10/5/11
Mound's Council has disapproved a resolution that started in Shorewood. This resolution would have supported the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District as the agency responsible for AIS programs. See http://www.waconiapatriot.com/articles/2011/10/05/the_laker/news/news01.txt for the article in the Laker.
Long Lake and unconfirmed, Excelsior have approved the Shorewood resolution. Deephaven has deferred action on it.
The Insider shares the concerns of Mayor Hanus of Mound and the Mound Council about the MCWD's heavy handed operating methods as well as the limited geographic scope of authority the MCWD actually has.
The Insider observed the MCWD's handling of comments on new rules it proposed in 2010. If inadequate review time, and largely ignoring the strenuous objections of cities in the district is to be the operating mode for AIS management, the MCWD is not the agency to be responsible.
Readers should know that the MCWD levies its own property taxes. The MCWD Board is appointed by the Carver and Hennepin County Boards, but it really reports to nobody. Even the State has no operational control over what it does or the amount of taxes it levies. The Executive Director was overheard bragging that the tax base against which it levies property tax is huge and the MCWD could decide to make big tax increases to increase spending. As it is, the MCWD has staff in excess of 20 and even has its own public relations person on full-time staff. They just agreed to do a project in Hopkins which calls for purchasing about $15 million of property along Minnehaha Creek. These are our tax dollars and we have no say in how they're being spent (of course the MCWD would say they have public meetings on expenditures, but they can't be held to account for listening and their decisions).
So, Mound might be correct.
Happy reading!
The Insider
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