Charlie Nelson spending issues, Special Meeting Billing

9/9/10

For Montrose City Council we have former mayor Charlie [Charlie Nelson] running among the other candidates.  Charlie brought bigger government and helped create a very generous benefits/pay program.

-There was the new City Hall issue, a $2.5 million City Hall that they said at one point wouldn't raise taxes though I heard they changed their stance on that [for a 18,000 square foot building for 5-6 staff, Sharon Knodel says they own the plans which they spent around $118,000 on, Charlie Nelson was on the City Hall Committee  See also: Public Works Raises to City Clerks, City Hall Scandal ].

-They did a huge AUAR (Alternative Urban Areawide Review) that was gross in size (covered 7,000 acres) and very expensive ($250,000) [supposedly will be paid for by a per acre development fee Sharon Knodel, Charlie Nelson says it saves money but the Final Draft was approved in May 2009 long after development had dried up and most if not all of the deficit for this study is still on the books].  A couple of cities with populations 4-6x larger did about 550 acres.

Click for larger images
2011

2007:

 

-[Most of the deficits for the AUAR, City Hall, Intersection Study, and Safe Routes to School capital project funds have been around since 2007 when Charlie Nelson was the Mayor.]

-There were also very large pay increases right before he left office [on 12/8/08: 1 18.5%, 2 10-11%, and 1 6.5% total for the year (Sharon Knodel, Charlie Nelson, others 2008), and were these employees 2ND RAISE THAT YEAR which was after the economy collapsed. The other increases during 2008 to the other 5 employees: 6.9% Public Works Director, 5.4% City Administrator, 5.1% Deputy Clerk, 5.5%, and 4.8% 8% Average]
-[140% increase the City Clerk managed to get from about 1998 to 2008. Pay as of 2010 is $40.06.

-2012 Charlie Nelson says in his campaign for mayor that for 3 years running they have asked for no raise in pay.
*August 2010 all employees got a 3% increase.  They did not get one in 2009.
*April 2011 it was recommended by the City Administrator and Public Works Director that the employees get a 2% increase.  For some reason this was tabled until they got the Comparable Worth Report from the state.
*July 2011 Union Negotiations started for City Administrator, Deputy Clerk, and Public Works Director.
*February 2012 received Comparable Worth Report from the state.
*May 2012 raises were given to 3 employees, in the report from City Administrator Barb Swanson raises were NOT recommended for the other 2 employees. The other 3 employees are supervisory employees and are in Union negotiations.]


Special Meeting Billing
About Mayor Andy and his billing of special meetings, when I reviewed the data about the "City Council Direction or Authorization" which per City Ordinance would allow him to bill for all the "special" meetings he attended, some were noted as Annual Appointment or Legal Requirements; though about 55% of them were noted as "Precedence" for the 4 month period I reviewed.  These meeting included up to 4 staff meetings a month, League of MN Cities meetings, and Mayor Association meetings.

Shortly after this request for direction or authorization, Special Meeting attendance approval was placed on the Consent Agenda with NO DATA provided!  The consent agenda usually doesn't have discussion and is passed as a whole unless a council member requests something to be removed for discussion during the meeting, which did occur here.  The council said they didn't want to have to approve every meeting but would just like a report of meetings each month.

Regarding the Consent Agenda in the above paragraph, too often items are approved w/o much discussion by the council that could then be easily interpreted in different ways later, in ways that would be in their favor, another example is the Personnel Policy.