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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, December 07, 2009 Page 3 cant tax increases, and when those property owners were on a fixed income, such as him, this was a significant increase. Mr. Grefenberg advised that he didn't object to vehicle replacements and recognized the problem coming from the State of MN and reductions in local government aid, but noted that Roseville received no government aid; and didn't understand their rationale for making up in one year past losses when wages remained stagnant and unemployment was so high. Mr. Grefenberg opined that the proposed budget was not fair, and was asking senior citizens, those with frozen wages, and those unemployed to pay more when they were paid less. Mr. Grefenberg referenced Mr. Lambert's comparison of levy increases versus resident wage increases; and noted that, whether these statistics were valid or not, this was not a good economy to propose higher taxes, when the only ones being asked to sacrifice are property tax payers. Mr. Grefenberg spoke in support of City employee wages, as public servants, to make further reductions in conference attendance, further reductions in over- time, and additional wage concessions such as step increases and previously-negotiated contract wages being frozen. Mr. Grefenberg opined that this represented just a few items he considered "low hanging fruit" that was available to further reduce the City's budget from a staff perspective. Mr. Grefenberg further opined that the reductions taken mid-year in 2009 to the adopted budget didn't appear to cripple the City in providing adequate services. Jon Abeler, 2339 Roselawn Mr. Abeler noted that his TNT statement showed his property taxes actually declining; however, he recognized that this was not the case for all property owners; and expressed concern that in this tough economy, there were still increases in the City's budget that were being borne by taxpayers. Mr. Abeler opined that this was not good for the com- munity in the long-run; and expressed concern that future increases would be forthcom- ing. Mr. Abeler asked that the City Council accept their call to do what they could to keep costs in line now and in the future. John Kysylyczyn, 3083 N Victoria Street Mr. Kysylyczyn advised for the record, that his property taxes were going down, but only due to his appeal to Ramsey County to reduce its value. Mr. Kysylyczyn repeated past comments that he didn't appreciate the lobbying and misleading information provided on an annual basis by staff on the budgeting process (i.e., comparison with peer cities), not- ing that those comparisons cities (Maplewood and Shoreview) had community centers; and that another (St. Louis Park) applied half of their recycling profits to taxes. Mr. Ky- sylyczyn further criticized the comparisons of City services to those of select utility bills; addressed the fees applied for services and programs in lieu of taxes; expressed his con- cern that there were more employees and Advisory Commissioners present at the com- munitymeetings held on the BFO process than private citizens, indicating a complete and total failure in marketing by staff; and referred to the line items budgets available during his tenure as Mayor. Mr. Kysylyczyn questioned whether the City Council was doing everything it could to reduce this huge tax increase, such as not paying for two leaf dumps; alleged billing of taxpayers by staff for producing a video, even if the money