Burnsville continues to struggle with its unbalanced budget. Tonight I watched the Burnsville City Council Work Session which was a long and boring affair. Nothing was terribly surprising except for a few points mentioned below:
1. Dan Gustafson more or less accused Mary Sherry of hating children.
Yes, the Dan Gustafson who decided to curse on live public access TV which may have been actively watched by Burnsville residents and their children, had a heated argument with Mary Sherry where he told her that she did not value Burnsville’s children. The argument was over reports from Burnsville citizens that she has spoken to who don’t believe that the skating rinks need to be maintained because they aren’t being used. Dan Gustafson claimed (in defiance of Mary Sherry’s own account to the contrary) that the neighborhood park in the Vista View neighborhood was used all the time.
Dan, if you really do value the children of Burnsville please do everyone a huge favor and shut the fuck up. From now on don’t vote, don’t speak, and for fuck’s sake, don’t run in the next election. That will be the best thing you can do for Burnsville’s children so that they aren’t exposed to your ridiculous council meeting behavior.
2. The Burnsville staff members suggested eliminating the use of a courier to deliver agenda packets to City Council members and Planning Commission members. Instead these members will have to receive their packets by PDF (via e-mail) or printed copies will have to be picked up by the members in person.
Yes people, even in 2009, Burnsville is wasting money not only on printing unnecessary pages on paper but paying a courier service to deliver them! While the City Council agreed that they could pick them up in person or get them via e-mail in the future, I just can’t understand why it took until 2009 for this cutback to even be discussed. This is very similar to how it took until gas hit $4/gallon for Eagan to cut back many of its services to conserve fuel.
Unreal!
3. Prior to the meeting City Manager Craig Ebeling asked that he not receive a salary increase for 2009. By not accepting a 2009 raise he won’t receive more than his outrageous $134,550 salary already costs the city. If you remember, the Burnsville City Council asked the unions to rollback salaries to 2008 levels to save jobs, a move which the unions selfishly ignored.
While the unions are being stupid and shooting themselves in the foot for future negotiations, Ebeling gets much praise from the Burnsville City Council in the local press for “leading by example” but for what? Forgoing a raise in 2009? If that doesn’t seem half-assed than I don’t know what does. Let’s recap: the City Council asks union employees to roll back to 2008 levels but then is thrilled when someone leads by example and decides not to get a raise in 2009? Have they forgotten to drop his salary back to $130,000 where it was in 2008 prior to his 3.5% increase then (Word DOC warning)? Would the City Council have told him he wasn’t going to get a raise in 2009 if he hadn’t asked for it? I certainly hope so. In fact, I expected that after the City Council made the decree that all the union employees be rolled back to 2008 salary levels that the City Staff would do that for the rest of the non-union employees yet tonight they suggested only keeping them at current 2009 levels and holding them steady through 2010. Another sad state of affairs.
What do you think about the choices that the Burnsville City Council and City Staff made? Do you think that it’s fair for them to only freeze wages at current levels after asking the unions to roll back to 2008? Do you think that Dan Gustafson’s argument that Mary Sherry hates children was appropriate? Whatever you think about tonight’s City Council Work Session, go ahead and comment on as I’m interested in hearing what you have to say!
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May 26th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Is this the same Dan Gustafson who swears on live and rebroadcasted city council meetings, and says that the Burnsville Crystal Lake Beach Park is not safe for children yet does nothing to address these child safety concerns he has about Crystal Lake Beach Park?
May 26th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Was it just me or was it really embarrasing that the 4 members of the Burnsville City Council and Mayor spent more time complaining and arguing about 16″ – $44 or 19″ -$91 hanging flower baskets in the HOC than they spent on any single position elimination? Do you think that any of these council members or the Mayor took a single minute to think about how rediculous this meeting is to one of the police, fire or city staff who’s job is going to be gone in the months ahead to watch this circus and arguement over flowers? When the subject of positions being eliminted are raised, they simply just approved the cut and moved on. I will give Dan K. credit for saying that he would rather rehire an employee than send the remaining employees back to college where the city pays for their classes. If the employment situation continues as it is today, the city should be able to get someone with a Masters degree, not requiring further education, to fill any opening requiring an assocites degree. If you have to send employees back to college did you not hire the right person with the appropriate level of education for their role? Fewer and few companies are sending employees back to school on their dime, and if they do you are making a commitment to the company for several years, and if you quit, you repay the company for the education.
May 27th, 2009 at 8:34 am
“The Burnsville staff members suggested eliminating the use of a courier to deliver agenda packets to City Council members and Planning Commission members.”
My prediction: The staff member(s) that came up with this idea will be one of the first to be let go when the budget axe falls. (With pink slip arriving via courier).
May 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am
It wasn’t a surprise for me thus why I didn’t bother to mention it. Of course they’re going to waste all that time arguing about the mayor’s backyard. Charlie hates that fucking thing and takes every chance he can get to make shots at it and the mayor wants to protect her $285,000 beautification while only paying in $90,000 of it with the rest of her cronies.