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City of Centerville <br />City Council Meeting <br />September 24, 2008 <br />Councilmember Broussard-Vickers inquired whether this information will be on the <br />website, in case someone would like to look at it. <br />City Administrator Larson replied that they can put it on the website. He added that <br />Centerville received very little Local Government Aid (LGA), because their formula does <br />not work to Centerville's advantage. <br />Councilmember Paar stated that the downfall with LGA is, if they relied on it for their <br />budget and the Aid was cut, they would run into problems. <br />Mayor Capra stated that Circle Pines is receiving $350,000 in Local Government Aid, and <br />the only difference between Circle Pines and Centerville is that there are older houses in <br />Circle Pines. She stated that the citizens of Centerville support their community with their <br />dollars. Mayor Capra stated that she has talked to Senator Vandeveer about reforming <br />Local Government Aid. <br />City Administrator Larson showed slides of where the tax dollars go. He showed that 44% <br />of the tax dollars go to Public Safety. <br />Councilmember Lee stated that the police contract is "carved in stone" for the next 20 <br />years. He stated that the cost to contract those services would not be much cheaper, and <br />then they would have no control of what kind of policing is done. He added that <br />Centerville's policing is above and beyond anywhere else in the state. Their police rank <br />third or fourth in the State with the "Click it or Ticket' campaign. <br />Councilmember Paar stated that people move to the suburbs to be in a safe neighborhood, <br />so their Police Department is necessary. <br />Mayor Capra stated that there were people who would have died if Centerville did not have <br />such good response. There have been several times when the police revived someone and <br />kept them alive. <br />Councilmember Broussard-Vickers stated that the Council is hearing a lot of negative <br />comments. She suggested that, if Citizens want to be involved, they should be involved in <br />upcoming things -not things already done, that they did not take a part in. She stated that <br />it is hard to question someone's decisions, when you do not have all the information that <br />was used to make those decisions. She stated that, going forward, citizens should be more <br />involved and active. She added that the State Auditor would not second-guess spending <br />decisions as long as the decisions were legal. Information is available to every citizen, if <br />needed. If a citizen needs information, they need to be specific. <br />Councilmember Paar stated that he will not respond to an email that has curse words in it. <br />Bloggers and citizen groups are not thinking about how they are selling the residents short. <br />Councilmember Paar added that he gives residents a lot more credit than these bloggers <br />and citizen groups do. <br />Page 5 of 11 <br />