting back on track when this situation has passed.

Additional job responsibilities for current employees have led to a stressful environment for city employees, managers, elected officials and the public. How would you set priorities for employees and the public to alleviate some of the additional stress? How would you create a work environment that is healthy and respectful?

I believe that just the act of actually setting priorities is the first step. Under the current Mayor we have never gotten together with council and staff to lay out priorities. This is one of the items that I would change if I become Mayor. We currently have employees that are trying to cover too many bases and this in most cases results in diminished performance across the board. If we could reach this point we could then work to communicate to the public the issues and our response so that they can have reasonable expectations about city services.

All too often, public officials gain political capital by attacking public employees and public services. If elected, how will you use your capital to promote public services and the workers who provide them?

I have done this throughout my six years on the Council. I have written in the city newsletter on the subject, publicly stood behind the employees in comment and in action. I will continue to do the same.

What process would you use to encourage and facilitate communication between yourself and AFSCME?

I am here and very open to being involved. Although I have some limitations due to our class B form of government I would be excited to be able to better understand the issues and concerns of AFSCME or any of Maplewood’s labor organizations.

Would you accept a campaign contribution from AFSCME political committees?

Yes, campaigns are expensive and I would appreciate the help.

What to do about Wetlands

2009-06-07T07:37:00.017-06:00

One of the current hot topics in Maplewood is wetlands and how to protect them as we move forward. There is no doubt in my mind there there is a need to provide protection. This paragraph from the Washington-Ramsey Metro Watershed District (WRMWD) seems to sum it up.

Land alteration and urbanization has and can continue to degrade the quality of runoff entering the water bodies of the District due to non-point source pollution. Sedimentation from ongoing erosion processes and construction activities can reduce the hydraulic capacity of water bodies and degrade water quality. Water quality problems already exist in all of the lakes and other water resources throughout the District. The Mississippi River is the principle receiving water for all runoff from the District and is listed by the EPA and MPCA as 'impaired'.

The questions Maplewood is debating revolve around what that protection consists of and who are the people that are asked to provide that protection.

There are several current laws which provide regulation and the authority for regulation. The Clean Water Act, The Wetland Conservation Act, and its implementing rules as set forth in Minnesota Rules Chapter 8420, just to name a few. The WRMWD has wetland buffer regulations as does the City of Maplewood. Maplewood's regulation is by far the most specific as it indicates who is asked or required to take action, and what actions need to be taken.

The focus of the Maplewood ordinance is on wetland buffers. Of course this makes it so the main people that are being asked to take action are the people who live next to wetlands and lakes. This is a problem in my view. Everyone who lives in the city is a part of the problem which we have with the pollution of our wetlands, streams, and lakes. It is natural I suppose to look at those people whose property is right next to the water and say that they have to change their practices to resolve this problem. I do not disagree, they do need to or at least should make changes, but we all need to be held responsible to resolve this problem. As I indicated above we all contribute to the problem, so how can we all work together to resolve it?

One approach would be to use Maplewood's Environmental Utility Fee (EUF). This fee is intended to be used to help Maplewood meet the requirements placed upon us to improve our storm water runoff. Runoff is a major contributor to the problem we have with our wetlands, streams, and lakes. Certainly the majority of the runoff does not come from the properties which are adjacent to those water bodies.

At one of the many meetings the city has held on this topic the question was asked "what is the city going to do to resolve its problems with runoff from the storm sewer system"? I think this is a good question. The City of course is us. We all need to work toward a solution. We can not ask only a few to make sacrifices while we all benefit. We also should work to resolve the largest problems and not just the problems that are closest to the water bodies.

So here is a course of action that I believe we should consider. Increase the EUF. The current fee is extremely minimal. We should then use the additional money generated to identify the areas at which we can intercept the storm water, direct flows to water bodies, and work to hold or infiltrate these flows to improve the quality of water before it gets to the water bodies. This money could also be used to assist people who want to do projects on their own property (whether they are adjacent to water bodies or not) to decrease runoff.

There is a provision in the EUF to give credits to property owners for doing these types of projects that control runoff on their own property. But, because the fee is so low, the credit does not have the desired effect of giving some stimulus to individuals to do projects and reduce their fee payment.

This would be a good way to have all stakeholders in Maplewood work together for the common good.

We still need to have a wetland ordinance. Although the people that live on water bodies should not have to shoulder the entire city's problem, their proximity to the water gives them a higher standard to bear. These types of changes can only be completed over a period of many years and really will only have the desired outcome if people either want to or are compelled by public pressure to make changes. We should not impose an ordinance which we either can not or will not be able to enforce. Judging by the number of people I have talked to who are currently in violation of Maplewood's existing wetland ordinance (most do not know it exists) I have to question our ability to provide the enforcement needed for the updated ordinance. With these thoughts in mind I would suggest that Maplewood adopt the WRMWD wetland ordinance changing the Manage A setback to 100 feet and the Manage B setback to 75 feet, with a minimum set back of fifty feet if averaging is used. These larger setbacks are needed because Maplewood wants to also provide buffers for wildlife and the buffers that are enforced by the watershed are just not large enough for that task. Much of the other information which is in Maplewood's ordinance can and should remain, but the ordinance should be clear that its intent is to bring about change as opportunities present themselves through development activities and willing individual landowners.

Property Taxes

2009-04-08T14:50:00.001-06:00

From my perspective if you're going to talk about taxes you have to talk about services. It is my belief that the city's main role is to provide services to its residents.

I went to the Citizens Forum the other day. The main topic of conversation was the spree of criminal activities around Phalen Lake. There were some different ideas about how to attempt to deal with the situation. Mr. Antonen is interested in invigorating the VIPS (Volunteers In Police Service) program. This would include purchasing 6 GEM (global electric motorcar) cars. These cars would be stationed at all of the fire stations and city hall and be used by the VIPS to patrol different parts of the city. One of those areas would certainly be the Phalen Lake area (good idea). There would be some training needed for the volunteers to become a VIPS.

A citizen thought we should buy cars, not necessarily new ones, make then look like police cars, and position them in different parts of the city as decoys. Additional police activity was certainly discussed as were some other ideas.

Later in the meeting there was some talk that our taxes are too high and that Maplewood is not doing enough to cut costs. Do these two discussions seem at odds to anyone else?

I would support an invigorated VIPS program. Most likely that would mean money would have to be found in the existing budget since this was not in the plans. I am certain that the staff could determine what changes could be made. Those changes mostly likely will have a impact on some other service however. This is the core of the tax debate for me.

I believe that the list of services which the city currently provides is just about right. This creates a problem because we do not have enough funds to do a good job in all the areas. The choices that we have are to stop providing some services, scale back in some areas, find more efficiency in our processes, or find additional revenue streams (grants, bonds, fees, assessments, volunteers, and of course taxes.) I believe that a combination of all of the above is the best approach. This is how the city has been operating during the recent past. That of course means that I believe that as necessary I would vote, and have voted to raise taxes along with the other options.

So let's look at my record.

2004 7.6% levy increase -voted for. State cuts funding by close to $1 million

2005 4.7% levy increase -voted for. Added 6 fire fighters 1 police officer

2006 5% levy increase -voted for. Added 2 police officers, engineer, inspector

2007 10.2% levy increase- voted against. Too high, many people fired, new ones hired

2008 0% levy increase- voted against. Promised Community Center in the black (not)

2009 2.1% levy increase- voted for. Return the Parks Dept.

These notes are not intended to convey that I did the items listed on my own. It takes the entire council to set the budget. During the years 2004 through 2006 I was in favor of working to maintain the level of services provided to be as close as we could be to the status quo. So I voted to offset 60% of the revenue we lost from the state and to add to the Police and Fire Departments. 2007 was just too rich for my blood and there was the "reorganization" which shuffled people in and out and made no sense to me. 2008 was the year that the Finance Dept. was struggling to keep track of where all the city's money was and I was not going to vote for it without knowing how it would affect our ability to provide services. 2009 was the ability to restore the Parks Dept.

The chart below compares the current Mayor's votes to mine.

2007 10.2% increase- Will no -Mayor yes

2008 0% increase -Will no - Mayor yes

2009 2.1 increase - Will yes- Mayor no

So in the same three years where we both had the same situations to deal with the mayor voted for a 10.2% increase and I voted for a 2.1%.

I assume that we will most likely be working towards a 0% budget for 2010 due to the economic conditions which currently exist. We have a new city manager and as of today we have not discussed what he plans on presenting.

To sum it up I believe that the services the city supplies has a direct impact on the quality of life and property values enjoyed by the residents of Maplewood. It is important to work to maintain them. My record shows that I have voted to do that in the past but I am not willing to approve overly large increases. In the last three years the increases I have voted for have averaged less than 1% per year. I will also admit that in 2008 I would have been willing to approve a 2%-3% increase if it helped to preserve service levels but even with that the Mayor still approved increases that were twice as large.

I will leave it to you to decide what is important to you.

Resident Survey

2009-04-07T17:12:00.007-06:00

One of the most difficult things for an elected official is to continually stay on top of what the residents believe are the current important issues. There are many ways to work at staying current and this survey is one of those ways.

Please fill out my
form.

Thank you, Will

Bio Info

2009-04-06T06:38:00.000-06:00

William R Rossbach
1386 Co. Rd. C East
Maplewood, MN 55109

Age 53
Resident of Maplewood, same as above

Occupation- Remodeling contractor
Employer- Rossbach Construction Inc. http://www.rossbachconst.com/
Employed for 27 years

Married to wonderful wife Beth, 28 years
Three equally wonderful children Mara 26, Nora 23, Dana 17

Education-Will and kids North High School, Beth Stillwater High School
Will attended Gustavus Adolphus College 1 1/2 years, Certificate of Apprenticeship State of Minnesota Carpentry Program, Minnesota Contractors License holder continuing education program credits from program inception, multiple government training programs, conferences, and seminars past 19 years.

Charitable work- Property Manager St. Marks Lutheran Church N. St Paul 12 years
Church Council, 4 years
Habitat for Humanity site leader multiple times
MS 150 bike ride 17 years
Maplewood Planning Commission 14 years
Fund raiser American Cancer Society
Lifetime member of the Maplewood Historical Society
Past Chairman of the Training and Recruitment committee for the Builders Association of the Twin Cities
Past Board Member Builders Association of the Twin Cities

Addition government related involvement- Rush Line Corridor Task Force member, Past President of the Ramsey County League of Local Government, NEST Commission member, LOCATE Task Force alternate, Water Commissioner St. Paul Regional Water Service.

Free time (if any) Outdoor activities, BWCA many, many trips. Hunting, fishing, hiking. Enjoying time at cabin property in northwest Wisconsin.

REACHING ACROSS THE AISLE

2009-03-31T18:49:00.011-06:00

Mayor Longrie recently sent this letter to Representative Seifert the House minority leader. Senator Wiger, Representative Slawik and Representative Lillie (Maplewood's elected representatives) have been working to see if they can come up with money to help purchase some land in the very southern end of Maplewood which would provide additional protection around Fish Creek and the upper bluff area over looking the Mississippi River. The Mayor has spoken many times about her belief that it is extremely important to preserve this area. She has also worked to try to place conservation easements on all of Maplewood's parks and open spaces, with very little success. The Mayor's letter is in red, my comments are in blue.

Hearing TODAY for HF 2055
From: mayorlongrie@yahoo.com
Sent: Tue 3/31/09 10:44 AM
To: rep.marty.seifert@house.mn

Greetings!
I am writing to Rep. Seifert ( why does she start by saying that she is writing to Rep. Seifert, after all she sent it to him, didn't she) and The Citizens' Reporter about the above referenced file to be heard today. I read information about the time on Mr. Nephew's blog site ( seems odd her reference to Mr Nephew's blog. does she assume that Rep. Seifert is a regular reader?) and in a separate email received from Rep.Slawik. Unfortunately, I am engaged elsewhere and I am unable to attend. Rep. Slawik mentioned in her email that Peter Fischer and John Nephew are expected to testify.
It will be interesting to see if they testify as individual citizens or if they introduce themselves as speaking in their official capacity. Peter Fischer is Chair of the Parks Commission as a citizen volunteer and John Nephew serves as an elected council member. (Why is this interesting? Why would they not use their titles? The Mayor used her title first thing in this email.
mayorlongrie@yahoo.com )

Neither Fischer or Nephew, from my recollection, have spoke in support of conservation easements for the neighborhood preserves Maplewood currently owns after purchasing the same with voter referendum money for open space lands. Just recently, the Priory Preserve comes to mind. Neither supported the preservation of this open space parcel, from development, by use of a conservation easement - citing, to paraphrase, that a conservation easement is too permanent and not "flexible" enough. At our last Council meeting the council voted 4 to 1 to move forward on placing a conservation easement on the Priory Preserve - Mr. Nephew was
the sole dissenting vote on the motion. ( Couple of questions. What does this have to do with the effort to find money to acquire additional open space? Is the Mayor so fixated on preserving the land we already own that she can not see the environmental advantage of obtaining additional land? Also this is written as if Rep. Seifert would know something about the Priory Open Space, odd)

However, both Fischer and Nephew have previously spoke in favor of the Co-Par development of the Fish Creek area located in the Mississippi Critical Area of south Maplewood.. Prior to his election, some observed Mr. Nephew as being very "chummy" with the Co-Par representatives at the south leg meetings at Carver School held during the 1year long+ development moratorium. ( yes, by all means you do not want to be friendly towards people.)Then upon his election, Nephew was the swing vote to change the council vote to permit the development to proceed forward and Co-Par received the approvals they sought for a planned unit development (PUD) of approximately 174 houses.( a proposal that far exceeded Maplewood's requirements for setbacks, water run off, bluff protection, and protection of Fish Creek. The proposal was also for considerably fewer houses than allowed by Maplewood's codes.)

Now Fischer and Nephew are in favor of "saving" Fish Creek after they supported Co-Par's plan to develop the bluffs, Fish Creek and surrounding area. ( as stated above the proposal did not develop the bluffs or certainly not Fish Creek. It did develop the surrounding area.) If the Maplewood receives the money to buy the land, what are the guarantees the land will be preserved?( they would be the same as all the other open space areas Maplewood has, none of which has been sold to anyone, or perhaps we could give the land to Ramsey County who owns all of the adjoining open space.) I don't believe the bill requires conservation easements be placed on the land. Before moving forward any further, the proposed bill should be amended to include at least a perminent preservation requirement. ( I wonder if Yellowstone is under a conservation easement, nah, probably not.)

If "given" the money, Maplewood will buy the land (from Co-Par) and Co-Par, who just had more of their properties elsewhere lost in a foreclosure sale held on March 24th, will benefit from the 2.4 to 4.8 million dollars so they can have their own personal bailout in Maplewood. ( Here in America we do not what any companies to profit and we particularly love to beat a man when they are down.) By the way, Co-Par bought the entire parcel (not just the Fish Creek portion) at the inflated price of just under 7 million. If I recall correctly, the entire parcel they purchased was approximately 72 acres with 1/3 of it unbuildable because of wetlands, bluffs and set backs. ( now didn't she just say up above that their plan develops the bluffs, and Fish Creek? Now those same areas are not buildable. )I do not understand the legislation to be providing enough funds to purchase the entire parcel - only a portion.( If we can not set aside all of it we don't want any. We certainly do not want to be able to collect any taxes to help offset the amount of taxes the rest of the citizens in Maplewood have to pay.)
The South Maplewood property (Fish Creek) may possibly be the only property that Co-Par has remaining of their vast real estate portfolio. They started to lose their properties to lender foreclosures over a year ago.( This information is important to Rep. Seifert in what way?)
This "bailout" is at a time when we have a state deficit and we are planning to cut education and health care programs that are needed by many. We need to prioritize.( the money that funds the programs listed by the Mayor comes from other sources. The funds for preserving land will be allotted so why is the Mayor against Maplewood attempting to get our share?)
My efforts for preservation of our natural resources in Maplewood is well documented. This legislative effort does little to that end.( I agree this does nothing to help feather the Mayor's resume.) The "bailout" money will simply serve to be the seed money to commence the Fish Creek (Co-Par) development that ultimately will harm (in my opinion) ( finally she admits this is all opinion.) the bluffs and Fish Creek of Maplewood.

Best Regards,
Diana Longrie

The Mayor's letter is clearly not intended for Representative Seifert. He is not on any of the committees involved in the funding process. The letter is not written in a fashion that would have meaning to someone outside of Maplewood. This letter is intended for only one propose and that is to poison the efforts of others who are working to do what the Mayor only talks about, the preservation of open space in Maplewood. Although the Mayor is viewed unfavorably by most other elected officials I have met, her letter will almost certainly take Maplewood out of the running for this funding. There are many cities which are seeking the money in a well organized, united fashion and the legislatures do not have time to sort out what is happening in Maplewood.
This is why we need a new Mayor.

UPDATE 4-1-09: Mr Nephew comments That it must be an April Fools joke.

Thank You Mr. Ahl

2009-03-24T17:15:00.009-06:00

At our council meeting of March 23rd Kathy Juenemann took time to thank Chuck Ahl for the tremendous effort that he provided the city in his one year plus tenure as interim city manager. John Nephew was prepared to do the same but Kathy just beat him to the agenda item. I appreciate the fact that they were both so thoughtful. Although the statement that Kathy read was very nice I wanted to add some to it.

You may recall that when Chuck took the position the city was a mess. The previous manager had just been let go, the council had just changed, and we were reeling from the departure of city employees. The Finance Department was particularly hard hit. There was the string of lawsuits in which the city did not fare well. All the union contracts needed to be negotiated. The budget, the comprehensive plan update, the land study south of Carver Avenue, street projects, the wetlands buffer ordinance update, conservation easements -- all needed attention. The city audit, the Capital Improvement Plan, the list goes on.

Chuck took care of it all. I don't mean of course that he did all this by himself. It took everyone of the employees to do their part. Which, more than anything, is what Chuck did. He created an atmosphere of trust and accountability that allowed all the people involved, from the council to the citizens to the employees, to be able to concentrate on the job at hand.

We all owe our gratitude to Mr. Ahl. He certainly has mine.

The Best of Maplewood

2009-02-01T12:02:00.006-06:00

I am running for Mayor of Maplewood this fall. This is not a decision which I take lightly. It is hard work, but I am up to the task and eager to begin.

I have many things in my favor. There will not be any candidate who will be able to claim a longer period of dedication to Maplewood. I am honest in my dealings with people. I enjoy favorable relationships with the other elected officials in our surrounding communities, the county, and our state representatives. I have a record you can review. I believe that the city council acts as a whole with the mayor serving as the chair but not the head of the council. I advocate the council fulfill its statutory role of policymaking, and not attempt to run the daily operations of the city. I am a firm believer that the council's decisions need to first reflect the interests of the city as a whole.

As I said, the process of campaigning is hard work. If you are going to mount a serious campaign you have to raise money and expose yourself to public criticism. You are required to set aside many of your normal activities and devote yourself to the task. It can be stressful.

Unfortunately, in past campaigns some of my opponents have made up information, spread false rumors, and generally try to confuse the voters. Let's be done with that. Let's honestly review our records and our visions for the city. It is time to return to uniting the city instead of dividing us into small groups and offering different opinions depending on which way the wind is blowing that day. It is time to return to council meetings that are intended to do the people's business and not attempting to be the local Jerry Springer knockoff. It is time to complete the transition back to a community that is respected by our prior leaders and ourselves. It is time to complete our return to pride in our city and to work together to bring out the best in Maplewood.

I would be a good Mayor because my upbringing, my beliefs, my goals, and my family represent the average Maplewood resident. This combined with my demonstrated ability to lead allows you to have a person you can trust to lead the city in a direction you would want it to go.

WILL for MAYOR

Getting Fooled Twice

2008-09-06T16:27:00.012-06:00

Just to make it clear the following is an opinion piece. I have not researched every fact and thought that I put forward below.

I think it is important to make sure that everyone is reminded, due to the primary election taking place on Tuesday the 9th of September, why you should not vote for Diana Longrie. The people in Maplewood probably do not need a reminder because they are reminded frequently that they made the mistake of electing her 3 years ago as the mayor of our city. She has thrown her hat into the state representative ring, where the voting base is larger than Maplewood and there might be some people out there who have not had the first hand experience to know why she is not a viable candidate. Diana recently sent out some fliers stating why you should vote for her in the upcoming primary. She starts out by trying to claim that she has some DFL affiliation. She does not. At a recent DFL gathering I was reminded how little the DFL thinks of her. They still have not gotten over her crashing last year's Bruce Vento dinner, which she attended despite the fact she did NOT pay the suggested entry fee. While there she made a list of other people who were there, apparently for her records. She also showed up, uninvited, at the District 55 convention, even though she did not participate in the caucus, much to the dismay of the people running the show. She may be saying that she is a Democrat, but that is news to all the Democrats who are in her district. If you want to vote for a Democrat, vote for Leon Lillie, someone who is endorsed by the DFL.

In Diana's literature, she says she is for good paying jobs. In her time in Maplewood, one of her major initiatives was to eliminate several good paying jobs. She worked to embarass the people who had those jobs by listing them in city communications indicating these people were overpaid. You only have to look at last week's St. Paul Pioneer Press to see what a mess it has made, creating a situation where many of the city's employees have left, resulting in a void in leadership and making it difficult for those remaining to properly do their jobs.

Diana also indicates she is for essential roads and bridges and not stadiums. During her tenure she voted against many, and I believe most, of the road projects put forward in Maplewood. She did so either because she did not believe those roads needed to be repaired or because she did not want to bond to create funds for the projects. Isn't this like what MNDOT was accused of doing regarding the bridge that collapsed? The State also bonds to create funds for their infrastructure projects.

A side note on the stadium: Hennepin County is the entity that is paying for the stadium.

She further states that she is for business retention and development. She has consistently said she is for this during her tenure, but to date has proposed no program to actually address this issue.

She also states she is for investment in solar and wind renewable energy. This hardly puts her into a special category in government thinking. It is true that Diana has spoken several times of her desire to put a big wind turbine on top of city hall, but again has never actively pursued doing this nor brought forward any information indicating that it would be economically viable.

Finally, she states that she is for "adequate" funding for education. What does adequate mean? It sounds to me like not as much as we are currently giving, meaning that you could also use the word insufficient.

We in Maplewood were fooled once before by Diana's claims. Don't allow yourself to be fooled again.

Please go vote in the primary on Tuesday September 9th and vote for the candidate of your choice, but make sure that candidate has a record to stand on that you can trust.

Sept. 9th 2008, I wanted to update that at the Council meeting of 9/8/08 Diana produced a check copy written on Oct. 7, 2007 for fifty dollars made out to Congressional District CD4. This was I believe the date of the Bruce Vento Dinner of last year.

A Trip to Rochester

2008-06-13T17:49:00.012-06:00

I just returned from attending the League of Minnesota Cities 2008 Annual Conference in Rochester. This is the first time that I have decided to attend an event that is outside of the metro area. I always had some reservations about the benefits vs the cost of attending an event that required hotel and travel costs. I am, however, glad that I decided to go. I doubt that I would tend to do it every year but I believe that this trip was beneficial.

The theme for the conference was baseball, so the staff wore Twins jerseys, classes had titles like "Just for Rookies" and "Property Maintenance Programs: who's batting clean up?" Tom Kelly, the past manager of the Minnesota Twins, was the keynote speaker at the Opening Ceremony. You might question what value Mr. Kelly could bring to a elected officials conference. I did, but he was entertaining and made several key management points that really hit home.

There was a "marketplace" featuring a wide variety of vendors that provide various services to cities which was available to visit in between training sessions. I tended to visit vendors that provide services to Maplewood to learn more about the services they provide and the people in their organizations. I also spent a fair amount of time talking to a vendor of playground equipment. It is amazing that you can't just put in some simple equipment. You have to provide soft landing surfaces and equal access for handicap users on the playground. At a recent council meeting I had suggested that in some of our neighborhood parks which lack equipment, we could just try to get some simple swing-sets, teeter-totters and merry-go-rounds, thinking that they should be relatively inexpensive. But, to ensure that we are following all the rules, it appears it is a much bigger process.

During the two days there were four opportunities to select from a variety of training sessions. I attended "Ethics for Cities: Angels in the Outfield", "Your Staff is Leaving: Who Can Step Up To The Plate?", "Calming the Crowds: Working Constructively With Concerned Citizens", and "Challenges of Handling Very Public Problems: It Ain't the Heat, It's the Humility". Along with these classes there was one session titled "LMC, City - State Conversations". This was an hour of 15 minute segments on different topics. Kind of like speed dating, I guess.

I was fortunate to be asked to speak at one of the training sessions, which was the "Your Staff is Leaving: Who Can Step Up To The Plate?" session. This session was headed by Kathy Hagen from Intellectual Capital Strategies. Kathy specializes in going into situations in which employees are leaving their positions, and capturing all of their institutional knowledge and the actual processes that they used to do their jobs. This is much more in depth than a simple job description. Two council people, including myself, were asked to contribute. Renee Symanietz, a council member from St. Joseph was billed as a good example of how transition can be handled. She related how they handled the retirement of their public works director of 30 years. I was billed as the example of how things can go completely wrong. Both of us spoke for 12 minutes and then there was a question & answer session. I posted what I said in my 12 minutes below.

Although there were great opportunities to further your knowledge in the training sessions, some of the best information came forward in the networking opportunities. Approximately 800 people attended, many of whom I have met before at other seminars or conferences. It is interesting to hear what is going on in other cities and how they are handling different situations. You may have to be a political type, like me, but I would list it as a fun time.

Update; John Nephew reports on his thoughts about the conference. On his website.

Good afternoon. I am Will Rossbach. I am a council person in the city of Maplewood, and am currently serving in my fifth year as an elected official. Prior to running for office I served for fourteen years on Maplewood’s Planning Commission, for a total of nineteen years of service to my city. I am President of the Ramsey County League of Local Governments, a Commissioner on the St. Paul Regional Water Service Board, a member of the Rush Line Corridor Task Force, and a member of the North East Suburban Transit Commission. I work for several different charities, and I volunteer for a number of different city organizations. On the business side I am an owner of a small remodeling company with 15 employees and I am on the board of directors for the Builders Association of the Twin Cities. What does all of this involvement make me? Other than over extended and very tired, in my opinion it makes me a standard elected official.

When I was asked to speak at this conference, and told that the topic was about employee departures, strategies to retain institutional knowledge, and replacing those employees, my first thought was “why would they ask me to speak?” I don’t have any training in the area of human resources. I am not a professional speaker. But then I thought about it. Maybe this is why they asked me. Take out poster. (I had a poster of the City News Paper cover from the issue where they declared Maplewood the Most Dysfunctional City in the Twin Cities.) Yes I am from Maplewood, and we are or at least were the most dysfunctional city in the Twin Cities.

This afternoon my goal is to let you know that you cannot plan for all situations, but that good planning will pay off in the long run.

The Maplewood case is sad because we had a superior staff and a model business retention and continuation plan. The past City Manager was dedicated to an involved team approach to managing the city. He allowed the department managers to actually manage their departments. Those managers in turn worked with their assistants to involve the department employees in an opportunity to be involved in decisions about operations. Being creative and innovative was encouraged. Your job did not hinge on making a mistake. It was fun to work at Maplewood. Most Departments had Assistant Managers who were trained to know the inner workings of the department. They were the people who were ready to step in in the event of an unexpected situation that removed the department head from their position. The team approaches, ability to use their skills, involvement in decisions, opportunities to be creative, training and fun, are all good retention policies, and the team approach, having assistant department heads and training are good continuation policies.

I remember my first impressions after I was elected and had the opportunity to walk the halls at City Hall, to talk to the employees, to just observe what was happening and how it was happening, were that of being impressed at the high morale, the dedication, the willingness to do more than was required, and the high caliber of people that we had working for the city. Those impressions lasted for two years. Then we had one general election and shortly thereafter a special election due to an existing council person moving out of the city.

A new council was formed and with it came a long history of conflict with the city and with the employees. One new member told people that they had gotten elected to fire people. A list of people to be fired was quoted in the paper. The city manager was fired. A replacement manager was hired who had questionable qualifications. A list was published that indicated that most the department heads were overpaid and included a listing of their salaries in comparison to the average salaries in the metro area. A decision was made to reorganize the city and in the process eliminate several management positions. A civil service commission ruling was ignored and a police captain was eliminated. Employees were publicly criticized. Unions were publicly criticized. We were sued, and then we were sued, and then we were sued some more.

All of this was chronicled in the papers or in the courts. Morale plummeted. In less than two years Maplewood went from a sought after place of employment, a city that was running at its peak, with high morale, and with dedicated innovative employees, who were well compensated for their work, to an employer who has trouble attracting experienced and skilled people to apply for open positions. It will take Maplewood years to rebuild our workplace reputation and replace the knowledge lost in this process.

People started leaving, or were fired, or were reorganized out of a job. The manager was fired, the assistant manager left. The head of human resources was fired. The finance manager took early retirement. The assistant finance manager left, two other finance employees left or retired. The assistant fire chief left. The assistant police chief was fired. The managers of our community center were fired. The Parks Director left. Both the Chief of Police and our Public Works Director made the semifinal cuts in job searches in other cities. To date we are just below fifty people who are no longer in the employment of the city, out of a work force of 170, or about a 30% departure rate since the beginning of 2006.

The managers and supervisors tried to form a union to protect themselves. It did not work. Nine of those people had their jobs eliminated.

Almost no effort was made to extract the knowledge and experience of the people who are gone. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to have the transfer of knowledge from the people who are leaving a position. The longer their tenure in their position the more important this process is. In Maplewood we thought that we had that covered. But if the assistants also leave you are left in the dark.

Our finance department was particularly hard hit. Every person that had a role in directing the activities of the department was gone in a three month period of time. The City Manager, the department head, the assistant department head, and two out of six technicians all were gone. This resulted in a period of about a year where funds, budget numbers, and accounts were not tracked, and during that time, no one knew that they were not being tracked. These discoveries lead to more negative newspaper stories. It is difficult to imagine that Maplewood in currently going to be the first choice of the best and brightest job candidates.

So what do we do now? Maplewood must return to the basics of employee hiring and retention combined with transferring employees to different departments to cover the largest holes in staffing. We must also build a new continuation plan.

Up until 2006 Maplewood was known as a good place to work. We used the average salary surveys in the metro area to determine the pay ranges for the different management positions in the city. We intentionally set our ranges to be 25% higher than average. I realize that pay is not generally the top reason for staying with an organization but it can be incentive to make the initial hire and it ranks higher as a retention issue for management staff.

Allow your employees to do their jobs. In local government the elected officials are generally not professionals in the areas needed to run a city. In Maplewood we currently have a remodeling contractor, an insurance sales person, a family practice lawyer, a retired school teacher, and a game publisher. Respect the staff’s expertise. I am not talking about letting the staff run the city. That is the elected officials' job. But determine where you want to go and then get out of the way.

Let the employees contribute to how work gets done. They want to be and should be part of the process. Whether it is flexible hours to proper training, to implementation, the employees should be involved.

Train your employees. Maplewood has a program to pay for tuition for classes which relate to an employee's field of work. But regular training on the job or through seminars is essential. Cross training so that you have people that know their co-workers' jobs well helps provide job security for employees and save you money. It also helps to provide a replacement if a worker leaves a position.

People like to be “in the know”. There is no reason not to have an informed work force. Employees want to know that their efforts are paying off or helping to increase the bottom line. Keep them in the loop and they will be more determined and happier in their efforts.

Even with all this turmoil Maplewood still has a base of good employees. The employment practices that were in place in Maplewood had become an employment culture and even though many of the lead employees were lost in the turmoil, the seeds of that culture were ingrained in the entire work force. With some well planned reconstruction and nurturing Maplewood’s or your city’s workforce will flourish again.

Confusing the Public

2008-06-06T05:40:00.021-06:00

The June issue of Maplewood News is out. The newsletter has returned to its core purpose which is to pass city information and news to the residents. It also contains a letter from a council member. This month it is Mr. Hjelle. Erik has the right to say what he wishes, and he does, but his article presents a slanted view of issues and presents conclusions at which only he could arrive.

Not long ago Mr. Hjelle made a sweeping data practices request so he probably has information on the topics about which he writes, but he creates conclusions which are his fantasies. Erik starts by talking about an incident back in 2001 in which excavated fill dirt was dumped in south Maplewood. This did occur. It may well be that the city discovered this activity after it had taken place and then insisted that a permit be issued. I have not seen the files so I am not certain, but that would be the appropriate course of action on the city's part. There is no evidence that this dumping incident relates to any contaminated wells or failed septic systems. Septic systems fail due to the ground becoming saturated so that the liquid from the system can no longer soak into the ground. It is conceivable that if you flooded an area with liquid that the systems in the area could fail, but to pile dirt in an area, even if it was wet dirt, could not create the saturation of a large area that would be needed to make systems fail. Erik states that people became ill after using their wells and septic systems. There are no records that indicate that there was any well contamination in the area related to this dumping of dirt and how do you get ill from using your septic system? Hopefully you're not drinking the liquid. Think about it. The septic field is out in the yard and the part of the system which you interact with is in the house. Does Erik believe that some type of contamination followed the piping into the house and by touching the toilet people got sick? Now if your system does fail and there is liquid from the system pushing up though the ground and you walk in it and then do not clean yourself off before going into the house, or maybe the family pets are doing the same, then you can introduce harmful bacteria into your home and cause contamination which certainly can affect you and your family's health. This is what the City believes happened to the person which Erik says had arsenic poisoning. By the way, there was testing done by the Ramsey County Watershed on the dirt that was dumped. The testing showed there were no chemicals present that could be deemed to be hazardous.

So Maplewood was then faced with a house that was infested with bacteria. This is a house that was old and in need of major renovation with a failed septic system. The owner was indeed very sick. The City did condemn the house. It was not fit for occupation. The City also did work with the owner's sister, Judge Gearin, to come up with a solution to the problem. The solution was to have the house thoroughly cleaned, repair the septic system, and make some other repairs. A new well was also installed. The old well was a sand point well which are typically only 25-50 feet deep. The owner has lived there since that time with no health issues as far as the City knows.

Erik moves on to try to convince us that we all need to band together to protect each other from development. Never mind that Maplewood residents have continually over the years indicated that they love their city. That's why they live here. They would not live here if the city had no houses. There would be no houses if areas of the city had not been developed. The areas would not have been developed if development companies had not invested their money and taken the risk to actually develop areas. The City is 95% developed. Do people resist change? Yes they do. It is natural for people to want things to stay the way they are. That's what they are used to and it feels right. I understand that. But we owe what we have, and love, to what Maplewood has become over the years. The present Maplewood is the conclusion of a process that includes development, but also includes the continual process of adapting the controls which the city uses to make those developments more responsive to the desires of the citizens of the city. Maplewood, like most cities, loves to hate development.

Next Mr. Hjelle tells us that CoPar sued Maplewood due to a staff person not sending the proper notice to CoPar indicating the denial of their development proposal. This is not the whole truth. Copar sued us because instead of making a decision based on your Land Use Plan, the Council made a decision based on citizen input and their interpretation of the zoning code. It may seem strange but the approval process is an interpretation of laws, not determining what feels right at the time. That is why it is so important that the citizens participate in the Land Use Plan update that we are currently in the process of doing. In the planning stage we have a lot of ability to change things but once we are applying those rules we have very little latitude. A part of the original lawsuit was based on Maplewood not sending the appropriate notice to CoPar but the court ruled on that along time ago and found in Maplewood's favor.

Mr. Hjelle next makes his case that Judge Gearin ignored the law and decided the Sheri Le case based on how Maplewood was treating her sister. Erik must watch too many soap operas. Judges are people too, so it is possible that they can feel emotion and be influenced by outside activity. It is however difficult to find fault in the decision she wrote for the case. The League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust, which provided the lawyer for Maplewood in the case, could not find anything in the ruling that would give them a point to appeal. People outside of Maplewood also take a different view of the judge and recently made her Chief Judge of the court.

Erik moves on to state that there are financial problems coming to Maplewood and other cities. This is very true. With the poor housing market, dropping home values, and levy limits cities will have less money. Erik is wrong however in stating that Maplewood is not following the trend to not fill vacant positions to help reduce costs. Maplewood has been not filling positions for this exact reason for more that a year, making us a leader in this strategy, not a non-participant.

Mr. Hjelle moves on to the fact that he hates labor unions. I guess he just must not believe that workers should be able to have a means of protecting themselves and providing for their families. He also believes that if you are in a union that you no longer can do the job that you have done for years. Erik has continually stated that you should wait and see what happens at tax time, implying that the Council will raise taxes through the roof to cover paying off all our union friends. That is good advice. Make your decision based on facts and not on Erik's dire predictions.

Finally Mr. Hjelle tries to make you believe that the city under Mr. Copeland cut the payroll by $700,000. This is not true. If you add up all the people that they fired or "reorganized" out of jobs you can come up with this type of number. If however you add back the wages for the positions created to do the work from the positions which were eliminated plus the costs to the city of losing the related lawsuits, plus the large increases in insurance costs due to all the lawsuits, Maplewood and the taxpayers were the big losers.

Erik says "facts are facts". I agree, but if you make up facts to fit your argument instead of using the facts that are part of the record and proven history, then they are just opinions which is what Mr. Hjelle presents in his letter.

Home cooking

2008-06-05T19:33:00.010-06:00

It has been awhile since my last entry which from a certain prospective is good. We have been in the paper less often and when we are it seems to be just reporting on events or actions in Maplewood and not about the dysfunction of the city as it was for the last couple of years. The same applies to my articles. I have over the last while thought about writing several times but I am not really excited about stirring the pot. Even though there could have been some agitated stirring going on.

The City has been slowly making progress on several fronts. We have settled some lawsuits, reversing the past trend to litigate to the bitter end. We have uncovered and repaired some financial reporting issues, we finally came to agreement with the last union on a contract that was in the works for almost two years, the staff is well on the way to providing a budget process that is on schedule, and we are close to concluding the update of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

On the lawsuit front we recently came to an agreement with CoPar on their proposed development in south Maplewood. The council was advised that our chances in court questionable at best and took action to save us the court costs and potentially millions of dollars in damages. The settlement also gives us the possibility of purchasing some of the land which the neighbors have fought so hard to save. It is unfortunate that Diana and Erik decided to use the issue as some sort of publicity stunt by pretending that they were representing the citizens of Maplewood. In the June 4th issue of the Maplewood review Erik was quoted as saying " It defies logic, public safety and common sense". You may recall that the only reason that Erik gave in his vote to deny in 2006 was that there was a safety concern with the road crossing Fish Creek. That issue has been addressed. As for logic and common sense, you can review some of my past articles to understand Erik's logic. Diana keeps harping that we should have let it go to court because that is what the neighbors wanted. It seems strange that someone that votes against street projects because she does not believe we have the money to pay for them is willing to roll the dice on money that we do not have insurance coverage for and definitely do not have budgeted.

You are all aware of the financial reporting and recording problems that were uncovered. I have to tip my hat to the staff for digging in and working to get us up to date and as ready as possible for the audit process. Diana tried to turn this into a circus by insisting that we should call in the state auditor and audit the last seven years. One of the items to be investigated was a joke I made at a meeting that a road should be named Will's Way. The auditing cost was projected to be $200,000 - 300,000. Once again not budgeted but she was ready to spend it anyway.

The Council approved the contract for the MSCA after nearly two years of on again off again negotiations. This contract would most likely have never been needed if it was not for the firing and harassment of the staff by the previous council majority. It was not surprising that the remaining two members of that group worked to confuse the negotiations to the very end.

On the plus side the staff is once again working as a team and focused on doing their jobs. We are on track for the first budget presentation by mid-year instead of September. They have worked to complete one of the best land use plan processes that I have seen in Maplewood. It is unfortunate that we have not had better participation from the public in the process. This is the time when the public has control to arrange the city as they would like it to be. When the actual project comes you have much less control in most cases.

Ok, so I did a little stirring, I'm only human.

More of the Same

2008-04-16T16:21:00.005-06:00

At the council workshop on April 14th I presented my thoughts to the Council about Visitor Presentations. It would be an understatement to say that it did not go all that well. I brought forward six main areas for consideration.

The first was to move the presentation period to 6:30pm so that it was a completely separate action from the meeting. Second was to have people call ahead to indicate that they wanted to make a presentation. I saw this as no different than making a reservation to go out to eat. We can serve you best if we know you're coming. Third would be to have the presenters fill out an information card with contact information. This would make the matter of stating your address at the podium a non-issue. Fourth was to not televise Visitor Presentations. There are definitely some of the presenters that are there to develop film clips to be shown on their cable shows at later dates and others that are using the Council broadcast to be able to send their sometimes bizarre information to a wider audience. Fifth was to refuse to let someone who has active litigation with the city from addressing that litigation at Visitor Presentations, and the sixth item was to actually let people know what the Council plans to do with the information which is presented to them.

No one on the Council seemed to have a problem with the 6:30 start time. As a matter of fact, Mr. Hjelle in one of his moments where he chooses to be part of the group, presented a revised order for the meeting agenda which had several good ideas. One of the changes was to start the meeting at 6:30 instead of 7pm. His thought was that we could do several minor agenda items and Visitor presentations before 7pm. If people did not want to be there for those minor items and Visitor Presentations they could come at 7pm and skip that first part of the meeting ( I wonder if I could be part of that group? just joking). Mr. Hjelle seemed to be pitching the idea that by making his suggested agenda changes that the meeting would go faster and get done sooner. I would guess that it would make the meeting finish about one half hour earlier.

No one liked the "call ahead idea". Everyone thought it would make it to difficult. Come on, it is only a phone call. I could have suggested an email, but if a phone call is to much to ask then certainly email would be out. Think of the devastation that would occur if it was a text message.

The idea of having people fill out contact information before speaking received a little support. At the time it seemed like the Mayor was interested. She indicated that having accurate contact information was good. But the next day I asked her about it to make sure that she supported that idea. She indicated that she thought contact information was good and that she has had several people tell her that they like knowing were people live. But, she was not willing to enforce any type of gathering of that information. "If someone wants to say that they live in the park that's fine".

The idea of not televising Visitor Presentations also did not get much discussion. I did find it interesting that the Mayor said that if we don't televise it that those people will just bring their own cameras and tape it themselves. This was interesting because the Mayor did this herself recently. When she was objecting to the Council holding its Retreat workshop because of incomplete notice she hauled her husband Kevin along with his camera to record the whole non-event. At least if individuals did the recording on their own it would only be seen by their limited audience.
I have a feeling that not allowing people to speak about current litigation might find its way back into the discussion. But I'll wait and see.

Then finally to the item that it seemed everyone liked, action on input. Everyone who commented seemed to think this was a good idea, so I am presuming that it will end up in the mix.

So in the end I fell far short of being able to make the changes which people had indicated to me that they would like to see happen. I guess that we will continue to have the same circus that is the norm for the foreseeable future. Just turn off your TV if it is more than you care to see.

Visitor Presentations Revisited

2008-04-13T16:00:00.007-06:00

As a response to multiple comments from Maplewood residents about their dissatisfaction with having to listen to and sit through the current Visitor Presentation agenda item I am requesting some changes to that item. This would also provide an opportunity to address how the Council responds to the information that is provided to us during these presentations. I believe that at various times most of the Council has expressed some dissatisfaction or frustration with various aspects of this item. This dissatisfaction was witnessed when the majority of the council left a meeting to stop input on litigation. Mr. Hjelle and the Mayor also commented on that issue in emails to Mr. Copeland.

Greg,

Given last council meetings' visitor presentation, I strongly urge you to have Mr. Kantrud advise the council as to whether we should be allowing persons with pending litigation the opportunity to speak at visitor presentations. It seems highly inappropriate and risky to have any dialogue with anyone that is taking legal action against the city. It can only do harm with no possible gain. The potential risk should be limited and avoided.

Thank you.

Erik

Since they have the constitutional right to "petition" their government, perhaps the policy can be that for those people who are engaged in pending litigation with the City, they can submit their comments in writing.

Thank you,

Diana Longrie
Mayor of Maplewood

It is important to provide citizens with a time and a place to address the Council on issues that are a concern to them. If the Council wants to be able to consider how we can best serve Maplewood we need to provide easy access to the Council. I would request that the Council consider moving Visitor Presentations off of the meeting agenda to a time slot starting at 6:30pm prior to the meeting. This will provide a separate time slot specifically for those who wish to address the Council. They would be able to come and address us and be on their way. We of course would hope that they would stay for the meeting but with the busy schedules that people have they could easily plan their trip and know what amount of time to schedule. This should also satisfy those citizens that do not want Visitor Presentations to take up meeting time.

I believe that it would be best to ask people to call ahead, with the close of business on the Friday before the meeting being the cut off, to indicate their desire to address the Council. This would only be used for the purpose of canceling the Visitor Presentations for that week if no calls were received and to create the order of the speakers (first come first served). If we were holding a visitor session and a person wished to speak who had not reserved a spot I would assume that they would be allowed to speak if time permitted.

Prior to presenting information to the Council the presenters would be required to fill out a short form which would include their name, the address of their primary residence, their mailing address if different than their home address, and the topic they intend to present to the Council. Other contact information could be optional. During the meeting they would only be asked for their name. Business owners or businesses that work for the city would provide their business address if their topic pertains to their business or work performed for the city. This would address some concerns I have heard from people who are not comfortable giving their name and address to the general public. I believe that knowing where someone lives is important to help the Council weigh the information being presented. If a person were indicating that Maplewood’s taxes are too high and is not a resident of the city their information would carry less weight on that topic than a person that actually pays those taxes. Alternately if we are interested in attracting people from outside of Maplewood to our retail centers testimony from a non-resident on their concerns with access to those areas may have more weight than someone who lives across the street.

Although I believe that we should still use the five-minute rule, moving it to this time slot would allow additional time, in many cases, if desired by the Council to ask questions or comment on the information presented. In 60% of the Visitor Presentation periods since the beginning of 2007 six people or less came to speak. On those occasions which have more people than can be accommodated in the time allotted, with a 5 minute time limit, we could choose to either divide the people into the time available or start them at the top of the list for the next session. The Mayor should strictly enforce the time limits.

Another concern expressed by citizens is the belief that some of the presenters are just coming to “play to the camera”. In this format we would not televise Visitor Presentations. We would of course make an audio record of presentations. I personally do not like having people using Visitor Presentations to express their political viewpoint regardless of whom they support. There is limited value to these types of comments. However it would appear that we may not be able to place that type of restriction on comments, and I am not proposing any.

The Council should not allow comments by persons involved in litigation with the city, which pertains to that litigation. There is too high a risk of information or comments coming out that could present legal problems for the city. This would require the Mayor to be firm on not allowing these comments and if needed having the presenter removed from the chamber.

I believe the Council should also indicate what we intend to do with the information which is presented, both for the presenters and the Council's benefit. I would suggest that the Council choose to accept the information, refer the information to staff, or place the item on the upcoming meeting agenda for council action. If the Council accepts the information there would be no further planned action on that information. A referral to staff would bring it back to the Council, during a regular meeting, after the staff has an opportunity to review it and add information, and placing it on the agenda would result in immediate action on the information.

I believe that we can make Visitor Presentations better for the people who wish to participate, for the public, and the Council as well.

I would ask the Council to consider the steps outlined above.

Will Rossbach

I had previously commented on this topic in Feburary.

Dr. Jekyll and Councilman Hjelle

2008-03-01T08:20:00.015-06:00

I can't figure Council person Hjelle out. I have actually enjoyed most of my work with Erik this year. He and I have voted together on the vast majority of the actions taken by the council since the election. I like the fact that he brings a different view to our discussions of public safety issues in the city. His inside view is important. He has been cordial for the most part toward me and we have shared a few laughs. If however you put him alone with a computer then he seems to turn into someone else. He ignores the facts and seems to be working to distribute information that is intended to mislead people and processes.

This recent response to an email from a person concerned about the southleg moratorium is just one example of this tendency. I bring it forward for two reasons. First to provide the actual facts; and second with the desire for him to stop his efforts to work behind the scene to disrupt a process, one that is well on its way to providing the most in depth look at a section of the city that has ever been used in my experience.

I have not altered anything in his email and have provided my response in red.

I appreciate your zeal and efforts. The sad reality
is that our new council majority has no interest in
addressing the concerns of the Moratorium and the area

impacted by the COPAR development. That is why the
issue is efectively dead, and why the moratorium is
being allowed to simply end.

No Erik, the reality is that the city has in place the most comprehensive process that we have ever used to study a land area in Maplewood. The process is so large and encompassing that all of the consultants hired by the city and the many city staff who are involved decided that it would be best to expand it by including it in the discussion in the overall Comprehensive Plan update. The city formed a Parks , Trails, and Open Space task force to assist in this process. All of the other city commissions are also involved. There have been many citizen meetings. The amount of public involvement has been huge.

The Council, whether the old or the new, has supported this process each time we have been asked to do so. I believe that all of these votes have been unanimous.

Nothing could be further from the truth than your statement that the process is effectively dead. When it is complete I suspect that the recommendations which are brought forward will have been carefully considered and will reflect the overall plan for the city and the role that the area plays in that plan. These recommendations will have had the full consideration of each commission, the task force, citizens, and consultants.

The moratorium, by the way, cannot be legally extended beyond its current length. However, even if a developer brought forward a proposal the day after the moratorium expires, the city has a 60 day period to consider the proposal plus another 60 days in the form of an automatic extension, if we want it, before we would have to act. By that time all the work on the issue by the groups involved will have been completed.

At the untelevised April 4, 2005 Council/Manager
workshop, the discussion revolved around re-naming
Henry Lane, "Will's Way" in honor of Councilmember
Rossbach. A citizen privately taped the meeting.

To tell the truth I don’t remember this meeting, but I know that there was no meeting that the “discussion revolved around” the names of the streets. At best you are stretching the truth.

Since Councilmembers Juenemann and Rossbach voted FOR
the project in 2006, and with public statements by
John Nephew (also on Video)(newly elected
Councilmember) that residents should consider Retail
Development of the area, the chances for protecting
the area are slim.

The consultants we hired for this process (who seem to be liked by the citizens) brought forward some initial land use thoughts that included possible retail or high density areas. Also the owners of Baileys Nursery have indicated their desire to have land uses that are compatible to the land uses that Woodbury is planning for the property adjacent to their site. I believe that the idea is to consider ALL the stakeholders' thoughts.

The council has a special meeting planned for this
coming Monday on the legal battle with the Developer
and given the loss of former City Manager Copeland and
his strong desire to honor citizens desire to protect
this area, I doubt that the new majority will take the
necessary stance to protect the land. Hopefully, I am
wrong, but past actions and statements give me little
hope.

Erik has exposed his misunderstanding of our local government process. The city manager does not insert opinions into the council's and citizens' decisions. The city manager's job is to carry out an unbiased process so that all opinions are heard and are considered. Erik is just now coming to grips with the fact that he now has to be on the same footing as every other council member.

The other reality is that the developer waived a
$500,000 PAC "contribution" in front on the Parks Comm
in 2006. And there are strong forces that wanted to
use this money 15 miles north of the site in Joy Park.
They want that money.

I assume that Erik meant “waved” not “waived” because the developer can not choose to waive the PAC (park availability charge) contribution. He is right that PAC money is used through out the city. He is also correct that PAC money is important. It is the main source of funds that we have to create, maintain, and improve our parks. With out the use of PAC money we would have to find another funding source, most likely from the general fund. Why would we want to spent our tax dollars if we can use money provided through the development process?

You also have to factor in that the people at the
Clean Water action group actively supported Mr.
Rossbach and Mr. Nephew, by spending $10,000's on "get
out the vote" phone calling last November. Someone

really needs to ask the question of Clean Water Action
on why they sold out and supported a candidate that
voted against a city ordinance that protected trees,
and openly voted to develope the land south of Carver?
If you want a credible voice, this is not how you do
it... Maybe Ron Cockriel can forward this to his
original message address list and we can get an answer
on this?

If Clean Water Action did something to support me in the last campaign this is the first I knew of it. I suppose I should send them a thank you card. Even if they did, political phone banks are staffed by volunteers. The two that I conducted cost $25 each to pay for the space.

The challenge is large, Maplewood has elected
officials that have taken HUGE amounts of money from
people and groups that support specific agendas. I
just hope that at least one of the new majority gets a
conscious.

About 21% of my campaign contribution funds came from any type of organized group. This was 9 contributions out of 117 that I received, or 7.6%. Most of those groups were different unions. As witnessed by the outcome of the Sherri Le case I think that was as much a rejection of the anti-union position of Rebecca, Erik, and Diana as an endorsement of me. None of these groups has ever mentioned any positions that they have related to south Maplewood or development in general for that matter.

Thanks again,

Erik Hjelle
Maplewood City Council

Dr. Jekyll's careless, thoughtless, and insidious rhetoric seems intended to incite distrust and discord in a process that had initially taken a political slant. It now seems to have calmed down and is getting the full attention of the city and its citizens. We need to keep Erik in the council chambers where he behaves himself.

Update 3-2-08 John Nephew posted his thoughts on this issue http://www.johnnephew.com/blog/2008/03/public-ownership-option.html

Update 3-3-08 An other email response and more of the same from the good Dr. J

Erik writes

Thanks for your comments, they always make a greatpoint.For those on your e-mail list, it may be good to pointout that this original project was voted on anddefeated in 2006. Two current councilmembers votedFOR the project (Rossbach and Juenemann).

Why does Erik think that it is good to point this out? The only reason is because he is more interested in creating turmoil than working for a resolution of the issues at hand. Besides the vote that was taken back in 2006 was consideration of the Co Par development. The issue now has grown to be consideration of all land uses south of Carver. It is not the same issue as Erik would like you to believe when he says " this" original project. However so that it is perfectly clear I did vote for the Co Par development proposal and given the same circumstances I would do so again.

Councilmember Rossbach also voted against the treeordinance that prevents a developer from clear cuttingland prior to construction. That ordinance dideventually pass and is current law.

The tree ordinance does not prevent a developer from cutting down trees. It provides a schudule for replacement of those trees. The schedule is to extreme in my opinion. The two major developments on which it has been applied to date could not possibly planted the number of trees required by the ordinance.

Then you have to consider that the Parks Comm Chairwas a campaign manager for Councilmember Rossbach, gave $$$ to his campaign, and has publically statedthat the $500,000 in project PAC fees from thisdevelopment would be used at Joy Park (12+ miles northof project area) with the blessing of the developer.

In my last campaign I had no chairman. Mr. Fischer was the chair of my previous campaigns and did give a contribution. Again Erik's only means of action is to work to create mistrust. As stated above PAC funds are used city wide. Did you notice that Joy Park is 3 miles closer today than yesterday according to Erik. "Blessing of the developer" what does that mean? Developers play no role in deciding how or where PAC funds are used.

The battle is huge, public sentiment will provecrucial, so thanks for your efforts.

Wood Smoke

2008-02-19T18:41:00.000-06:00

What do you think about wood smoke? There have been several times this winter when I've stepped outside and there has been a smell of smoke in the air from my neighbor's fireplace. In most cases I found it to be pleasant. It reminds me of the outdoors and I like the great outdoors. There was one day when it was not a pleasant reminder though. On that day there was some kind of down draft and the smoke was rolling down from above and collecting in front of my garage. I had no desire to linger that day.

During the course of the last year I have been contacted by several people that don't like smoke. I don't know if they have health issues or just don't happen to like the smell. They do have concerns and certainly would prefer that there be less wood smoke in Maplewood.

The topic at the last South leg meeting was "Wood Smoke". There were about 25 people who attended. There were several people who had concerns and also several people who burn regularly. The rest were just interested in the discussion. There was a generally civil discussion of the issue and there seemed to be some areas of consensus that were found by the group.

It seems that there are a couple of things to consider here. First is the obvious, should we consider additional regulation of smoke? We could also however take a moment to consider how many people in Maplewood need to be affected before action is taken? This last question is one that has to be addressed for almost every item that is taken up by the council. Whether it is directly addressed as part of the issue or not, the council answers it by deciding whether to take action.

There have been issues raised in the past which only affect a single couple. The council responded by pursuing actions to protect their rights. But there have also been issues that have a much wider impact that we have decided not to act on. To me if the city has codes or ordinances in place which are intended to provide protection to the residents of the city, particularly health and safety issues, then it makes no difference whether there is one person affected or many. We should enforce our ordinances. If we discover that an ordinance is not appropriate or no longer valid then we should pursue a process to update or eliminate the ordinance. On the other hand if an issue arises which we have not considered, then it would seem that we should explore the issue at least far enough to determine whether it is in the public interest to address the issue.

The impact of smoke seems to fall in between somewhere. We have ordinances that regulate recreational fires but we do not have any specific ordinances that address smoke in general. I have received comments from a fairly large number of people (a dozen or so) who share a concern about smoke. Most of them are from the south leg, but a couple are not. They would like the city to consider both our existing ordinances and possibly consider some new regulation. They have not and do not expect that any kind of ban be put in place. But they have indicated that some addition limits of hours for burning recreational fires be considered and are interested in possible regulation of what types of burning appliances are allowed for both in the home and outside along with consideration of other smoke issues.

There is a lot of information online concerning smoke and there are other cities' codes that we could compare against. It would appear, and common sense tells you, that there are health effects from exposure to smoke. It can be unpleasant if there is a strong concentration. On the other hand having a fire is something that many people enjoy, and some like to have as an option for heating their home.

I believe this is an issue that will continue to create discussion as we move forward. There were some groups that were pushing for the legislature to include bills in this session dealing with the issue ( I do not believe any of them will be acted on ). There are a couple of other metro cities that are giving the issue consideration. I personally do not have an opinion at this time but do believe that there is enough concern that it would be a good idea to have an open discussion to see if there are areas which everyone can agree upon. To that end I have placed an item on the council agenda for our next meeting asking for the council's approval to set up a citizen task force to investigate the issue.

I would be interested in your thoughts on the topic. You can comment here or contact me by email - will.rossbach@ci.maplewood.mn.us. Thank you for your thoughts.

Visitor Presentations

2008-02-18T16:20:00.010-06:00

I have an item on the agenda for the meeting on February 25th pertaining to discussion of our visitor presentations, a regular item on the council agenda. I have received more inquires and comments about this item than any other since the beginning of the year. I have copied one of those comments below that reflects the type of comments that people have been expressing.

The Public Comment Forum warrants my comments:
1. Public comments can be transferred through the Maplewood web site.
2. Public comments can be verbally presented at the workshop sessions.
3. Placing this as an agenda item has proved to be a disaster and a waste of time when attempting to conduct City business.
4. There is a group of persons who are making comments each session and repeat the
same statements. This is being done to promote their TV show and provides no constructive information to the City.
5. I have mixed feelings about this topic, I believe it is good that we allow public input
and criticisms, however misinformation, name calling, self promotion, personal attacks,
threats, and tirades are unacceptable.
6. Maximum time for each presentation should be 5 minutes.
7. The speaker must provide, for the record, a legal name.
8. The speaker must provide, for the record, his or her legal address. (i.e as appears on
driver license, income tax records, voter registration).
9. The speaker is allowed two subjects and announce the subject matter prior to beginning.
10. If speaker appears at future meetings the material on the subject matter must be new and different.
11. The speaker may register with the city manager or council persons for an item to be placed on an agenda for future meeting.
12. All comments by the speaker must be addressed to the Council in general and not to any one member.

I do not agree with each point that this person listed. However I do agree that the council needs to review the visitor presentation item to insure that it is serving the function for which it was intended. Which brings me to the question, what is its intended propose? I have not been able to locate the meeting minutes when this item was added to the council agenda to verify if the council, at that time, stated their intentions. I believe however that they were most likely general in their desire to allow an easy way for citizens to bring information to the council's attention.

Because of the number of comments that I have received on this issue I asked to have discussion of this item added to the agenda for our February 11th agenda. Due to the meeting running late we did not get to it that night.

h/t for the image

As it turns out that was a good thing. I have received offers to help with the process and also a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union. I had originally stated in the memo I wrote for the meeting that I wanted to limit the people who could address the council during visitor presentations to people who were legal residents of Maplewood or legal Maplewood business owners.

This was shortsighted on my part. The day after I had submitted the item I was already thinking that there would be other people who we would want to hear from on different issues. The letter from the ACLU also listed occasions that we may want input from people other than residents and business owners. They also said that we needed to be very careful about restricting who can speak. Although we are not required to allow the public to speak, if we do then there are many court cases that have ruled on who we can and cannot exclude.

It is certainly important from my prospective to provide for citizen input into the operation and direction of the city. It is equally important that the input received meets the intent of the council.

Although I am not excited by the prospect I believe that we need to completely review this agenda item and define the intent and the process used by citizens to provide their information. Below is another excerpt from an email I received that I believe is leading in the right direction.

step #1 is to be clear on your objective -- REALLY clear. Do you want to receive input? On what? From whom? For what purpose? Do they want to give input? On what? To whom? For what purpose? What would/will you as a body DO with input? What do they expect? How will anyone know what you do or do not do? Why does this matter? To whom? And so on. ONLY after you are clear should anyone begin exploring methods...and ensuring they are tailored to meet the agreed-upon objectives, and that both the objectives and the basis for your method choice are clear to the public.

We do not have to make all this up as we go. There are other elected bodies that have been tackling this issue who we can ask for help and information.

There is no doubt in my mind however that the current situation is broken. There are exceptions where citizens are bringing forward information or asking questions that are beneficial, however the majority of the time is wasted on personal view points that have no bearing on anything except their personal beliefs. Without clearly expressing the objectives and procedures for visitor presentations, it is only wasting the time of the council, the citizens in the audience, and those watching at home.

I will be asking the council to set aside some workshop time for this discussion and review. I will further suggest that we remove visitor presentations from our agendas until such time that we are ready to bring this issue before the public for their input and complete adoption of a set process.

I would like to hear from you on this issue. You can comment below or email me at will.rossbach@ci.maplewood.mn.us.

January 08 Southleg Meeting

2008-01-06T12:24:00.001-06:00

I have tried since I was first elected in 2004 to have regular meetings in the south end of the city to allow for the residents in that area to have an opportunity to learn about the operation and issues in Maplewood. They can also bring forward issues that they have an interest in knowing more about, or hear what their neighbors thoughts are on different topics.

I had decided to not hold any meetings during the campaign last fall to avoid any charges of inappropriate use of city property. That time has passed and so it is time to continue holding meetings again. ( see the meeting notice at the end of this post.) These meetings are held in the south end of the city but they are open to any resident of Maplewood who is interested in attending.

This meeting is about wood smoke and its effects on peoples health and whether we should update our current ordinances (sec. 20-36-20-39) pertaining to recreational fires and nuisances and consider controlling the practice of burning wood to heat a home in the city. The links here are just a drop in the bucket as far as the information that is out there about the effects of smoke and problems it can create. It should be noted that there are ways to significantly reduce smoke by using the proper burning equipment.

I hope you can take the time to stop in and give your thoughts on the issue. If you can not make the meeting please feel free to leave your comments to this post and I'll bring them forward at the meeting. Will

Southleg Meeting
January 23rd 7pm
Fire Station 4, 2501 Londin Lane

The main topic of this meeting will be a discussion about wood smoke and the effects that it has on residents of the city. I have been receiving more and more complaints about people that ignore our recreational fire ordinance, creating smoke issues for residents and/or the effects of heating homes with wood burning devices. We will review our current ordinances and discuss weather there should be changes considered which would tend to reduce smoke related situations through out the city.

We will also of course have time for open discussion about any issues which you would like to bring forward.

Refreshments will be provided.

Will Rossbach

PS I am currently planning on holding Southleg meetings every other month with possibly a month skipped during the summer. If you have certain topics that you would like to have covered please forward your suggestions to me. I will also attempt to have a post on my blog which will provide additional information as available on the topic and allow you to comment if you wish. You may view the blog at http://www.willrossbach.com/.

Getting Sworn In to be Sworn At

2007-12-22T06:27:00.001-06:00

John Nephew and myself will be sworn in on January 7th at 7pm. The ceremony will be held at city hall in the council chambers and will be televised for those you wish to watch from home. Cake and coffee will be served following the ceremony. Everyone is invited to attend.

A New Year

2007-12-22T05:02:00.000-06:00

Happy holidays to everyone. I wanted to finally get back to using my blog, sorry it has taken this long. Campaigns get to be long and intense affairs. When they are finally over you often do not want to do anything that reminds you of the process. This was the case with blogging for me. I do want to get back to it, however, because it is one of the ways that I can share some thoughts and give you a chance to let people know yours.

There are many things to look forward to for Maplewood in the new year. There are certainly many challenges. I for one am dedicated to restoring the city to an operational level with a functional council, staff, and commissions. This will mean better services and decisions for the citizens of the city. It does not mean that any of the employees who were fired or left on their own will be brought back. I am not aware of any council members who think that is a good idea. Those would be steps backwards. We want to move forward.

On the council level I cannot of course wave a magic wand and have everything be rosy. We are still a group of different individuals with a wide range of views on issues. In my opinion this is not the problem, as a matter of fact this is good. It should help the council to consider a wide range of issues and solutions. However, this will only happen if everyone is allowed to participate, something that has not been allowed for the last two years. You might well ask how this can happen with a group that seems predetermined to disagree. I believe that the answer lays in process. The first steps should include a real council retreat that includes the city staff. The aim of the retreat should be to set goals for the city and to prioritize those goals. During the last two years we have not had any goals, or at least any that were developed with the entire council and staff participating. Without goals we run from one item to the next with little consideration of whether we are moving the city forward. This creates an extremely inefficient process and use of the staff. We cannot afford to operate in this fashion. There are processes that a good facilitator can use to work with a group allowing decisions to be made without the conflict that has plagued the council for the last two years. By using the proper approach everyone's ideas are considered, not as individuals' ideas but just as "the ideas". Choosing which are the most important can also be done in a non-confrontational manner, so that in the end you have set a direction for the city. If done correctly you then can refer to your goals in the year-long decision making process to see how decisions affect your goals.

It is also critical to the budget process. How can you set spending limits without goals? We should never be in a situation of making budget decisions without understanding the effects of those decisions on our goals and the day to day operation of the city.

The city commissions and boards also need to be given the freedom to advise the council. During the last two years the council made many appointments to the commissions that were politically based. This is a mistake. The role in my opinion of the commissions is to give their views of what the council is considering. They are the next layer of citizen input below the council. What good does it do to only have people advising you that agree with what you are proposing ? The commissions should certainly understand the goals of the council, but their role is not to rubber stamp what the council decides. Their opinions should help expand the consideration of an issue to try to insure that the council has as much input as possible when making decisions. To this end I believe that we should review how the commissioners are selected and serve.

It will be a long and sometimes controversial process to bring the city back to center. I believe that we will not be able to function with a high level of efficiency until 2009 at best. This year will be more of a process of putting the pieces in place so that we are ready for the next. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Victory

2007-11-07T00:25:00.000-06:00

I'll write more later but for now all I can say is THANK YOU to all for the support that you have shown in John and myself. It is late and for the first time in months I am looking forward to a sound nights sleep. Will

Final Count Down

2007-11-03T13:17:00.000-06:00

We have reached the final days of the campaign, thank goodness. There has been the planned and expected surge of last minute activity. Between last weekend and today John Nephew's and my combined campaigns have dropped close to 10,000 of our "Common Values" piece (light bulbs) at doors in Maplewood with the help of about 60 volunteers. Our final direct mail piece, "New Day in Maplewood" has started to be delivered to mail boxes. We will of course be working on the campaign right through Tuesday; but the planning is done. Now it is just following the plan. Unfortunately the expected activity also includes more of the attack cards that are being sent by our opponents. The last one talks about John's and my desire to provide free housing to illegal aliens and that somehow affects how our Police Department would respond to 911 calls?? I don't know, your guess is as good as mine what that might mean. We are expecting at least one more to show up before election day just because that is what they did in the last elections.

During the course of the campaign with all its distractions it may seem like the message has gotten lost. I assure you that it has not. I started out with three main points for my campaign. They are:

return sensible government to Maplewood,
restore a Parks Department,
plan for the city's future.

The city has not been managed well for the last two years. This is due to two main factors. The first is that the current council majority insists on exceeding its role by deeply involving itself in the day-to-day operations of the city. Maplewood's governmental form is not designed for this type of council activity. In a city where the positions of Mayor and councilmember are full time, or at least the main job that the elected officials have, it works to have the councilmembers involved in the daily operations of the city because they either have or can gain the expertise needed to make the necessary decisions. In Maplewood's case we elect citizens to the council positions. We currently have a family lawyer, an insurance salesman, a remodeling contractor, a retired schoolteacher and Rebecca ( I have never understood what she does). There is not one person on the council that has the experience to run an operation the size of Maplewood. That is not to say that there are not some councilmembers who think that they have those abilities. If however any of us were to apply for the manager's job at some other city, we would not make the first cut. There are exceptions of course. Jackie Junek had the educational background and is now the Eveleth City Administrator.

Due to this "citizen council" Maplewood needs a city manager to actually run the city. The city manager takes the desires of the council and turns those directives into the goals or targets for the staff to accomplish. If you have a city manager who does not have any better qualifications for the job than the councilmembers, you can see that there could be problems like those Maplewood has been experiencing. This is the second reason that Maplewood has been struggling. There is no qualified person running the show.

Maplewood has a huge commitment to parks and open space, both financially and emotionally. We do not have anyone actually overseeing the operation of the park system. Please do not take this statement as a criticism of Mr. Ahl or Karen Guilfoile. The fact that they have the ability to step in and hold the system together and have it function reasonably well is a tremendous testament to their abilities. They are not, however, experts in the management of parks and recreational activities. With the commitment that Maplewood has to our parks and open space we need someone who has that training and skill level. I would work to restore this position to the city.

Maplewood is not currently ready for the development future of the city. We will be working more and more with redevelopment scenarios and moving away from the past. This, if handled correctly, can provide us with an opportunity to pause and evaluate where we are and where we want to go from here. We could put more emphasis on green building techniques, or on arranging buildings to create more green areas, or to intermix retail and housing, etc. To do this the city would have to determine the best way to involve the citizens so that we all can share our thoughts as to what is really important to us as a city. Then we can arrange our codes and ordinances to direct future redevelopment to fit those desires. If we as a city do not do this we will end up with a piecemeal pattern of what ever someone thought at the moment. I would work as hard as possible to move us forward on this planning effort.

Sensible government procedure, good park management, planning for a better Maplewood. That is where my campaign started, and that is still what it is about.

VOTE NOVEMBER 6TH

Reply to :)

2007-10-29T18:52:00.000-06:00

If you read the comments that are posted after my articles you will see that :) is not my biggest fan. That's ok. I don't expect everyone to think that I am the best thing to ever come to Maplewood, because I am not. I am just a person that decided a number of years ago that I wanted to do what I could to serve my city. After all I have lived here all of my life. I was raised here and I have raised my family here.

Maplewood is one of the things that I know. Maplewood is one of the things that I care about. Maplewood is one of the things that I am willing to devote my time and effort to.

In a recent comment :) says that I am arrogant.

Rebecca wrote her response and the "Enquire like Maplewood Review" doesn't have the guts to actually print what she wrote,they censored her words. I think that you and your supporters are comical. You and the paper are afraid of the truth, so through stealing signs, defacing campaign signs, running on "no promises" but a negative campaign with no values you think you will win. Rebecca Cave re-elected and Rocky or John Nephew you will beat you out because you are a arrogant, self centered man who thinks he knows more than the people. Your short reign is over Will......good luck to you in the future. Your little "light bulb" post cards were cute, printed in Ohio and paid for by AFSME and the DFL, cute. It still has not substance and doesn't show anything you or nephew stand for just "fluff'

:) is right. I am keenly aware that arrogance is one of my tendencies. I would like to be the perfect candidate and person but I certainly fall short of that mark.

I believe that the 400 or so Maplewood city meetings, about 100 related government meetings and seminars, and continual citizen conversations that I have been a part of give me more experience than the the average citizen. In the 18 years that I have served I have been able to see the results of mine and the council's actions. I am the only candidate that has had this type of opportunity to see for myself if the concerns that citizens voice or the sales pitch brought forth in public meetings actually come to be. I use that experience to help make decisions. On some nights the pride that I have in my accomplishments and experience comes though. That is arrogance. I apologize to those who have been on the receiving ends on those occasions. I'll work to improve.

As for the rest of :)'s comment - I will let you judge for yourself whether you would like a person like :) to be your representative, or whether you would even want to support anyone that :) does.

Employee Turnover

2007-10-25T06:09:00.000-06:00

During the course of this campaign I have spoken about the large number of city employees that we have "lost". There has been the more obvious ones that generated news reports and those that were reorganized out of a job, but it is the continued departure of the every day workers from the city that is much more concerning. Report after report on why people choose to leave their jobs all focus on poor management. If you read these reports they talk about the costs associated with turnover and, with the current demographics of the workforce, how important it is for employers to work diligently to retain workers. In a nutshell, due to the aging workforce and the lack of qualified replacement workers it will be a challenge to hire new people. It will be particularly difficult to replace the knowledge of the departing workers. The costs to the employer can easily be 150% of the wages for that position.

The easiest step to take is to provide a well managed environment to limit the departure of employees with special consideration for key positions where the historical knowledge of the employees can not be retained without a well planned succession program.

This is not what is happening in Maplewood. The actual number of people who are no longer with the city since about two years ago is close to 50. This is not to indicate that we should have retained all these people. To the contrary, there were a few that were not good workers or left for other assorted reasons. But by my count there are at least 33 people that have been fired or reorganized out, or have decided that due to the current management of the city that they would find employment at other locations.

I am not alone in this thought. At a recent chamber of commerce forum the topic came up. Most of the candidates, with the exception of Rebecca Cave, voiced concerns about employment in the city. You can listen to her thoughts and review the list of departed employees below.

Door knocking

2007-10-16T19:16:00.000-06:00

The biggest part of campaigning is door knocking. It sets aside all the garbage that seems to make up a campaign in Maplewood now days. It is generally not about anonymous post cards or half truths or trying to scare you into thinking that your neighborhood park is going to be sold. It is just you (the candidate) and the voter. If you are good at it you spend most of your time listening and commenting on what you hear instead of monopolizing the conversation with talk about yourself. This is the best time to get a good feel for what the citizens are actually concerned about and what the current issues are. The following are some of what I am hearing or individual comments that I have heard from voters.

Most frequently asked question- When is the Mayor up for election?

Other assorted distant second questions and comments-

Can we get a street light put in?
You can but you might have to pay for it.

There is too much traffic on our street.
We need a stop sign at the corner.
Questions from two different parts of the city. Both streets have less than 200 cars per day.

Can we get speed bumps put in?
Maplewood does not consider speed bumps to be an option. Maybe we should discuss this again.

Who pays for Maplewood City News, the City Newsletter?
You do.

Why don't we limit the number of garbage haulers in the city?
For some reason it is an emotional issue, but we should consider it again.

What are you running for?

How come we can keep our taxes at zero when all the other cities need to raise them?
It is just a matter of what level of services that you want to provide, and whether you or your children will pay for them.

Taxes are too high.
I think our taxes are lower than Little Canada.
Taxes are ok as long as they are comparable to other cities.
It appears that taxes are a matter of prospective.

When is our park going to get improved?

Why can't you guys get along?

Do you live in Maplewood?
You have to live in Maplewood to run for office.

Thanks for fixing our street.
Why did you have to fix our street?
When I keep asking for the street to be repaired I didn't know I had to pay for it.
They either love it or hate it.

It doesn't do any good to call the police, they do not do anything.
Our police did a great job, when I called they came right away.

I used to live in St. Paul. Maplewood does a great job with snow plowing.
My street is always plowed last and one time they never came.

Wasn't your dad Mayor?
My uncle actually.

I'm not interested, I'm trying to catch the game.
More interested in the home town team than his home town.

You're the first politician that has ever come here.
I'm not voting?
I'm not voting for you.
I'm not voting for them.
Throw them all out!
You've got our vote.
Fortunately I am hearing the last one the most.

Why are we getting sued all the time?
Poor management.

What party are you with?
DFL

Where is city hall?
When is this election?
Maybe not big voters?

How come Rebecca hasn't taken down those signs?

Certainly the biggest issue this election is the dysfunctional situation in Maplewood. There are by far more comments that center around this issue than any other. A larger number of people seem interested in this election than in the past.

What is your question or comment?

October City News

2007-10-07T06:36:00.000-06:00

I have been receiving emails and questions about the October issue of the city news from people that are concerned that the newsletter is being used as political advertising for Rebecca Cave and asking if I will get an equal opportunity to write about the issues and my positions on those issues. I will let you judge for yourself if you feel that the city publication is biased toward Rebecca. I did comment earlier about the fact that it appeared that the City News was being used in a different fashion than in the past.

I will not be afforded a similar platform to discuss the election issues due to the fact that the November issue will not be out until after the election and it is not my turn in the rotation of council letters. I did have an opportunity to write the letter in August. I was an announced candidate at that time so I chose to not talk about political issues or my accomplishments as a council member. It appears that the example I set may not have been enough.

This newsletter is of course paid for by the citizens and you would be the ones that would need to take action if you felt that you did not like how it is being used.

It does seem particularly odd that Mr. Copeland would allow this publication to have been prepared in this manner after he sent out the following email warning.

From: Greg CopelandSent: Fri 8/24/2007 7:59 PMTo: EveryoneCc: 'cbethel@bethellaw.net'Subject: Policy on Political Activity

Notice To All Staff From The City Manager

There are municipal elections on September 11th and November 6th and I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone how important it is for all City employees; managers, supervisors and line employees in all departments to be familiar with the City of Maplewood’s Personnel Policies on pages 5, 6, 39 and 41regarding our conduct in terms of political activity. Should you have any knowledge of violations of these City policies please report such behavior directly Chuck Bethel, the City’s Labor Relations Attorney, to expedite enforcement. You may also make such reports to your immediate supervisor, supervisor of the immediate supervisor or to me. Mr. Bethel is also available to answer your questions concerning these policies either in person or by email Chuck.Bethel@CI.Maplewood.MN.US.

I suppose I could send Chuck Bethel a note about the newsletter, maybe he would discipline Mr. Copeland.

The goal of these City policies is to protect city employees so each of you can do your job free from any political consideration bearing on the up coming City Council elections. I believe strict adherence to these policies is what citizens expect and I am committed to enforcing these rules to serve that objective. My expectation is that the rules will be respected by all employees, and that the people of Maplewood will decide their election without any violation of these rules by any of us who work hard to serve the citizens of the City.

Please take a moment to re-read these personnel policies. Thanks.

Greg Copeland

I believe that Mr. Copeland is correct that the citizens do expect these policies to be adhered to, however it is laughable that he is concerned that the employees feel free to do their work without political considerations.

Political Activity

Although City employees have the right to express their views and to pursue legitimate involvement in the political system, no employee of the City shall directly or indirectly, during hours of employment, solicit or receive funds for political purposes. Further, any political activity in the workplace must be pre-approved by the City Manager to avoid any conflict of interest or perception of bias such as using authority or political influence to compel another employee to apply for or become a member in a political organization. (Page 5, City of Maplewood Personnel Policy)

Apparently Mr. Copeland must have pre-approved the newsletter.

Harassment

The City of Maplewood is committed to creating and maintaining a work environment free from all forms of harassment and discrimination. Such harassment is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

Harassment of any person because of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, receipt of public assistance, political opinion or affiliations is unlawful. This policy statement is intended to make all employees sensitive to the matter of harassment, to specifically express the City’s strong disapproval of unlawful harassment, to advise employees of their behavioral obligations and to inform them of their rights.

In keeping with this commitment, the City maintains a strict policy prohibiting unlawful harassment, including sexual harassment. This policy prohibits in any form, including verbal and physical harassment.

Management has the obligation to provide an environment free of harassment. The City is obligated to prevent and correct unlawful harassment in a manner which does not abridge rights of the accused. To accomplish this task, the cooperation of all employees is required.

The City wills, in all case, take action to correct any reported harassment to the extent evidence is available to verify the alleged harassment and any related retaliation.

All allegations will be investigated. Strict confidentially is not possible in all cases of harassment as the accused has the right to answer charges made against them, particularly if discipline is a possible outcome. Reasonable efforts will be made to respect the confidentiality of the individuals involved, to the extent possible.
(Pages 5 and 6, City of Maplewood Personnel Policy)

Work Rule Offenses

An employee shall be subject to immediate disciplinary action, without warning, up to and including discharge, for the violation of any of the following rules. Discharge may result for good cause other that those specified but of equal magnitude as determined by the City Manager. (Page 39, City of Maplewood Personnel Policies)

Soliciting political contributions from municipal employees and engaging in political activities on or with City property or on City time. (Page 41, City of Maplewood Personnel Policies)

I added the emphasis above. The City News is certainly city property and it is produced on city time. What do you think?

REALTORS Endorsement

2007-10-06T07:52:00.000-06:00

I am happy to announce that I have received the endorsement of The St. Paul Association of REALTORS. This brings my total endorsements to six. You may review the list below. As I have stated in the past I try to screen with all the organizations that are willing to endorse candidates in Maplewood. This year for the first time I was not endorsed by all the organizations which provided endorsements for this campaign. There were several groups that had not endorsed in Maplewood in past elections and came forward due to the especially trying times in Maplewood. I was of course disappointed that not every group thinks I'm the best, but it is to be expected that one person can not be everything to every group.

DFL-endorsed

AFSMCE Council 5 -endorsed

St. Paul Trades and Labor- endorsed

St. Paul Building Trades-endorsed

Maplewood Voters Coalition- endorsed

St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS- endorsed

ACORN- no endorsement of current candidates

Maplewood Firefighters Association Inc.-I was not included in their screening

St. Paul Area Chamber Of Commerce- did not endorse any candidates

Police Officers Local LELS#153 (patrol officers) endorsed others

The REALTORS screening questions and my answers are listed below.

REALTORS® believe that communities should prepare growth policies that ensure an adequate supply of land for housing of all types and price levels, that promote the wise use of land by permitting the development of high density, walk-able, mixed-use communities in appropriate locations, and that provide for land and natural resource preservation. The major tools that communities use to manage land use are comprehensive planning, zoning ordinances, and growth management policies. REALTORS® support land use regulations that strike a fair and reasonable balance between private property rights and community interests. If elected, how will you work to ensure this balance for citizens of Maplewood?

I have had a public position that is reflected by my voting record of supporting well planned and positioned developments. This position has been developed through the 14 years that I served on the Maplewood Planning Commission and in my four years as a council member. I am the first to admit that when I took the position of planning commissioner 18 years ago that I had a different and more restrictive point of view. The many training sessions, public hearings, and actual experience that I have has given me first hand experience and an insight into what is really important, none of the other candidates can offer this experience. Maplewood is at a turning point in its development history and it is more important than ever that we reassess our future and develop plans that will carry Maplewood forward into a future that needs to include a redevelopment strategy which continues to reflect the demographic changes that are ahead and the green initiatives that are coming forward. The use of walk-able, mixed use, and smart housing ideas should all be part of that plan.

Transportation needs and concerns have increasingly become an issue in the Twin Cities metro area and threaten to diminish the “quality of life” as we know it. Commute times are longer, repair and maintenance costs continue to outpace the availability of funds yet residents and business owners expect and even demand better, faster and more convenient access to safe and convenient roads and transit alternatives. In your view is this assessment of the metro area’s transportation needs (both roads and transit) accurate and should they be addressed immediately? As an elected official what will you do to resolve these concerns and promote the road and transit needs of Maplewood?

It has become increasingly obvious that our current transportation system is not adequate for the existing and certainly the future needs of the metropolitan area. We need to have additional dedicated funding for transportation. It should not take a bridge collapsing to make this situation a priority of the state. I believe that a well planned multi-modal system is the approach that has the best chance to succeed in meeting the needs before us. I have worked to move these types of ideas forward as a member of the Rush Line Corridor Task Force and on the NEST Commission. This is not an issue which can be solved by Maplewood alone. The contacts and relationships that I have developed with our county and state representatives puts me in a position to have greater influence in these issues than the other candidates who have not had the time to work with the partners that are necessary to move forward on this issue.

REALTORS® know that homeownership adds to the quality and stability of neighborhoods and communities. What do you feel are the biggest issues facing Maplewood that will affect its quality of life and community stability?

The biggest issues will be the continued ability of Maplewood to provide the services to our citizens that make for a high quality of life and a feeling of security.The type of housing development in which people live is important but is not the key to quality of life for most. People need to feel that they are safe and secure in their life. That the police, fire and medical services will be there when needed. That their city will enforce our housing ordinances to protect their housing investment. If we can continue to provide people a good feeling about living in Maplewood then the community will be well on its way to continued stability. We do have a changing and more diverse population continuing to emerge in Maplewood. As I have been door knocking in the city some of the concerns that are being voiced concern the issues that are coming with that change. I believe that we need to engage these newer citizen groups and work together to understand the different needs of everyone involved so that the changes can take pl,ace without the tension of the unknown.

Taxes in general and property taxes in particular are of major concern to home owners and REALTORS®. State and local officials continuously seek new means of raising revenue by imposing fees or increasing the tax levy. What is your philosophy on these two methods of generating revenue? How do you intend to balance the needs of Maplewood and the expectations of its residents?

Both methods of raising revenue have their place. In general I believe that the bulk of revenue should continue to be based on a progressive property tax system. This allows those that have the greatest resources to shoulder the largest burden. However we must work to find ways the help our seniors and others on fixed incomes stay in their homes. This has to be part of an over all plan to deal with the coming aging population wave. It will not be possible or practical to be able to build new housing which would accommodate all of the baby boom senior needs. Fees also will need to play a role in the funding process. I believe that it is appropriate to consider fees in cases where the service provided is not required to be available to all citizens, unlike police, fire and, medical which are required. In cases that the citizens have some ability to control their fees (environmental utility fees) fees are appropriate.

What will be/are your top five goals in the office you are seeking?

To reestablish sensible government procedures and processes. To reestablish a parks department. To start an over all planning process to integrate development, green initiatives, and city layout. To insure that we work to reevaluate services to continue to provide services that are needed and desired and insure they are provided in an efficient manner, and to continue to find the best ways to have people involved in the decision making process.

Do any of your goals or plans relate to housing and home ownership?

Yes, as mentioned about I believe that it is critical to Maplewood’s future to start an in-depth conversation about how we can plan to improve upon the city as we redevelop. This needs to be done in a comprehensive manner in order to have a city wide affect and impact.

REALTORS® don’t just sell homes, they sell neighborhoods, and they sell communities. In what ways can your area REALTORS® be better partners marketing and selling the region as a great place to live, work, play and do business?

I believe that REALTORS can have a large role in the education of city officials and the citizens. We should plan some sessions in which you could share some of your considerable knowledge of what will be needed for the future. What has worked, what has not, and advise us of some of the newest development ideas that have started to affect the metro area. We can only be true partners if we both work to share our concerns and needs.

Desperation of the Opposition

2007-09-30T09:04:00.000-06:00

You may recall my previous post titled Hjelle - Confused about Who is Running. The main theme for that post was that the "majority" will do or say anything to get elected. You may recall that Erik had sent an email to a resident which contained many false statements about me. He managed some how to conclude that the reason that Lions Park was not being improved was because the fire and police protection around his home was not adequate. That was however just the start of the effort by the "majority" and their gang in this campaign to deceive the voters.

Before the primary Mr. Bartol decided to send out a mailing containing several half truths about me and throwing his support to Delray Rokke ( I assume that both of his supporters did just that). The main assertion was that I had voted against the budget that added new police and firefighters for the city. He of course failed to mention that this was the same budget that raised the city levy to 10.2% making it the second largest increase in the last ten years. It was also the same budget that reorganized the city staff. Maplewood has currently paid out over $500,000 in lawsuit settlements to employees who were fired in an inappropriate manner, and there are more lawsuits out there. I would vote against it again given the chance.

Then they started a postcard smear effort. The first card came out before the primary and was recently discussed in an article by City Pages. I don't think that they thought the whole thing through however, because the card compared me with Paul Wellstone and several other liberal leaders. Think about it. All the current elected officials that represent Maplewood are Democrats and Maplewood has almost always voted DFL in state and national elections. So to tell all those Democrats that Paul Wellstone is my role model most likely was not going to convince them not to vote for me. The primary results would tend to bear out that fact.

They seem to have figured it out by the second postcard however. It is amazing that without blinking an eye that they could change me from a way left leaning Democrat to a big spending Republican in just two weeks. The card did have a hint of truth, in that it indicated that you should support John Nephew and Delray Rokke because they are Democrats. Rocky I assume does consider himself a Democrat. After all he did seek the DFL endorsement. The Democrats must have not been all that impressed though because while John Nephew and I received over 70% of the votes of the DFL delegates. Mr. Rokke got 12%. This was the result even though I was not even at the convention but was in the BWCA
.

They say I am raising taxes. I expected this when I wrote Rebecca's Debacle. The facts are I voted against the 2007 10.2% levy increase, Rebecca voted for it. There will be no increase this year (whether that is good or bad is yet to be determined) so how can I insist on raising taxes?

They say I support wealthy developers over citizens. The largest development we have considered lately that has major impacts on citizens is in Gladstone. Rebecca voted for it, I voted against.

Multi- national corporations? All that I can think of is 3M and I have not even bought a roll of tape recently.

Let's review so far: they first attempt to appeal to their conservative base and say Will is a liberal so don't vote for him, then they decide that it might work better to try to convince the people that gave me their endorsement that their memory is fading and it was really Rocky that they endorsed. Good luck with that.

Now they have sent out the latest card.

As you can see they are still working the "even though you endorsed Will you should vote for Rocky "angle. The new twist is to bring back a trick from the last election. That is to try to convince you that I want to sell off all the park and open space land in the city and develop it. They will at some point also try to convince you that I somehow make a profit if that occurred. So once again I'll tell you that I own a remodeling company, Rossbach Construction. New development does nothing for us. We need older homes that need repair or upgrades. If I was trying to use the city to help my company I would be advocating low interest loans for the upkeep of our housing stock. If you get the chance ask Rebecca or Rocky when is it that I have voted to sell open space. They will not have an answer. They might say that I was willing to discuss it as an option during the Gladstone project. They would be correct. I believe that as a council person I need to understand all the options that are brought forward in debate. The "majority" does not like to consider all angles, they prefer to just do what they want ( their city manager, their reorganization, their conservation easements).

I started out with the "majority" will say and do anything to get themselves elected. It reminds me of the old joke, " How do you know when a lawyer is lying?" Answer, Their mouth is moving.

One final note. It is too bad that Delray has gotten himself tied up with this. I personally feel that Rocky is a good person at heart. But by standing back and not speaking out against this type of smear campaign, I'm afraid that he is completing his transition to the dark side.

Rebecca Debacle

2007-09-16T07:01:00.000-06:00

On September 13th the council held the continuation of the Monday council meeting. The actions of this meeting are the perfect example of why my main campaign theme is a return to "Sensible Government Process". We are required by law to set a maximum levy limit. This year our last day to do so was September 14th. The levy amount can be lowered after this time but can not be increased.

This year as last year we reached this point having never discussed what the council would like the budget to contain. Under the current "council majority" and Mr. Copeland's management, we have never met to discuss the direction of the city, to lay out priorities, or to discuss the impact of the decisions the council has made on the budget. How can you make decisions on spending for the future if you don't know where you are going?

In the last year this council has approved numerous labor contract agreements which obligate us to wage and benefit increases. The council has also voted several times to advance public works projects which obligate us to additional debt payments. The proposed 2008 Budget which we received just three days before we were to make the levy decision was based on keeping the tax rate the same as 2007. I have discussed in previous posts that this approach does not mean that your taxes will stay the same. Last year this approach increased your taxes to the second highest levy increase in the last decade. Using the same approach for 2008 would have increased the city's revenue 3.6%.The proposed budget contained no discussion of the obligations the council had already approved (or anything else for that matter) but the numbers showed adjustments in wages and benefits that indicated a move towards more part time lower wage jobs with few if any benefits. The vast majority of all of the remaining expense categories showed the same numbers for 2008 as in 2007. To summarize then, the staff's proposed levy increase of 3.6% was just enough to cover the obligations already made by the council and included almost no additional funds to pay for increased costs of supplies, equipment, recreation programs, repair and maintenance of equipment, and so on.

This seemed like it was worth exploring. The city staff would be under pressure to be as innovative as possible to find efficiencies in their programs ( a task that they are well suited for) and we as a council would take responsibly for the spending decisions that we had made during the last year. During the meeting I wanted to ask questions to confirm that the pages of numbers that were presented as the Proposed Budget actually meant what I suspected, but the mayor, Erik Hjelle, and Rebecca Cave would not allow me to do so. Rebecca made a motion to keep the 2008 levy the same as 2007. This action cuts the proposed budget by $566,000. There was no discussion of what impact that would have on any part of the budget. The motion passed 3-2.

Did I vote against this motion? Yes I did. Does it mean that I am against keeping our taxes low? No it does not. Will they try to use this against me in the campaign? I certainly assume so. I consider Rebecca's actions to be reckless and irresponsible. There is no excuse for a council person to vote on the single most important action that the council is responsible for on a whim. A more appropriate course of action would have been to set the maximum levy limit at the staff proposed level or some other number that had some factual basis and then direct the staff to prepare a budget that reflected a zero dollar increase from 2007. As I indicated earlier we can lower the amount of the proposed levy but can not raise the amount. We would then have had the opportunity to see what people or programs will be cut in the process and judge those actions against the councils goals. Oh, I forgot. We don't have any.

Thank you

2007-09-11T22:05:00.000-06:00

I wanted to take a moment at this point of the election process to say thank you to all of the hundreds of people that have given their time and effort to help us get to this point in the campaign. It is quite obvious that the citizens understand the situation that Maplewood is in and are looking to myself and John Nephew to help set us on a course to recovery.

We still have a tough road ahead to reach the general election and to hopefully have similar results in that election process. I look forward to continuing to spread the message and will continue to need your help to reach the goal. Thank you all for your confidence and support.
Will Rossbach

Hjelle - Confused about who is running?

2007-08-30T15:39:00.000-06:00

On Sept. 7th I made a correction to this post. I had incorrectly discribed the coverage of the city paramedics between 6am and 6pm. Will

On August 3rd a citizen of Maplewood wrote the city with a question about Lions Park. Mr. Ahl replied as a city staff member and I also replied in an effort to let her know some of the history of proposed improvements to Lions Park. It should be no secret that I do not approve of the effort that is taking place to completely remove the approved park projects in the existing Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and replace them with projects that have not been part of any consideration process. Lions Park is one of the projects that have disappeared even though the council has already approved funds for the project.

What happened next is really the interesting part. Mr. Hjelle replied in response to my email. In the process he provided misleading information and came to a conclusion that you have to read to believe.

I apologize for the length of this post but I felt it was necessary for you to be able to read the actual email exchange in order to understand it all. Here is the short version: Erik and the rest of the council majority will say almost anything to make excuses for the consequences of their decision to hire and support Greg Copeland.

I have changed the name of the citizen because she just asked a question and was most likely not expecting what she received as a response.

Sharon wrote,
on the city map from your site(half section 36-29-22 page 32). There is a park on the conner of farrel and margret st. The equipment has to be over 30 years old. It‘s old and unsafe. There are many kids i n our area who try and play at the park. We have heard for many years that the park will have new equipment, but this never has happened. We are surrounded by many busy streets and this is one of the few places the neighbor kids can get together and play. Why are other parks being upgraded or built with new equipment and this one is over looked? when will it get the new swings and climbers? These are questions our kids keep asking us, and the neighbor kids ask each other. Date: 8/3/2007 9:48:33 PM

Mr. Ahl wrote.

Sharon, Thank you for your comment on the condition of the equipment. This is Lion‘s Park. We are aware that the equipment is old within the park, although we do not consider it to be in such terrible condition that we would consider it ‘unsafe‘. It certainly does not meet the safety requirements of current equipment, but we do not consider the equipment to be unsafe for usage. Lion‘s Park has been proposed to be upgraded over the past few years. Unfortunately, budget considerations have delayed any City investment into this park. As part of the currently considered Capital Improvement Plan, there is a proposal to provide funds for the replacement of some of the equipment within various parks. If these funds are approved by the City Council, one of the areas to be considered will be the equipment within Lion‘s Park. Any improvements to the equipment will likely occur in 2008. Thank you for your interest in our Maplewood Park system. Chuck Ahl

Will Rossbach wrote.

Sharon, I would like to make sure that you have all the information on Lions Park. The city uses the Capitol Improvement Plan as a way to schedule larger project expenditures. This helps us control our budgets and allows time to prepare for projects by holding public planning meetings so that Maplewood can better address the desires of the public such as the work needed for Lions Park. This process was taken for determining the needs for Lions Park. The 2006-2010 CIP listed Lions park as a project to be done in 2007. The money that was included in the plan was $200,000.00.
The justification for the work section said “The park is in extremely poor condition and currently has one marginal ball field with significant erosion, standing water, and major drainage problems running through the park. The play ground equipment is in extremely poor condition and 90% of it has been removed. There is no off-street parking and very limited vegetation.” the section further states “ The neighborhood is in need of rehabilitation and improvements to Lions Park would be a major improvement for the neighborhood. Proposed improvements for Lions Park include new playground equipment, upgraded ball field, landscaping, and resolution of the existing drainage ponding.”
Last year due to the many things going on in the city such as the restructuring of the staff done by the new city manager Mr. Copeland and the new council majority, which included the elimination of the Parks Director position, we did not have time to do a CIP.
The current plan that is being considered by the city states “ The focus of this CIP is on maintenance and protection of the City‘s existing assets” apparently Lions Park is not considered a city asset as it has been completely eliminated from the plan. It is interesting to note however that we have added $300,000.00 of work in Goodrich Park and $100,000.00 of work in Wakefield Park to start in 2008. Neither of these projects were listed at all in the last CIP.
You can do with this information as you please of course but if I were you I‘d be upset. Your neighborhood which has waited more than it fair time for its park to be improved has not been delayed due to funding shortfalls. It has been delayed because Mr.Copeland has chosen to redirect your funds to different projects. Projects that were never even discussed in the past. The current CIP has not yet been approved. You and your neighbors can still influence the outcome. I would welcome your help. Councilperson Will Rossbach

Erik Hjelle wrote,
Thank you for sharing your concern. As a councilmember, I apologize for the comments of Candidate Rossbach. He is in candidate “mode”...

Erik is correct - I am running to be re-elected. This fact does not create my dissatisfaction with the current parks planning in the proposed CIP.

The new city manager faced some basic fiscal realities in 2007. The “council majority” that candidate Rossbach speaks of, voted to maintain the 2006 tax rate for 2007. Past councils (including Councilmember Rossbach) annually condemned cit y residents to tax rate increases. Those actions have put Maplewood taxpayers at the top of Ramsey County taxes.

Erik is showing that he has no understanding of the city tax structure or of the budget that he voted to approve. He is so proud of the fact that the "council majority" voted to keep the tax rate the same but the City of Maplewood 2007 budget clearly shows on page 40 that the tax rate has been reduced every year since 2003. The total reduction from 2003-2006 was 12%. So while "the majority" worked so hard to keep the rate the same both the previous councils lowered the rate every year. The tax rate is not an indicator of how much property tax you will pay, it is the percentage of the city's tax capacity vs. the total city tax levy. In a simplified example, if your property value increases 12% like it did in 2006 and you keep the tax rate the same then the city portion of your property taxes would go up 12%. That means that "the majority" claim of keeping the rate the same is the same as saying that they raised your taxes 12%. To be fair the actual increase was only 10.2% because even they could not come up with a full 12% of extra expenses to burden you with. That is still the second highest levy increase in the last decade.

Maplewood is not the top tax city in Ramsey County as you can see in this link to the Citizens League. Even if it was, comparing taxes to the cities that are around you in most cases is not a good comparison. Does Erik actually think that comparing us to N. St. Paul, Arden Hills, Gem Lake, White Bear Township, Little Canada, etc. is comparing apples to apples? The League of Minnesota Cities produces tax comparisons for all cities in the state and for comparable groups of cities based on the make up of the cities. If you look at this comparisons Maplewood is middle of the road.

To be clear I have never made a promise to anyone to cut taxes. I do however promise to work to continually work to insure that Maplewood is providing services in an efficient and effective manner so that we are paying a reasonable amount for the services we receive.

The second reality that Mr. Rossbach ignores is that Maplewood planners (Mr. Rossbach brags about serving 16 years on the Planning Commission) have done a good job of building and “filling in” Maplewood, yet they completely failed to hire the people required to service this growth.

So Erik says that while I was on the Planning Commission we did a good job. Thank you Erik. The commission of course has nothing to do with hiring city staff.

I live south of Lower Afton Rd. As a member of the Maplewood Fire Department I see everyday the affects of having only 1 police officer patrolling the southern leg of Maplewood. The continued lack of paramedic staffing in the city. The struggle to cope with places like “Myth”, “The Rock”, and Thursday ”gang night” at Stargate. Then there is the basic fact that residents in the southleg of Maplewood wait up to 4 times as long as Mr. Rossbach (and his family) for Paramedic service. We cannot tolerate abusing the very people that protect and save lives everyday in this city.

Apparently Erik believes that somehow I have arranged police and paramedic protection in the city so that my family is the center of our protection program. I don’t suppose that the fact that I live in the highest crime neighborhood in the city and the south leg has the least crime has any bearing on the number of police that are patrolling these areas.

Erik is correct that Maplewood is and has been struggling with our paramedic coverage. We are currently using a hybrid system with fire and police paramedics. This system is not ideal. It was instituted in an effort to relieve the police department of some of the paramedic role to free up officers so they could give more time to police work. The main medics at the moment are the full time fire fighter paramedics and the police paramedics. There are also two or three paid per call paramedics that are used to back up the regular crew. At night the full time firefighters respond using a fully equipped response vehicle and the paid per call crew responds with the ambulance. During the day it is just the full time crew that handles the majority of the calls. This system has always been approached as an experiment. It would be a large increase in cost to the city to move to a completely full time around the clock system with personnel stationed throughout the city. The council is not regularly briefed as to the response times. I am surprised Erik with his expertise and inside knowledge of the situation has not proposed any changes to the system.
By the way, I have several times suggested that the city phase out the night clubs that we have. I fail to see the benefit that they bring to the city and they use a tremendous amount of service. Neither Erik or any of the majority has backed that idea.

The new “horrible” city manager, decided to actually start addressing these issues vs. ignoring them and hired 4 additional street cops and 3 more paramedics. The city manager then cut over $1 million of ”management overhead” and gave the working employees raises, paying the increased costs of benefits, fuel, etc. The problem in Maplewood was never the person driving the squad car, or mowing the grass at the parks, it was the overpaid people like our former Parks Director, Mr. Anderson, who NOW works in Oakdale for ½ the money he made in Maplewood. My most cherished moment as a councilmember so far, has been having lunch with the former Parks Dir. before he left. During lunch, he recalled getting 3 pay increases in 1 year (2003), he re-called the management retreats, trips, etc. Mr. Anderson is a wonderful person, and is currently being paid w hat he is worth, by our neighbor, Oakdale.

Erik’s most “cherished moment as a councilmember” is attempting to belittle a past city employee? I’m not that surprised I guess. Erik fails to mention that Mr. Anderson is filling a part time position for Oakdale. If you compare the time spent on the job between the two positions his pay is about the same.

By the way, Mr. Copeland did not decide to hire cops or paramedics, or ‘give’ workers raises, or cut overhead. At best he makes recommendations in these policy areas that are the council’s job. At least, that is the way it is supposed to be.

Everyone would LOVE to build wonderful parks and new trails, etc. The reality is that when past spending priorities included sending the former City Manager to Denmark for a seminar, many items at home were left undone. We are trying to clean-up the leftover failures and address past neglect. It will take time. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Rossbach supported the trip to Denmark. It is amazing how his priorities “change” during election time.

Well this must be another of Erik’s cherished roles as a councilmember. So here are the facts. Mr. Furman went to Sweden to a council approved seminar instead of attending two seminars that the city was contracted to pay for in the United States. The trip to Sweden cost less than the two trips in his contract so it saved the city money.

I was not yet on the council at that time.

The money that we spent on parks is from PAC fees that the city receives from development within the city. It is not from tax dollars. So no matter how much Erik would like you to believe that somehow your park not being improved has something to do with rearranging priorities, it does not. The only priority that has been rearranged is to remove all of the current approved parks projects and replace them with some that have not been through any approval or citizen input process.

I trust Mr. Ahl and his opinion. I appreciate the position he is in, and I am positive that he would LOVE to build a new playground at Lions. But he has obligations and setting priorities is never easy. I fully realize that many times these decisions are never popular. The reality is that some Parks are getting new equipment and some park renovation is being delayed. The City is trying to re-focus on raising our standards in basic services for ALL residents in Maplewood, not just the ones lucky enough to live near Mr. Rossbach.

PARK FUNDS ARE A SEPARATE SOURCE OF FUNDS FOR PARKS. The other items that Erik confuses with this issue do not have anything to do with what parks get improved and of course have nothing to do with were I live.

The great part about Public Safety is that everything is documented. Just this past weekend, a neighbor of mine whose child was in respiratory distress waited 12 minutes for Paramedics (which is usual in south Maplewood). Those Paramedics responded immediately (and did the best they could) from where they were based (near Mr. Rossbach‘s house). The simple reality is that drive time and traffic takes that long. The average city-wide response is closer to 4 minutes.

Already commented on.

I appreciate your time and am sorry if I rambled, but to attack a city manager for trying to correct basic public safety deficiencies is simply wrong. And to make matters worse, Mr. Rossbach, who I believe has voted for a tax rate increase every year he has been in office, voted against the 2007 budget that hired those 4 additional Police Officers and 3 Paramedics!

I thought that I was talking about parks. Sharon’s question was about parks, my response was about the planning process for parks, how did Erik think that this has something to do with police and medical services?

If Erik had actually looked at the budget that he voted for he may have understood that the council who has raised taxes the most of any council since 2003 is this current council. Which is why I voted against it.

I appreciate your time. Sincerely, Erik Hjelle

ps. Another “Rossbach Fact”, Councilmember Rossbach voted against the 2006 Tree Ordinance that prevents Construction Companies from “clearcutting” land for building. Did I mention that Will owns Rossbach Construction? The “council majority” voted to enact the ordinance which has saved 1,000‘s of trees...

This is Erik’s attempt to rejuvenate the idea that I benefit from development in the city. Rossbach Construction is a remodeling company. We do kitchens, baths, additions, and home repair. We benefit from old established houses that are in need of upgrades or repairs. That however does not fit the picture that the majority would like you to believe. The tree ordinance by the way does not save any trees. It replaces trees that are removed as a result of development.

I started out saying Erik and the rest of the council majority will say almost anything to make excuses for the consequences of their decision to hire and support Greg Copeland. Now you have read it for yourself.

The Big Show

2007-08-29T15:56:00.000-06:00

I was recently asked by Mr. Copeland to be part of a cable TV program that "the majority" is putting together about conservation easements. I decided not to participate. I cannot believe that they are so determined to push through their desires without allowing any real discussion of the actual impacts of conservation easements or of what other options may be available which could produce similar results. You may recall that two meetings ago I made a motion to stop having the staff continue to work on conservation easements until we as a council were provided equal time researching the other alternatives. They voted no.

Last night we had the third or fourth workshop put on by the city about conservation easements. At this one at least it was mentioned that there are alternatives, but the person giving us the information was the representative from the MN Land Trust (the easement people). She indicated a couple of times that she was not knowledgeable about the other options, although she was aware that they existed.

So now they are going to produce a one-hour cable show about easements. They wanted me to spend the last 20 minutes of the show debating the mayor on the issue. Lets see, she has the benefit of four workshops and one seminar on her side and I have the research I have done plus a person that does not have the insight into the alternatives talking for about ten minutes.

That is not to say that I could not put some good ideas forward, like the fact that conservation easements are sold as lasting FOREVER. Even if the Land Trust could actually do that, I have trouble with the concept of depriving the future people in Maplewood their ability to decide issues for themselves democratically. I certainly believe that we should always have open space. We should always have the amount that we have now if not more. But I do not believe that I know what issues will face Maplewood between now and FOREVER. Then there is the fact that people who are not citizens of Maplewood or elected officials of Maplewood would be making decisions for us about how we can use our land. Or the fact that we will pay them for the privilege of having them tell us what we can do with our land. No one has said how much that taxpayer-funded payment will be but the early indications are somewhere between $100,000 and $400,000. That does not include the staff time, which adds maybe another $50,000 to $100,000. Why don't we just take that money and buy more open space? Then we would actually get something for our money. We could also use that money to do some of the upkeep that we could be forced to do under a conservation easement. That's right, at last night’s meeting we talked about Jim's Prairie and the fact that its value is that it is a wonderful native prairie. Since conservation easements are intended to protect the environmental value of land, we could end up with the obligation of preserving that value FOREVER. This is despite the fact that in the last three years we have reduced the person’s time whose job it is to take care of the open spaces to one third of her total time due to budget constraints. Good thing that we can choose to cut back when money is tight and are not forced to maintain the open spaces on someone else's schedule.It would be easy to go on and on, there are so many unanswered questions and more questions that are yet to be asked.

I decided that if I played their cable game I would be going into a situation that is completely out of my control and at best making their continued march towards conservation easements valid. Also it does not seem right for me as a candidate to have the additional exposure without allowing the other candidates to participate. Maybe that would be the best thing to do if they want a debate, invite all the candidates to discuss the issue.

After saying all of this I will tell you that I believe that there are some parcels of land that might be good fits for conservation easements. But without an in-depth look at all the possible ways to insure that Maplewood will always enjoy having open land, I or anyone else will never know if we are making the best choice. Don't expect Rebecca, Erik and Diana to take the time to explain it all. They are too busying making TV shows to present what they have already decided.

2007 Endorsements

2007-08-12T11:00:00.000-06:00

Update-8/12/07. I had received notice this weekend that I have been honored with additional endorsements from the Maplewood Voters Coalition and the Building and Construction Trades Council. The list below has been edited to include these additional endorsements.

As always I continue to make myself available to screen with anyone that I am aware of that is screening for endorsement.

To date I have been screened by St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly, AFSCME, The Building and Construction Trades Council, The DFL Party, and the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, the Maplewood voters Coalition.

I have been endorsed by;

St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly
AFSCME
DFL
Maplewood Voters Coalition
Building and Construction Trades Council

I have not heard the results of the other screening as of this posting. I will update this post as the process procedes.

Please read my other post under " endorsments" to understand my reasons to seek endorsements.

MVC screening questions

2007-08-12T10:30:00.000-06:00

The questions asked were not in this document. I believe you can tell from my answers what the questions were but to assist in that understanding I paraphrased the questions.

Will Rossbach 8-3-07
http://www.willrossbach.com/
Home-651-484-5427, Cell 612-363-6832

Why do you want to serve?

1. The main reason that I want to serve and have served is that I like to serve. I have a long history of charitable work, and a long history with the city. I do it because I like doing it. More to the present however is my belief that the current council majority is sending the city in multiple wrong directions. They govern for themselves and not for the city. I feel that it is important that I continue to be present to a least point out the improper directions and processes which they seem to insist on taking. If I and the city are lucky and this election breaks their majority then I am the best candidate in this election to be there to help guide the course to recovery.

What is your experience?

2. I am in my 18th year of service to the City of Maplewood. 14 of those years were spent on the planning commission where I learned the concepts and the importance of planning and the foundations of how a city can impact and direct development. The commission also deals with ordinance formation, variances, and the comprehensive plan. The last four years I have served as a council member and all of duties that go with that position. I also serve on numerous boards and task forces all of which broaden my knowledge of local government. I have worked with 3 city managers and 5or 6 different councils. There is no other candidate that can claim even 10% of the experience that I have.

What background or experience to you have?

3. If you look at the first fifty years of Maplewood’s history you will see that we have always continued to expand and develop. In our geographic position as a first ring suburb this could be and should have been expected. I believe that if we are smart we will continue to grow. That however does not mean that we can not preserve open areas or areas of some historical significance. It should be noted that the city currently has over 25% of its area in various types of open space. Almost all of that land is publicly owned. There is no other activity beyond taxes that brings more money into the city. It helps to pay for infrastructure improvements, it finances our parks, it helps pay for environmental improvements and creates high paying jobs. If we take the time to fully plan the future of Maplewood we can end up with a city that has more green space, is environmentally friendly and has more people. This is the best way to increase funding for the city. Without making deep cuts it the level of service that we supply, or a large devaluation of property in the city I would doubt that taxes will go down. I believe that the city exists to provide service to its citizens and I am not in favor of providing less. It is however very important that we are always reviewing how those services are provided and making improvements to control costs.

Future visions for Maplewood?

4. Most of this question is answered above but I would say that people can be funny. Most people if asked say that they like it here in Maplewood, but Maplewood is not a static object it is always changing. Many of the same people however fight change. It is a matter of planning those changes so that they add to the community. We have the chance to be a greener, thriving community of people that are more involved with both their city and their neighbors .A couple years ago I started some discussion on using democratic governance processes to allow the citizens more involvement in the decision making process and I would like to return to that thought as soon as we have a council that is able to deal with the concept. It has been made recently to sound corny but “Together we can”.

Building Trades Screening Questions

2007-08-12T09:56:00.000-06:00

St. Paul Building Trades Fax: 651-224-9783
411 Main St, #206 email: debstpbt@mtn.org
St Paul MN 55102 Questionnaire
651-224-9445 Maplewood City Council

1. What are your reasons for seeking our endorsement?

You may look at an article I wrote on this subject on my website at willrossbach.com but in general I believe that by screening for and receiving endorsements from a wide variety of organizations that it is one way that the voters can either identify with one of those organizations or be able to see that I am considered to be a good candidate by a wide range of people with different approaches to making a determination. I also believe that Maplewood should be working with labor organizations as the best way to create a level playing field for our employees and in our projects.

2. Your position regarding prevailing wages on City funded jobs.

Maplewood has a prevailing wage ordinance with which I agree. I will work be insure that it is being enforced. As mentioned above this type of requirement insures comparable and competitive bids.

3. Do you support Project Labor Agreements on City funded projects?

Yes. PLA’s are another way of providing for a level playing field. They also help the city in its planning process by guaranteeing a set labor rate with includes benefits and eliminates the possibility of strikes or lockouts so you know the project will proceed on schedule. The city is the lead in drafting the agreement so I can rest assured that we are well represented in the process.

4. Your thoughts on future development opportunities in Maplewood.

Road and infrastructure projects are the biggest projects that the city is planning. We have no large building plans currently. There would be the possibility that the city might provide tax money to subsidize some private construction projects which I believe we should then require the use of prevailing wage or possibly a PLA.

5. Your position regarding privatization of city services.

I believe that long term ongoing labor positions are best filled with our own employees. They are able to have a fuller understanding of the over all goals of the city and how their role interacts with the rest of the organization. We as a city also have greater flexibility in job descriptions and job sharing with our own employees.

6. Do you support and honor current collective bargaining agreements?

Yes. I believe that I have a well documented position of supporting our employees and the rights that are provided to them thought their union representation and also thought the civil service laws.

Press-Quality Images

2007-08-09T22:33:00.003-06:00

As a convenience, we've made available several press-quality images for download. These are all 300 dpi.

Formal Portrait of Will - As formal as he gets.

Headshot of Will - From his 2009 campaign.

Will with River & Ducks - A photo of Will at Joy park in Maplewood.

Will at the Bruentrup Farm - Will volunteers for several events each year at the farm.

Will Outdoors Near River - Will admiring the great outdoors.

Will with LEAP Award - Will installed one of the first rain gardens in Maplewood on his property, and won an award from the Landscape Ecology Awards Program for his efforts. This photo shows him with the award sign near the rain garden in his yard.

Will in a Suit - An improbable alignment of the stars got Will into a suit and in a room with a camera at the same time. Here's the photographic evidence.

DFL questionaire

2007-08-09T22:29:00.000-06:00

MAPLEWOOD CITY COUNCIL
CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE

QUESTIONS

1. Describe your volunteer activities in/for the City of Maplewood.
I started my work with the city 18 years ago as a member of the planning commission. I served for 14 years in that role. I was elected 4 years ago as a council member. During that time I have also volunteered at various events from National Night Out, the Nature Center, Water fest , to holding the South Leg Meetings.

2. Describe any issues that are of special concern to you within the City of Maplewood and how you might address them.
The main issue which needs to be addressed is returning to government processes which include all of the council, staff, commissions, and citizens of Maplewood. In example we are currently well under way to turning the control of our parks and open space over to a private company under conservation easements. The current council has never held a public meeting to discuss what problem this would solve, or any other options to consider, or the costs involved. As a matter of fact when I made a motion to do just that, it was voted down. This is also happening with our CIP and last years budget.
We also have to renew our commitment to our parks. Last year our parks department was eliminated by the current council majority.
I am also concerned that the city is not prepared to move into the future. We need to start a process of planning to update our thinking about development in the future. Maplewood is at a critical time in its history and without an updated frame work to guide us we will not be in a position to have the city further develop in a manner which is coordinated and comprehensive.

3. What makes you the best person for a seat on the Maplewood City Council?
The 18 years which I have invested in the city gives me an insight into our history and an understanding of city operations which none of the other candidates can claim. This time also gives me a track record of proven leadership in many situations and on many issues. The people know what I am and can cast their votes with confidence.

4. What particular expertise do you bring to the City of Maplewood?
Most of my city experience is in land planning due to my time on the planning commission. I also have considerable knowledge of city operations and the people and processes that are needed for government to operate. Maybe more important than those however is my ability to lead on tough issues and find common ground. These are all skills that can only come with experience and training.

5. Briefly describe your campaign organization, including number of anticipated volunteers, fundraising, and expenditure priorities.
Volunteers for Rossbach is now fours years old. This creates a good base of about 200 people you have helped me in my last two campaigns. Pete Fischer served as my chairman in those first two efforts and has given me the knowledge of what is needed to manage a good campaign. My treasurer is Steve Rossbach who is the chief financial officer for Rossbach Construction and my trusted adviser.
This campaign is off to my best start for fundraising. In the last two campaigns I have learned to not be afraid to ask for help. People want to help and most the time just need to be asked. I am expecting to be able to raise the majority of the campaign funds through donations.
This campaign will feature more group target mailing with pieces that address the issues that different groups, DFL, labor, Chamber of Commerce are concerned about. This will provide people with information that they are interested in and understand. This will also work to bring more people into the process and get them to the poles. We are also planning on using more volunteer time to distribute literature on a wider scale.

6. Why are you seeking the DFL endorsement?
I have made it a practice to seek endorsement from all organizations that are screening for the elections and to date have been endorsed by all the groups that I have been screening by. I believe this shows the voters that I am someone that is considered to be a good candidate by a cross section of interests and allows them it identify with me. The DFL of course is more than many of the other organizations in that it identifies a whole philosophy of government. I agree with that philosophy and so it is natural for me to seek the endorsement.

7. Why do you consider yourself to be a Democrat?
To be simple, I agree with the ideas that are put forth in the DFL platform . These are the issues and approaches to the issues that I believe are important.

8. Describe your volunteer activities in/for the DFL Party and/or DFL Candidates.
My time has been limited but I have helped in the campaigns for Leon Lillie, Chuck Wiger, and Victoria Reinhardt. I have volunteered at the state fair donut booth and recently at the DFL booth at the Ramsey County Fair.

What are they afraid of

2007-08-08T21:23:00.000-06:00

In the last issue of the City News, Diana writes about the various efforts that are underway in Maplewood to continue our work toward being an environmentally friendly city. This is not a new role for the city. In years past Maplewood has been a leader in environmental issues, not just in the metro and state but in some cases across the country. I'm proud to have been able to play a part in that process. The current council may be the "greenest” council in the city’s history. At one time or another all of the members have shown their interest in environmental issues. Because of this united position I find it to be confusing that Diana is so concerned about our parks and open spaces being put on the” chopping block". Who does she think is going to do the chopping?

A couple of years back during the process of creating a Gladstone redevelopment plan there were discussions about what, if anything, to do with the Savanna Open Space. This discussion was brought forward through our citizen commissions. The original thought was to consider the possibility of swapping some of the Savanna for the Tourist Cabin Site. Although it did not have much curb appeal with its old trailers and cabins, it is a site that has many old and beautiful oak trees and could have served as a continuation of a green corridor from Frost and English to Lake Phalen. It was worth consideration. Those discussions also considered whether it might be worthwhile to sell six acres of the site for about two million dollars to help fund some of the new park and open space amenities in the area. That would have provided the city with the chance to control the kick off project in the area which would set the tone of the type of development desired by the city. This was also worth consideration. The final piece of the discussion was whether to combine Flicek and Gloster Parks into an expanded open space area.

After discussion of the issues and considerable public input the decision was made to not make any of those changes. From my prospective this is how government is supposed to work. People bring forward ideas for consideration, you conduct an open process for all sides to state their thoughts, and then the elected officials make a decision based on what they believe is the best for the city. Diana along with Erik and Rebecca are apparently afraid of this type of open discussion. They all used the fact that these changes were even discussed as cornerstones in their past election campaigns. They told people that the council was going to sell off the open space - put it on the "chopping block".

When the citizens passed the referendum 16 years ago it was to buy land to set aside so that Maplewood would continue to have undeveloped areas. I fully agreed with this idea. We did not know how much land we would be able to purchase or where that land would be located. We did know that we should set aside land in public ownership.

Diana, Rebecca, and Erik have decided that we should put conservation easements on all of our open space and parks. This is indeed one way to control these lands, but is it the best way? I don't know. They have refused to have any form of open, honest discussions to clearly state the objective they are trying to achieve. They have refused to list the different alternatives that might be considered to achieve that goal, or to allow citizens to be involved in that discussion. At our last meeting I made a motion to not continue with conservation easements until that process took place. They voted it down. Due to the lack of any real discussion I do not know if this is the best course to follow. Most of the people that I have asked about conservation easements while door knocking have no idea that this is even being considered.

Conservation easements cost money to put in place. There are yearly costs to maintain them. We are turning control of public land over to a private company. Easements are intended to last forever. They restrict the public’s ability to use the land as they see fit. They can be amended. They are subject to eminent domain.

How much money will this cost? No one has said. Is a private company in a better position than we are to determine how our land should be used? What about the future residents of the city - are we the ones that should be deciding for them what their needs will be? If easements can be amended or set aside with eminent domain what makes them better than the current control that we have?

There are other options like a no net loss policy or requiring a voter referendum to sell this land. We might be able, just by properly zoning and changing land use classifications, to require a super majority vote on the council to modify how these lands can be used. But these answers will have to wait while we continue to spend money to move forward on a conservation easement policy with no idea what problems it will bring with it.

2007-07-07T22:01:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my new website and blog. I have a lot to learn about all of the exciting opportunities that this site will allow both you and I to use to our advantage. I am hoping that I will be able to keep you informed of my activities in the city, share some thoughts and hear your thoughts and ideas. It will take a little time for me to get it all working but keep checking back and post your thoughts. Thanks Will

2007-07-07T22:00:00.000-06:00

This was the original draft of my first campaign mailing. I was advised to shorten it for the actual mailing, which I did but I wanted the full letter to be posted for those of you that like the long play version.

Greetings to all,

The campaign for this fall is underway. I was the first candidate to file for election on July 3rd. I will watch with interest as other candidates make their decision to file. During the campaign candidates are often asked to list the top three issues that they are concerned about. These issues often become the discussion points that come up again and again during the course of the campaign and give insight into what the candidates believe is important for Maplewood.

CITY OPERATIONS

By far the biggest issue has to be the operation of the city. This includes the operation of the council but also how the city deals with its’ employees and the residents of the city. The council currently operates as a three member group. This is not acceptable. The entire council has never met as a whole to establish goals, concerns or direction. This lack of priorities has left us without a focus. As decisions are made they are each considered as individual items without the ability to tie the decisions into a bigger picture. The employee structure was reorganized. This was done without any open debate on whether it was a good idea. Instead, it was necessary to dig it out of a haphazard budget process that was presented over many months last year. It was also done without any significant discussion with the people who were affected- the employees. This resulted in several lawsuits. This has already cost a very significant amount of money for lawyers and settlement payments, and it is not over.

PARKS AND OPEN SPACES

As a resident, did you know that the city is actively working to place Conservation Easements on all our open spaces and parks? There was a council workshop held on the topic for which the mayor and Rebecca Cave sent out individual invitations asking people who live by open spaces to attend. These invitations were not from the council, only those two. Ms. Longie and Ms. Cave have since claimed that due to the larger than normal attendance at that workshop, they know that the people are behind them (way behind them from my view). The reason that this is happening is at best a guess .Other than the workshop which did not define a problem or offer alternatives to conservation easements, there has been no discussion on the issue and certainly no full council direction to staff. It appears however that the Ms. Longrie and Ms. Cave want to prevent any future councils from making decisions about parks and open spaces that do not align with what they think is appropriate. It also appears that there is a fair amount of money involved in the process and due to eminent domain laws that there is little protection that is actually in place after it is done. This is just the latest example of how the current council majority is not involving the citizens of the city.

Parks and open space become an issue for reasons other than just conservation easements. The reorganization process took away the parks department. There is no parks director, park maintenance is now under public works, and the Capitol Improvement Plan being discussed eliminates most of the parks projects that were in the works. The funding for the parks that included some general fund money has been shifted to only rely on PAC funds that are uncertain because they rely on development within the city. The bulk of those funds will be used in the Gladstone area. Parks and open space are very important components of the over all livability and well being of the citizens which is being pushed aside. The value and investment we have in our parks requires an equal commitment with the other services the city provides and cannot be something that we maintain and improve on an occasional basis.

REDEVELOPMENT

Redevelopment of the city is the third issue for me in this campaign. Redevelopment will happen in Maplewood and we are not prepared for it. You will probably be told in the coming campaign that I want to develop every square inch of the city. This could not be further from the truth. It is true that as redevelopment occurs that I want to take advantage of the process to improve the city. There is no activity in the city that provides the opportunities for improvement using non tax dollars other than development. It provides park money, road improvement money, and infrastructure money. It provides jobs during and after the process, it increases the city’s financial standing. It almost always increases the tax base. If we take the time to come up with a good redevelopment plan then it will also allow us to become a much greener city by expanding the open areas in the city, improving the way we handle water run off, increasing the area for trees to be planted, and incorporating green building and alternative energy techniques. I have introduced the idea to the council and will work to see this process through.

I am asking for your help to return Maplewood to a city that was respected by our peers and by its citizens. I have enclosed a list of volunteer activities and a remittance envelope for you to send back with your contributions and/or the volunteer activities that you will be willing to provide. You can also help me by providing an email address if you have one so that it is easier to keep you updated. Please also visit my website at willrossbach.com to read additional information about the campaign. If you wish it is also possible to sent contributions through the website using your credit card.

I encourage you to contact me at wbrossbach@comcast.net or at 651-484-5427 if you have questions or comments.

Thank you all,

Will Rossbach
Councilperson, City of Maplewood

2007-07-04T18:15:00.000-06:00

These are the questions from my 2nd screening for 2007. I am still waiting for their decision on their possible endorsment.

ST. PAUL TRADES AND LABOR ASSEMBLY
2007 CITY COUNCIL
CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME: Will Rossbach PARTY AFFILIATION: no formal party affiliation at this time

ADDRESS: 1386 Co. Rd. C East, Maplewood, MN, 55109

WARD: NA HOME PHONE: 651- 484-5427 WORK PHONE: 651-779-0220

E-MAIL ADDRESS: wbrossbach@comcast.net

CAMPAIGN MGR: myself with guidance from Peter Fischer PHONE: 651-484-5427

CAMPAIGN ADDRESS as above

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: willrossbach.com
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Briefly answer the following questions and return to the Assembly Office prior to your appointment. Consider your answers carefully; they are in integral part of your record.
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1. Why are you seeking St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly’s Endorsement?
I feel that by presenting myself to a wide range of organizations to be screened and hopefully endorsed that the voters will be able to make connections between the various organizations and identify with them. It also seems appropriate to ask for the support of organizations that I support in my role as a councilperson.

2. a) Who is your source of information on labor related issues? I do not have any specific individual that acts a source of information. I have told all the local labor representatives that I would be happy to attend some of their meetings so that I could be keep current on their issues. That statement still stands. I have had some support in my efforts from Bob Monette (carpenters local) and Scott Jacobson ( Maplewood AFSCME )
b) Do you have a labor representative involved in your campaign? If so, who? I certainly hope to have many labor representatives involved. I was recently endorsed by AFSMCE and am meeting latter this week with their Maplewood local and will be meeting with Jon Grebner soon to discuss the best ways to work together.
c) Will you acknowledge labor’s endorsement on your literature, lawn signs, etc.? absolutely
d) Will you have an open door policy with labor representatives from each sector? As I stated above I have been and will continue to be available to all labor representatives.

3. What will your top 3 priorities be as you take office? All three could be the same, return Maplewood to a city that functions along normal lines of procedure, have a city manager that has some back ground and experience with running a city, return the involvement of the employees to city operations discussions, and remove Maplewood from the title of the most dysfunctional city in the metro area. Restore a parks department to the city, work to provide a framework to continue Maplewood’s role as a green development leader.

4. How would you handle all of the different interests that arise in a large building project? Maplewood has a wonderful staff even with the loss of so many employees over the last 18 months. As a councilperson I depend on their abilities to arrange, negotiate, and schedule work. Maplewood has a prevailing wage ordinance to help insure that the companies which do the projects are professional in their actions. In my history in the city we have not had any major problems with the building projects that have occurred.

5. What ideas do you have to attract manufacturing to your city? Maplewood is a fully developed city and we do have some companies that fill the manufacturing role such as 3M and Schroder Milk, but we are much more of a residential city with service and retail centers. We have worked to assist companies by offering low interest business loans and by working with them to help them fit within the residential environment. However we currently do not have any land that would fir the manufacturing role for anything but smaller scale operations.

6. What is your understanding of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and do you support PLAs on City, HRA and PED funded projects? This is a topic that I am not familiar with, but I am always open to discussion of labor initiatives, would work to implement any ideas that are a positive for Maplewood.

7. Do you support prevailing wages on city-funded jobs? Why? Yes, as I mentioned above Maplewood does have a prevailing wage ordinance. I support that ordinance. I believe that particularly in lager projects that the level of expertise that comes with organizations that pay prevailing wages offsets any perceived savings that you might get by paying substandard wages. I also support on some of smaller projects of using the existing city staff to do the work. As I already mentioned we have some very talented people.

8. What is your philosophy around development and what kind of development would you propose for your city? I believe that Maplewood will fulfill its role as a 1st ring suburb. We do not necessarily need to work to make that happen, but we should because we can have more control of development projects to insure that we are providing for all income levels, good quality buildings, and a mix of city environments. I also believe that we should work towards the building of a greener city through improved ordinances that control building configuration and placement. These types of controls would not affect density allowances but would use a variety of green building practices to Maplewood a better and greener place as we redevelop.

9. What is your opinion of privatization of city services and is there a situation that privatization is necessary? The major areas of city activity should be done by Maplewood’s’ trained staff. We spent a fair amount of time and money to train people to be experts in their field. These same people work day in and out in our community and develop a “feel” for the people which they serve. There are some smaller roles or infrequently needed services , such as some specialized cleaning, or equipment service which it makes sense to bring in people that are specialized in that area.

10. Do you believe that Maplewood workers should get a COLA increase each year? Please explain why or why not. If so, where will you find the needed funding for COLA increases? The employees and citizens of Maplewood need to be treated fairly. I want a work force that is focused on their jobs and not on how they are going to pay their bills. The citizens also should be focused on being able to enjoy their life in Maplewood. Both more than anything depend on the economy doing well. As a rule of thumb I want the employees to be able to receive a COLA increase, but I also want the residents to not be forced to choice between their taxes and the other needs of life. It is a balancing act that works on the needs of both sides. The city has many revenue raising activities that we need to continue to capitalize on and as inflation continues there is a need to keep taxes current.

11. There is concern about the direction of city government in Maplewood. Please explain how you would work to create a respectful tone between the city council and mayor, the city manager, citizens and city workers. We need to have a person in the city manager that is a city manager. This person also should not be predisposed to favor one side of the council and not the other. In short they need to be a professional person with the appropriate background. New leadership will be required on the council to break the current council majority. If the people that serve on the council are people that are just interested in doing their best to serve the city and not have some predetermined agenda that has no basis in the public process then I believe that the respectful tone that you seek will naturally occur.

What in your view is the role of the City Council and the city government in general in promoting public education and the overall general welfare of our children? I believe that we should do what we can to support and promote public education and then get out of the local school boards way and let them do their jobs. I have nothing but respect for the people that fill those roles and for the most part they do a very good job of it. I would be happy to do more but the opportunities seem few.

Do you support collective bargaining? Yes, it would be impossible to have to try to deal with each individual employee of the city.

Will you respect the right of workers to form and join unions? Yes, it would be ideal if employees were always dealt with in a respectful and professional manner, but as witnessed in my own city that does not always happen.

What would you see your role as a city council member in helping workers organize a union at their work place? I do not see that it is my role to help employees decide if they feel that a union is the best way for them to insure that their concerns are addressed, however if they make that decision then we should not work to impede that process and should be willing to work to insure that the transition is smooth.

As a city council person, what would be your philosophy around Proprietary Interest Protection Agreements (PIPA) and Labor Peace Agreements and how would you see them applied on city-funded projects? This is again an area that I do not know about, with additional information I would be happy to respond.