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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, October 24, 2011 Page 20 going to the voters at the ballot box, including a number of Public Hearings, open houses, and other public opportunities to provide information to the public before the election. Mr. Kysylyczyn noted that he had sent the City Council's proposal to several legislators, and while they recognized the City Council's authority to proceed, admitted that it would be circumventing voters; and one of the comments he'd received indicated that some legislators are stepping forward to eliminate this legislation and authority. Bill Farmer, 640 Heinel Drive Mr. Farmer advised that, when he spoke proudly of Roseville, he listed several reasons for that pride, including: 1) racial tolerance; 2) a spirit of volunteerism; 3) a great school district; and 4) the overall environment of the community itself, in- cluding its park system. Mr. Farmer apologized to the City's first responders in not including them in that list, since he appreciated them as well. In his fifteen (15) years as a Roseville resident, Mr. Farmer noted that he had done a lot of vol- unteering in various aspects, and noted the vision required to achieve and main- tain high standards. Mr. Farmer noted that, in relationship to the parks, the Mas- ter Plan provided a twenty (20) year vision to restore the character of Roseville's park system to a high standard; not to enhance or greatly improve them, but to simply restore them to a basic standard for Roseville parks, opining that this was a long-overdue and needed investment. Mr. Farmer opined that the City's parks system had been underfunded over a long period resulting in the current need to invest a significant amount of money to bring it back up to standard. While rec- ognizing the differing opinions, and the financial hardships of some, Mr. Farmer opined that if citizens made a commitment to follow-through with this now, a way would and could be found to accomplish it, rather than continuing the malaise that created the current situation. Mr. Farmer further opined that the longer things were put off, the more expensive they would be; and asked that the City Council follow through and support the bond issue to fund the park system as put forward. Ernie Willenbring, 832 Lovell Avenue Mr. Willenbring opined that, given the amount of public media available, and the obvious need for the facilities in question, to simply let the people decide. Gary Grefenberg As a bench handout, attached hereto and made a part hereof Mr. Grefenberg provided four (4) pages total of a petition signed by SouthWest Area of Roseville Neighbors (SWARN)—Midland Grove Neighborhood—summarized as follows: "...All this at a time of economic uncertainty, high unemployment, stagnant wag- es, and falling home values we believe it is unfair to ask Roseville property tax- payers to bear the sole burden of all these proposed initiatives, and respectfully ask the Council to reconsider their support of these initiatives at their current pro- posed funding level, and find other means of financing them."