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City Council Regular Meeting - 04/25/05 Minutes - Page 5 retailer would not provide a living wage for families; and questioned what the City Councilmembers wanted to leave as their vision and legacy for the community. Harlan Smith, 1706 Ryan Avenue W Mr. Smith, from his expertise as an economist, provided comment and opinion from his personal review of the proposed term sheet related to the Twin Lakes Redevelopment project. Mr. Smith spoke to the uncertainties of the amount of the subsidy being requested; advance costs unknown; extensive risks to the City; undetermined profit margin guarantee; property acquisition concerns; bond issue risks; and the need for the City to hire an independent, contract lawyer to protect the City of Roseville that would hold the developers personally responsible. John Abler Mr. Abler spoke in opposition to the City's use of public monies to fund private business. Mr. Abler opined that a viable business should be able to stand on its own. Mr. Abler spoke to another agenda item under consideration tonight related to discounting utilities. Mr. Abler noted that he had discussed this issue with the Council at a previous meeting in 2002, and instead of seeing the program come under closer accountability and scrutiny as he requested, the program had been expanded, with no means testing used. Mr. Abler opined that by subsidizing senior citizen lifestyles without accountability, it was using family monies. Mr. Abler further opined that statistics had shown that potentially 2% of the senior population was eligible for low income status, and it should be their responsibility to verify their income, their home address and other information to further review and investigate their eligibility. Mr. Abler appealed to the City Council that, instead of expanding the program, they use a means test before applying the utility discount; opining that just because someone is of retirement age, it doesn't mean they can't afford to pay their utility bills.