Victoria MN Newspaper-The Scoop at City Hall

Experience God in a personal way.

952-443-0062

SURVEY COMING FOR VICTORIA CITIZENS

TO HELP COUNCIL WITH STRATEGIC PLANNING

Council voted 5-0 on December 22nd to approve an expenditure of $12,400 for a customized citizen survey to be conducted by the National Research Center. The survey will be part of Strategic Planning

This was the direction Council had given City Manager Laurie Hokkanen to take back at the December 8th city council workshop. She had said, "There are a lot of ideas and goals that are circulating. The idea is to develop a process where we can deal with our daily tasks and yet plan for the future."

On December 22nd, Laurie presented a timeline for the citizen survey. She reported, "Survey materials would be mailed between February 17th and March 3rd with a final report in early May."

Several pages of a draft survey were included in the council packet. Stated Councilmember Jim Crowley, "We need to clarify the questions. It's important to know what people think. For example, what is the best use of the 13.5 acres? I'm looking for a stack range of priorities."

He did agree with Councilmember Tom Strigel, however, that the particular item of the 13.5 acres is big enough to stand alone and deserves a much more detailed approach.

Said Laurie, "I wrestled with that too. Do we try to get a temperature before we flush out a lot of detail?"

Said Councilmember Strigel, "It seems these questions are set for more of an urban audience. I want to make sure the information we receive is useful to us."

Said Councilmember Lani Basa, "It will be helpful to see the results especially as it compares to other cities across the nation."

Asked Mayor Tom O'Connor, "How do we wrestle this to the ground? I think it would be interesting for each of us to spend a half hour with Laurie to crystallize our ideas. We've got to make sure we've got the right questions. We need our data and national data to compare, to tell us how we're doing."

"I want to know if residents are happy with our services," said Councilmember Joe Pavelko. "Are they happy with the roads, the water, police, the essential services first, that people are happy with them." He said the nonessentials are secondary.

Councilmembers will email their own particular survey questions to the city manager and let her know if they'd like to meet with her. A Strategic Planning Session is scheduled for Saturday, January 31st, at City Hall.

A focus group of 15 to 20 people will also be held in January with Richard Furman as the moderator.

FINAL BUDGET AND LEVY ADOPTED

CITY OF VICTORIA TAXES RISE A BIT IN 2015

On December 8th, Council unanimously approved the final 2015 tax ley, the final 2015 city budget, and the five-year Capital Improvement Plan. As Finance Manager Kelly Grinnell said, "Tonight is the final step. We start the process in May or June of each year."

The final levy of $4,100,800 is lower than the preliminary levy adopted in September by $41,000. However, it is higher by $139,800 than the final levy adopted last year for 2014 ($3,961,000). The increase is 3.5%.

The final levy includes $2,856,000 for the General Fund (which is 2.5% higher than last year), $160,000 for the Recreation Center Fund (which is 1.9% lower than last year), and $1,084,800 to cover Debt Service (which is 3.5% higher than last year).

The final levy means city taxes in 2015 on a $227,000 home will be $704, which is $19 higher than last year. City taxes on a median valued home ($350,100) in 2015 will be $1,150 which is $24 higher than last year. City taxes on a $470,532 home in 2015 will be $1,572 which is $4 higher than last year. City taxes on a $682,260 home in 2015 will be $2,735 which is $212 higher than last year.

Council also adopted utility fund budgets for water (no rate increase), sewer (8% increase planned in 2015), stormwater (no rate increase).

Finally, Council adopted the five year (2015-2019) Capital Improvement Plan. Items planned for 2015 total $7,281,557.

Click here for more City Scoop.

The Victoria Fire Department

City of Victoria 952-443-2771

WATERBROOKE

Fellowship