According to this blog post, Senator Chris Gerlach (Apple Valley) attempted to get the voting laws changed in the state to avoid people from registering to vote without proving their residency. He believed that by asking newly registered voters to vote and then come back with proof of their residency at a later time was, “the kind of balance we need.”

I must admit that I was pretty surprised when I moved to Minnesota that I would be able to vote almost right away. I was even more surprised when I found out that it was easy as going to my polling place, registering, and then voting. I have to say that we definitely make it easy for people to get their vote heard but the longer I live here the more I believe this to be important to the political system. I realize that many others may completely disagree (as Senator Chris Gerlach seems to) but I haven’t heard any truly good reason why except for a bunch of unfounded claims of fraud.

So, what about you? Do you believe that a change needs to take place? Do you believe that Senator Gerlach’s suggested solution was one that would have worked and struck the “balance” he said it did? Whatever you think about the voter registration system and its issues in the great State of Minnesota go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I recently had a talk with an Apple Valley resident who is concerned that the pricing structure for the new Apple Valley Hayes Community and Senior Center is cost prohibitive and keeping the $4.5+ million facility from being used by the groups who used to depend on it for regular meeting space. Promising that I would take a look into this, I contacted the city and requested the reservation data for the old center and the new and took the time to compare. The results, to put it mildly, were absolutely unbelievable.

Let’s take a quick step back from this and give those of you unfamiliar with the Apple Valley Hayes Community and Senior Center a refresher course on the facility. A couple of years ago Apple Valley residents faithfully passed a $14+ million park bond referendum of which ~$4.5 million was set aside to build an updated green senior center which may not have been necessary in the first place. Rumor had it that the seniors were promised this building so that they would back the referendum. After it was built and ready to open, a discussion occurred at an Apple Valley City Council meeting which was to determine the official name for the facility. Eventually, it was decided by a majority of the Apple Valley City Council that it would be best to name it the Hayes Community and Senior Center rather than the Apple Valley Senior Center as was preferred by the seniors of the community and the Parks and Rec Department committee. The reasons for this specific naming convention was because the Apple Valley City Councilmembers felt it would be used by more people and groups if it did not have the stigma or a name that might confuse the public as to what it first and foremost was meant to be–at least to them–a community center.

Fast forward to March 2010 and your faithful author sifting through 102 pages of printed documentation trying to ascertain if the assertions of a concerned citizen were true. Was it really possible that this $4.5 million dollar facility, named specifically to attract more community involvement, was not doing anything of the sort? To put it simply: yup.

Methodology:

1. I requested reservation information for 2007 to current. (part of 2008 and 2009 do not exist due to construction).

2. Any apparent non-Apple Valley city sponsored event counts as one event for the day (regardless of how many rooms they were booked for). Multiple days are multiple events even if for the same group.

3. This was done by making tick marks by hand (since I was not provided with electronic information) so there is a great possibility that my numbers are not 100% accurate but you will see why this is of little concern to me.

4. I ran out of time (their offices close at 4:30) and while they offered for me to come back and look at the rest of the data at a later time, I decided I had plenty of information and decided to forgo a another hour+ at city hall.

Results:

With rooms not requiring any money for non-profits, there were a total of 327 events at the Apple Valley Senior Center between June 2007 and December of 2007 with the location averaging ~25 events a month during the summer and ~63 during the fall. Groups using the facility at that time ranged from Scouting groups to a HAM radio club.

Once the facility reopened to the public in June of 2009 the price went up from free to $20/hr, even for non-profits. While there have been plenty of events for seniors taking place at the facility (I didn’t count them, see “Methodology” above), the Hayes Community and Senior Center has been basically vacant otherwise. Between July of 2009 (the first full month of event registrations provided) and February 2010 there were a total of 22 events hosted. Not per month, total. You know, in 8 months.

Where to go from here:

After speaking again with the concerned citizen and letting them know that the Hayes Community and Senior Center is not being utilized by anyone–presumably due to the high cost, I learned that their group is now renting space from the school district at $12/hr. Unfortunately the spaces provided by the district are not as regularly available and they have to bounce between locations. They miss having a spot to call their own. The spaces can be cavernous and are not conducive to the meetings they typically have. Basically they really want to utilize the city’s community and senior center, as they did in the past, and as such they’re willing to pay what they do to the district but not more than that.

My thoughts:

With so much time, effort, and unhappy seniors created by the decision to make the center marketable, you have to wonder why the Apple Valley City Council isn’t doing more to fix the issues created by this new cost structure. I’m really concerned that we’ve paid $4.5 million for a building that some argue we didn’t really need in the first place and now it’s doing the exact opposite of what the City Council believed it would do (the seniors are the ones using it and the community is not–the irony of the decision is not lost on me).

I think that the Apple Valley City Council should direct City Staff to lower the rates to become competitive with the district ($12/hr) and contact each and every group that used the old center and try to get them to come back and pay the new lower fees. At least this way the facility may have a better chance of being used and we won’t have paid for and then named a building that’s the complete opposite of its intended use. Right?

What do you think:

What are your thoughts on the issue? Do you agree that the city is charging too much money an hour for its rental rates? Would you rather the city do what it can to have it be utilized in the manner in which the City Council demanded by lowering the rental rates or would you prefer that it stay the same? How about suggestions on the best way for this concerned citizen, interested in affecting change, to go about getting the cost structure changed? Whatever you have to say about anything above go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

So as a follow-up to my post on Minnesota unnecessarily collecting and storing newborn DNA without requiring proper notification of statute, I met with my state senator, Chris Gerlach, on Wednesday at the Capitol. I have never met with a state-level official in an official capacity for matters like this (I was at the Pennsylvania capitol and met with the senate majority leader and governor for swimming related stuff) so I was really uninformed when it came to what would happen. Here is my impression of the whole experience:

1. I had to park in a pay lot which only accepts coins. This is 2010. People who still carry coins are over 50. It’s time to catch up and either do away with the fees altogether (we already paid for the lot) or make them take credit cards or at least dollar bills. Oh and 25 cents for 10 minutes is absolutely ridiculous. I had to walk to White Castle and buy three sliders in order to get enough change to pay to see my senator.

2. I walked in and found tons of people lined up waiting to talk to their various representatives. They were dressed oddly, such as t-shirts under open sport jackets. Me? I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. It appeared that many were staring at me like I was crazy. “What is he doing here without an entourage?!”

3. I went up to the desk and let them know that I was there to see Senator Gerlach and had an 11 AM appointment with him. I was asked who I was with. “No one,” was apparently an odd answer because I was asked again for clarification.

4. Just after 11 I was greeted by Senator Gerlach’s assistant who led me to his office and eventually to the senator. We shook hands and got down to business–or somewhat. A little too much small talk and smiles for me. My time is valuable–in other words the meter is running at .25/10 minutes.

5. After explaining the situation to him, which I half expected him to have a clue about being that Tara Mack was well informed about the topic when she called me and the fact that he has an assistant to prepare him for these meetings, I was asked by Senator Gerlach why I didn’t hook up with a group who was in support or against the bill…

6. I walked away from the meeting with the feeling that there was no way that this was going to change at least not because I took the time to come down and speak to the person that I have the ability to vote for. Honestly, I’m a bit disheartened by the whole thing.

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Now, I’m naive I know. I am not clued into how things work at the Capitol and I completely understand that. Unfortunately what I don’t understand is the whole “what group are you working with,” thing. I’m a citizen, shouldn’t I have just as much pull as one of those groups who are always trying to work some other slant? If you were to go downtown to talk with your elected representative would you expect them to at least have looked up the bill and skimmed it in advance so they’d have at least a vague idea of what you were talking about (just so you know, I do this for my work meetings–every day)?

Whatever you have to say about my experience in St. Paul go ahead and comment on as I’m interested in your own thoughts on it.