by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
The Sartell City Council voted 3-2 to approve the entirety of a legislative priorities list, even though some members had reservations about at least one item on the list and doubts about the list’s value.
Each year, the six cities in the greater St. Cloud area, including Sartell, are asked to approve a list of legislative priorities so the Minnesota Legislature will know those issues are important in the opinion of the city councils/residents in the six cities. The other cities are Sauk Rapids, St. Joseph, St. Cloud, Waite Park and St. Augusta. There has to be unanimity for any items to stay on the legislative list. In other words, if one city council votes to remove one or more items, they do not stay on the list.
Specifically, disagreement about the list arose when council members Pat Lynch and David Peterson and Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll took issue with the inclusion of the following item: “Appropriate funds to support the St. Cloud Regional Human Rights Office.”
Those three on the council seemed to agree it is not necessary to duplicate the services of the state Human Rights Office in St. Paul.
Council member Steve Hennes and Amy Braig-Lindstrom disagreed with their colleagues. Hennes said St. Cloud is in the process of working to get a staff person from the state office to come to work at the St. Cloud area office. Human-rights issues, Hennes added, are in the news a lot these days in regard to St. Cloud. It would be best to leave the legislative priority on the priorities list.
Braig-Lindstrom said she serves as a representative on the human-rights commission, and that a St. Cloud Human Rights Office is a valuable component to help people gain empowerment and to participate in society, whether they are the elderly, veterans or minorities.
Nicoll also questioned the list, stating she thinks there are too many items on the list every year. Less items, she said, might bring more focused attention for the Minnesota Legislature to act on those issues. It would be better, Nicoll said, to have just four or five items on the list, instead of a dozen or more.
The council agreed those concerns about the number of items on the list should be raised next time the Sartell mayor and/or council members meet in an All-Area-Cities meeting.
In the meantime, the council voted to keep all the items on the list. Braig-Lindstrom, Hennes and Peterson voted yes. Nicoll and Lynch voted no.
The following are items on the All-Area-Cities Legislative List:
Legislative proposals
- St. Cloud Regional Human Rights Office – appropriate funds to support outstate offices of the state Department of Human Rights with a full-time office for the St. Cloud Region ($180,000).
- Licensing and regulation of hotels/motels. Approve legislation allowing cities under 30,000 population to adopt ordinances to license and regulate hotels and motels.
- Right-of-way management. Approve legislation to clarify cities’ rights to control the right-of-way on streets and highways lying in two jurisdictions and clarify statutory authority on the municipalities’ rights to manage the public rights-of-way that would be applicable to all public utilities.
- Expansion of I-94 to St. Cloud. Continue to fund lane expansions of I-94 from St. Michael to the St. Cloud area.
- City of Sartell, Fourth/50th Avenue South Project (West Metro Corridor): Appropriate funds to support the completion of the West Metro Corridor transportation project, otherwise known as South Project ($4 million).
- City of St. Cloud, Heatherwood Road: Appropriate funds to construct Heatherwood Road connecting the I-94 Business Park to the new Coborn’s and Marco Business Park ($6 million).
Bonding applications
- City of St. Cloud, George Friedrich Regional Park: Approve $6 million for planning, land acquisition and park construction.
- City of St. Cloud, Downtown Accessibility Program: Approve $2 million for planning, and private and public projects to improve accessibility of St. Cloud’s historic downtown.
- City of St. Joseph, pedestrian bridge over CR 75: Approve $1.25 million for planning, design, land acquisition and construction of a pedestrian bridge over CR 75 in central St. Joseph.
- Stearns County, Lake Wobegon Trail Extension from St. Joseph to Waite Park: Approve $1 million to extend the Lake Wobegon Trail from St. Joseph to Waite Park.
General policies
- Publication Requirements: Support legislation that would allow municipalities to utilize alternative publication methods for legal notices.
- Regional Collaboration: Support legislation and funding for a program to encourage locally initiated regional efforts of local government jurisdictions to encourage these types of efforts.
- Tax-Exempt Credit Program: Support legislation to assist cities with disproportionately high amounts of government and/or nonprofit business properties such as colleges, universities and hospitals.
- Sales-Tax Exemption for all public purchases: Support legislation that would clarify the local government sales-tax exemption approved in 2013 to define exemption for all purchases made by local units of government.
- Amendment to Minnesota Statute 429. Support legislation to modify Minnesota Statute 429 requiring assessing 20 percent of the cost to utilize bonding without referendum and adding language to provide a meaningful method to determine benefit from replacing failing underground infrastructure.
- North Star Commuter Rail: Support extension of North Star Commuter Rail service northward to the St. Cloud area in a manner that serves the needs of public, business and commercial travels; that is highly expandable; and is priced affordably to optimize use.
- Street Improvement District Authority: Support legislation that would give municipalities the authority to establish street-improvement districts to collect fees from property owners within a district to fund municipal street maintenance, construction, reconstruction and facility upgrades.
- Local Government Aid: Support legislation that reduces pressure on the property-tax system and equalizes property tax bases with LGA appropriations.
- Levy Limits: Support facilitating local accountability by allowing local authorities to formulate and adopt budgets without state restrictions.
- State-Mandate Relief: Support legislation that reduces or eliminates unfunded and/or onerous mandates to local governments. Further, support legislation that sunsets any unfunded mandates for evaluation.
- State-Fee Increases: Support measures that preclude state agencies and operations from shifting funding reductions and/or cost increases on to municipalities in the form of fee increases.
- Administrative Authority: Support the expansion of authority of statutory and home-rule charter cities’ ability to impose and collect administrative penalties to include enforcement and traffic infractions.
- Private-Well Installation: Support retention of local control of private water-well installations.
