Big issues tonight:
Green Step program defeated; AGAIN. Why do we need to join a group with a number of “recommendations” which are supposedly voluntary, to take the actions we decide are worthwhile? Less government is always preferable to more government, unless you’re John Letourneau. Bad options are on the list and could become recommendations, then mandates. We don’t need it.
The Fire Department JPA (joint powers agreement) almost died a long overdue death.
I thought the Ramsey fire chief was going to cry tonight. He started stuttering and shaking his copy of the JPA study (hired consultants said was a bad deal for for Ramsey) when 4 of the 5 council members present said they saw no reason to continue trying to figure out how to join the fire departments of Bethel, St. Francis and Ramsey into one, and almost voted to kill the boondoggle. Later, someone told me about the chief double dipping from both Ramsey and St. Francis….no wonder he wants the JPA. The major problem with the JPA is that the other cities’ fire departments don’t have the great benefits and pension program that Ramsey does, and for some reason, if this JPA goes into effect, they want what our firefighters have, AND expect Ramsey to fund it based on the proportion of residents each city has. Isn’t that nice? The only person present who supported this, is, as usual, the worst council member, John LeTourneau. “We’ve spent this much, so we need to keep throwing good money after bad”.
The city maintenance manager’s presentation about how the city tracks it’s plows in the winter, provided the perfect solution to track the fire chief’s whereabouts when he claims he’s working for St. Francis “on his own time.” The maintenance dept. bought a bunch of GPS devices which report their position as often as programmed, down to 5 min. to keep track of the plows. Put one in the chief’s vehicle. Problem solved.
Reflections in Ramsey 