Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
On 3/6/03 5:33 PM, steven meldahl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Spoken by a true tenant, probably. We landlords are not in the babysitting business. I have personally convinced a few Mpls Housing inspectors to send the orders for such things as: mowing grass, shovelling sidewalks, picking up garbage, fixing damages caused by the tenant's kids, and other things that are obviously under the direction and control of the tenant directly to the tenant. Guess what happens? I get a call from the tenant who asks why the man ie the City, is after them. I tell them to clean up their act or they are gone, and surprise surprise they clean up their act. It changes their behavior and what is great about it, their kids see them maintaning the house and grounds better!! Now I am not the Big Bad landlord picking on them and they become some of my best tenants. I think this concept is called, being responsible for your own actions. Quite a novel idea here in liberalville, USA. I'm sorry, but I see this in a different light. If you own a property, you're responsible for it, whether you live there or not. Steve refers to it as babysitting, but if your tenant is acting like a baby, then either babysit or get a new tenant. Steve says that being responsible for your own actions is a novel concept in Minneapolis. I say Steve is trying to push off his responsibilities as a property owner on Minneapolis Inspections by making them play the bad guy so he doesn't have to. Let me add that I also serve as a landlord of sorts, since I am an officer of my fraternity's alumni board, which owns three chapter houses in Dinkytown. As annoying as orders from Minneapolis housing inspectors can sometimes be, I WANT Minneapolis to send that stuff to me and not just to the tenant. Since I also have a full-time job and other commitments, I can't always get to the chapter on a weekly basis to make sure my tenants are maintaining the property as they're supposed to. Then I know when I have to go and play the Big Bad landlord. I don't like it, but it's part of the job. If I just wait for the tenant to call me and complain about the man as Steve apparently prefers to do, I may never get that call. I'm sure I'm not the only landlord whose tenants would ignore an order from Inspections since most tenants probably know that it's the property owner who's going to be penalized if nothing is done. In my case, the tenants could really give a fig what Minneapolis Inspections says but when I or one of our other alumni officers stops by, they pay attention. And by the way, I don't get paid for this, so any for-profit landlords who are complaining about it should consider looking for another line of work rather than whining about Minneapolis inspectors who are just trying to do their jobs. Mark Snyder Windom Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
RE: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council and the Police/Fire/Public Works Departments
of the city. Not appropriately including all groups is to deny their citizenship, an overt act of discrimination. Therefore, do not lay off citizen police, citizen fire fighters, citizen public works workers, or citizen council members. Do not take the wheels off of the government bus. Peter Jessen, Portland -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lisa McDonald Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 2:15 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council I guess I'm wondering why we're not hearing about cuts in finance, inspections, the Civil Rights Department (a totally duplicative function that the state currently has),ITS and a shift in CDBG from small grant programs to funding certain public service functions in targeted neighborhoods (trust me this can be done and has been done in the past). Why is it the cuts are mostly in fire, police and public works (which has been cut so much in the last eight years they squeak). Is this a political ploy since they think this will make citizens complain to the state or is it just the easiest cuts to make. Also how come this administration (which bills itself as throwing the doors open at City Hall hasn't had any public hearings on what the citizens would like to see cut. The School Board has done an excellent job of surveying their constitutents, on just this point, in their last two budget cuts. Lisa McDonald East Harriet From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 10:07:38 EST I'll just on this band wagon in a minute. As I look at how the City is proposing to meet the challenges of the cuts in LGA all I can see is same old, same old. Threaten to cut police, fire, and maybe even remove stop _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
On 3/6/03 4:15 PM, Lisa McDonald [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I guess I'm wondering why we're not hearing about cuts in finance, inspections, the Civil Rights Department (a totally duplicative function that the state currently has),ITS and a shift in CDBG from small grant programs to funding certain public service functions in targeted neighborhoods (trust me this can be done and has been done in the past). That's a good question, but I also wonder whether we're not hearing about such cuts because they're not being proposed or because the press doesn't think anyone would care about cuts in those functions and won't buy newspapers for the privilege of reading more about cuts in finance? Why is it the cuts are mostly in fire, police and public works (which has been cut so much in the last eight years they squeak). I thought Chief Olson answered this question fairly well (at least for his agency). He said in the Strib that We're [police] the biggest department with the biggest amount of money. Is this a political ploy since they think this will make citizens complain to the state or is it just the easiest cuts to make. Also how come this administration (which bills itself as throwing the doors open at City Hall hasn't had any public hearings on what the citizens would like to see cut. The School Board has done an excellent job of surveying their constitutents, on just this point, in their last two budget cuts. Although I do agree that public hearings would be great right now, I don't think there's any political ploy going on here on behalf of the City. The only political ploy going on is coming from a Governor's administration that is unwilling to use the general fund budget as a basis for LGA cuts and instead wants to include revenues that were imposed on us by the State. In the case of the convention center, essentially what the governor proposes is to give us a 2 for 1 deal on the punishment: first, the state makes us pay ourselves for a facility that the state wanted and then now the state proposes to use those revenues as a basis to cut our LGA and wreck our general fund budget since we cannot use revenues from the convention center tax for anything but paying off those bonds. Anybody who doesn't think Pawlenty and Awada are out to get Minneapolis needs to wake up and smell the coffee on this fine, freshly snowed morning. Mark Snyder Windom Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
[Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
I'll just on this band wagon in a minute. As I look at how the City is proposing to meet the challenges of the cuts in LGA all I can see is "same old, same old." Threaten to cut police, fire, and maybe even remove stop signs (how that will save money, I have never figured out, but Public Works offers it up every time.) Yes, cut the City Council. I believe a previous writer seriously understated the potential savings. He just used the salaries - there are the benefits, the future pensions, etc., etc. When I worked for the City Council I did a survey of similarly sized cities as Minneapolis and all of them had fewer Council Members. How come we have seven County Commissioners for a much, much larger geographic area? I am really tired about the "got to have that many to provide constituent service." That part of the job grew because the Council Members wanted it to grow to ease reelection efforts. I have argued before for an ombudsman's office, complaint office, call it what you will. Staff it with people pulled from various disciplines within City Hall and you would get a much better response. I know, I know - there's the charter and things, but what better impetus than the one we have in front of use. I'll deal a Council Member for two fire fighters any day of the week. Jan Del Calzo Lynnhurst
Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
I guess I'm wondering why we're not hearing about cuts in finance, inspections, the Civil Rights Department (a totally duplicative function that the state currently has),ITS and a shift in CDBG from small grant programs to funding certain public service functions in targeted neighborhoods (trust me this can be done and has been done in the past). Why is it the cuts are mostly in fire, police and public works (which has been cut so much in the last eight years they squeak). Is this a political ploy since they think this will make citizens complain to the state or is it just the easiest cuts to make. Also how come this administration (which bills itself as throwing the doors open at City Hall hasn't had any public hearings on what the citizens would like to see cut. The School Board has done an excellent job of surveying their constitutents, on just this point, in their last two budget cuts. Lisa McDonald East Harriet From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 10:07:38 EST I'll just on this band wagon in a minute. As I look at how the City is proposing to meet the challenges of the cuts in LGA all I can see is same old, same old. Threaten to cut police, fire, and maybe even remove stop _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
I just think that the City should do what we expect them to do. In other words, don't waste taxpayer money or time. Let me give you a quick example. Today I was in criminal court charged with a misdemeanor. The crime? A tenant who rents a house from me took down the rear fence (without my permission) so he could work on his car close to the house. I was charged criminally for this even though my property manager sent to the housing inspector, Sarah Maxwell, the name and phone number of this tenant. She refused to send the order directly to the tenant and instead ticketed me personally. The Housing Maintenance code says in 5 different areas to send the orders to the proper and responsible party. Obviously this is the tenant. To make a long story short, after 3 Court appearances, at the beginning of the trial, I made a motion before the judge to dismiss. I had to research the ordinances thoroughly and I found a technicality to beat them. The judge dismissed the case. Here is the bottom line. The City had 3 City attorneys and the housing inspector there prepared to take me to the woodshed for my heinous crime. They were prepared to spend a half a day to prosecute this case. Do you think this is a good way for the City to spend its time and scarce resources??? Steve Meldahl Jordan (work) - Original Message - From: Lisa McDonald [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:15 PM Subject: Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council I guess I'm wondering why we're not hearing about cuts in finance, inspections, the Civil Rights Department (a totally duplicative function that the state currently has),ITS and a shift in CDBG from small grant programs to funding certain public service functions in targeted neighborhoods (trust me this can be done and has been done in the past). Why is it the cuts are mostly in fire, police and public works (which has been cut so much in the last eight years they squeak). Is this a political ploy since they think this will make citizens complain to the state or is it just the easiest cuts to make. Also how come this administration (which bills itself as throwing the doors open at City Hall hasn't had any public hearings on what the citizens would like to see cut. The School Board has done an excellent job of surveying their constitutents, on just this point, in their last two budget cuts. Lisa McDonald East Harriet From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 10:07:38 EST I'll just on this band wagon in a minute. As I look at how the City is proposing to meet the challenges of the cuts in LGA all I can see is same old, same old. Threaten to cut police, fire, and maybe even remove stop _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
Spoken by a true tenant, probably. We landlords are not in the babysitting business. I have personally convinced a few Mpls Housing inspectors to send the orders for such things as: mowing grass, shovelling sidewalks, picking up garbage, fixing damages caused by the tenant's kids, and other things that are obviously under the direction and control of the tenant directly to the tenant. Guess what happens? I get a call from the tenant who asks why the man ie the City, is after them. I tell them to clean up their act or they are gone, and surprise surprise they clean up their act. It changes their behavior and what is great about it, their kids see them maintaning the house and grounds better!! Now I am not the Big Bad landlord picking on them and they become some of my best tenants. I think this concept is called, being responsible for your own actions. Quite a novel idea here in liberalville, USA. A quick and simple example. You go on vacation and rent a good clean car from Hertz (like my houses - all remodelled and clean). You get pulled over for speeding. Who gets the ticket?? You or Hertz?? Steve Meldahl Jordan (work) - Original Message - From: jon kelland [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: steven meldahl [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 5:00 PM Subject: Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council if you own the property you are the responsible party. am i missing something? jon kelland --- steven meldahl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I just think that the City should do what we expect them to do. In other words, don't waste taxpayer money or time. Let me give you a quick example. Today I was in criminal court charged with a misdemeanor. The crime? A tenant who rents a house from me took down the rear fence (without my permission) so he could work on his car close to the house. I was charged criminally for this even though my property manager sent to the housing inspector, Sarah Maxwell, the name and phone number of this tenant. She refused to send the order directly to the tenant and instead ticketed me personally. The Housing Maintenance code says in 5 different areas to send the orders to the proper and responsible party. Obviously this is the tenant. To make a long story short, after 3 Court appearances, at the beginning of the trial, I made a motion before the judge to dismiss. I had to research the ordinances thoroughly and I found a technicality to beat them. The judge dismissed the case. Here is the bottom line. The City had 3 City attorneys and the housing inspector there prepared to take me to the woodshed for my heinous crime. They were prepared to spend a half a day to prosecute this case. Do you think this is a good way for the City to spend its time and scarce resources??? Steve Meldahl Jordan (work) - Original Message - From: Lisa McDonald [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:15 PM Subject: Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council I guess I'm wondering why we're not hearing about cuts in finance, inspections, the Civil Rights Department (a totally duplicative function that the state currently has),ITS and a shift in CDBG from small grant programs to funding certain public service functions in targeted neighborhoods (trust me this can be done and has been done in the past). Why is it the cuts are mostly in fire, police and public works (which has been cut so much in the last eight years they squeak). Is this a political ploy since they think this will make citizens complain to the state or is it just the easiest cuts to make. Also how come this administration (which bills itself as throwing the doors open at City Hall hasn't had any public hearings on what the citizens would like to see cut. The School Board has done an excellent job of surveying their constitutents, on just this point, in their last two budget cuts. Lisa McDonald East Harriet From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 10:07:38 EST I'll just on this band wagon in a minute. As I look at how the City is proposing to meet the challenges of the cuts in LGA all I can see is same old, same old. Threaten to cut police, fire, and maybe even remove stop _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E
Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
Any one going to defend the city on this one? Anyone? Doubt it. Any of the city leadership going to take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening again? Doubt it. The city is so charged up to get a high profile landlord like Steve Meldahl. They would spend that kind of money, for a misdemeanor. Is it any wonder why the city is in trouble at the capitol. Craig Miller Rogers [EMAIL PROTECTED] Today I was in criminal court charged with a misdemeanor. The crime? A tenant who rents a house from me took down the rear fence (without my permission) so he could work on his car close to the house. I was charged criminally for this even though my property manager sent to the housing inspector, Sarah Maxwell, the name and phone number of this tenant. She refused to send the order directly to the tenant and instead ticketed me personally. The Housing Maintenance code says in 5 different areas to send the orders to the proper and responsible party. Obviously this is the tenant. To make a long story short, after 3 Court appearances, at the beginning of the trial, I made a motion before the judge to dismiss. I had to research the ordinances thoroughly and I found a technicality to beat them. The judge dismissed the case. Here is the bottom line. The City had 3 City attorneys and the housing inspector there prepared to take me to the woodshed for my heinous crime. They were prepared to spend a half a day to prosecute this case. Do you think this is a good way for the City to spend its time and scarce resources??? Steve Meldahl TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
RE: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
Steve, I had a similar -- only more depressing story. On 21-Dec-01 a city inspector mailed a letter to me demanding that I deal with my tenants car. The vehicle was a quality, running car and parked legally in the driveway. The complaint was because the tabs had expired -- the inspector considered it a nuisance. It was a summer car for my tenant so she had let the tabs go. The letter demanded that I eliminate the problem by 26-Dec-01. Lets see, that gave me the following days to solve the problem: 21-Dec-01 Friday (the day it was mailed) 22-Dec-01 Saturday 23-Dec-01 Sunday 24-Dec-01 Monday (Christmas eve) 25-Dec-01 Tuesday (Christmas Day) 26-Dec-01 Weds (Due date) As should be expected on a holiday week, I was out of town. I did not get the letter until I returned after New Years. I was too late as the car was gone and my tenant was furious. She did not have the title transferred into her name and was never able to get the car out of the impound lot. She essentially gave away a $4000 working car. I appealed the complaint based on the fact that the city did not give me the required 3 working days to rectify the problem. They denied my complaint saying I had Friday, Monday and Weds. The day they mailed it, Christmas eve and the day it was due. Amazing on so many levels. During the hearing, I complained that this was the most insensitive group of people I have ever met. Since that incident I asked the city to mail the letters to my PO box as that is checked daily by myself or a staff member. They refused saying they must mail notices to a residence (a business address is not even acceptable to our city inspectors!). Guess I have to give an employee of mine keys to my own home solely because of the city of Mpls (St. Paul uses my PO Box!). How many city employees have keys to RT's personal home? I agree with you. Tenants would be BETTER OFF if the city notified them directly. If anyone wants more information on my story, I would GLADLY provide you with all of the paperwork. I kept it all. Regards, Bill Cullen. Hopkins (I own a business in Uptown) At the end of 2001, I was sent a letter by a housing inspect -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of steven meldahl Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 5:06 PM To: Lisa McDonald; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council I just think that the City should do what we expect them to do. In other words, don't waste taxpayer money or time. Let me give you a quick example. Today I was in criminal court charged with a misdemeanor. The crime? A tenant who rents a house from me took down the rear fence (without my permission) so he could work on his car close to the house. I was charged criminally for this even though my property manager sent to the housing inspector, Sarah Maxwell, the name and phone number of this tenant. She refused to send the order directly to the tenant and instead ticketed me personally. The Housing Maintenance code says in 5 different areas to send the orders to the proper and responsible party. Obviously this is the tenant. To make a long story short, after 3 Court appearances, at the beginning of the trial, I made a motion before the judge to dismiss. I had to research the ordinances thoroughly and I found a technicality to beat them. The judge dismissed the case. Here is the bottom line. The City had 3 City attorneys and the housing inspector there prepared to take me to the woodshed for my heinous crime. They were prepared to spend a half a day to prosecute this case. Do you think this is a good way for the City to spend its time and scarce resources??? Steve Meldahl Jordan (work) - Original Message - From: Lisa McDonald [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 4:15 PM Subject: Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council I guess I'm wondering why we're not hearing about cuts in finance, inspections, the Civil Rights Department (a totally duplicative function that the state currently has),ITS and a shift in CDBG from small grant programs to funding certain public service functions in targeted neighborhoods (trust me this can be done and has been done in the past). Why is it the cuts are mostly in fire, police and public works (which has been cut so much in the last eight years they squeak). Is this a political ploy since they think this will make citizens complain to the state or is it just the easiest cuts to make. Also how come this administration (which bills itself as throwing the doors open at City Hall hasn't had any public hearings on what the citizens would like to see cut. The School Board has done an excellent job of surveying their constitutents, on just this point, in their last two budget cuts. Lisa McDonald East Harriet From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Cutting size
Re: [Mpls] Cutting size of the City Council
I guess I'm wondering why we're not hearing about cuts in finance, inspections, the Civil Rights Department (a totally duplicative function that the state currently has),ITS and a shift in CDBG from small grant programs to funding certain public service functions in targeted neighborhoods (trust me this can be done and has been done in the past). I thought ITS had been outsourced to Unisys? --Charles Gimon Waite Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
