1992-01-28 - Laserfiche WebLink

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J -I .- I Council Meeting Minutes January 28, 1992 Page 2 Soecial Order of Business. continued well, thank you. We've continue to provide excellent services at relatively lower costs, we continue to seek better ways to conduct city business, and we are working hard at involving our citizens in making decisions about our future. We've identified our goals and we're moving ahead. So what have we accomplished? Well we've kept our tax rates low. And, we've achieved our goal of reducing audit costs by computerizing and professionalizing our financial operations. Our success was recognized just this evening as we celebrate the achievement of a national certificate of compliance from the National Association of Finance Officers. Margaret Egan and her staff are to be commended for their efforts on our behalf. The Finance certificate follows closely on the heels of the Police Department's accreditation just a few years ago. That department was honored again just recently when Officer Ed Werneke was named one of four top D.A.R.E. Officers for 1991. We are as proud of our other staff as we are of Margaret and Ed because we believe our success is the product of team work and a commitment to customer service. City government's customers are our friends and neighbors. We continue to believe we must work in partnership with our citizens to explore, innovate, plan and implement better ways to accomplish our goals. Finance and D.A.R.E. efforts are outstanding yet commonplace accomplishments in New Brighton. Our parks programming, long range planning, our leadership in area, regional and state affairs are others. The list is long. A major investment of staff time especially by Dave Childs, led to an innovative analysis of opportunities for service coordination and ultimately cost savings among neighboring cities. The joint venture we initiated with Shoreview, Arden Hills, Mounds View and St. Anthony set the pattern for deliberations by the Ramsey County Local Governments Services Study Commission. We'll discuss later this evening the draft reports prepared by the Commission. One can only hope that as much effort and critical judgement will be applied to those activities of governance above the level of city business as was focused on our own functions. In my view, that venture has yet to truly begin in earnest. While we're proud of our accomplishments up to and including 1991, we're not oblivious to the challenges ahead. We're currently in good financial shape but the State Legislature and Governor are already preparing to take the small remnant of trust out of the recently enacted Local Government Trust Fund. Taxpayers should rightfully question how a 1/2 cent local option sales tax increase led to a reduction of aids to city (local) government. Our efforts at collaboration will continue. Our HazMat agreement and our Senior Center study, are just recent examples. But we can do only so much with our 12% of your property tax dollar and 3% of our State revenues. Sooner or later, we must focus on the 88% and the 97% of your public budgets to achieve noticeable savings. ~Decial Order of Business State of the City Address