"With wards, you have to redo them after each census since they're drawn based on population.  With precincts, you don't," said the auditor.  "You have to look at the city's physical features to divide into either wards or precincts.  You look at your roads or your streams."
He reminded councilmembers that Victoria also has three school districts within its boundaries, which must be taken into consideration when school board elections and issues are on the various ballots.
"A polling place has to be located in a precinct or ward or at least within 3,000 feet," he said.  Wards need to be compact; they can't be horseshoes in shape, for example.  In Minnesota there are 700 cities with only precincts and 100 cities with wards.  "Precincts are more flexible," he commented.  "It's older cities that have wards."
Asked Councilmember Richard Tied-en, "What's the price we'd be paying for this?"
Mr. Lundgren replied there is a cost in political potential, but there's really very little actual cost because you need the voting machines anyway, to serve the people.  A voting machine, the one that does the counting and validating of each ballot, costs approximately $6,000.  Each of the two Victoria polling places would require one of these voting machines.
He said because of the long voting lines in Victoria at the Village Hall, which is the only current polling place, council inaction could disenfranchise voters.  "I encourage you to do this, either precincts or wards.  I encourage you to have two polling places," said Mr. Lundgren.  "Your major expense would be the election machines.  Getting enough elec-tion judges is another factor.  We trained fourteen for you for the last election."
"You're lucky that your initial annex-ation of Laketown Township is only 40 to 50 people," he said.  "In terms of making a switch, this is a good time for you."  But he added that the annexation of largely undeveloped property could mean a lack of large or adequate polling places that might be available.
Some sites mentioned include the new Victoria Field House, the Christ Victorious Lutheran Church, and, down the road, the new St. Victoria Catholic Church.
Stated Mayor Jerry Bohn, "We're a pretty homogenous community.  We could probably go to precincts because it's easier, and then go to wards later if the people want that."
After Victoria councilmembers make a decision as to where to draw the divid-ing line for the two precincts, the County Auditor's Office will help get Postal Veri-fication Cards to every Victoria resident, identifying their particular polling loca-tion.  The last day to mail such notices is August 20th.  Primary Election Day is September 14th.
"I'm very proud of my staff," said Auditor Lundgren.  "We had 40,000 ballots to review in the last election and we were not off one ballot."

COUNTING BEANS IS A LOT OF WORK
WITH VERY LITTLE IMMEDIATE BENEFIT
A draft of the city's 2003 Year-End Audit was reviewed with Victoria coun-cilmembers on March 25th.  Steve McDonald of Abdo Eick and Meyers, LLC, the city's auditor, pointed out the financial highlights.
"There were 29 accounting entries, which is more than last year, which is good," said the accountant.  "This helps to keep accounting costs down.  An audit is supposed to ask what the information is, not provide it.  We do everything we can to take a step back so that we're not auditing ourselves.  It helps the city to take more responsibility for the account-ing entries.  We got in and out of here in a week."
He said that the general fund balance of $486,000 is 20% to 25% of anticipated expenditures, and that the City of Victoria still has an A3 bond rating, "an indication they're looking at a consistent fund bal-ance."  He said that state legislators pay attention to a city's fund balance so they know where to go when they want to make cuts.
"The big things for cities now are infrastructure records and capital assets records," he said.  "Capitalizing all assets will mean significant changes and costs.  We have no choice."  The types of assets that cities will be required to capitalize include its roads and right of ways.
Mayor Jerry Bohn asked about the point of a city showing appreciation or depreciation of its capital assets, since a governmental unit does not pay taxes. 
Replied Mr. McDonald, "My under-standing is that there was old, old infra-structure out on the west coast and it needed to be replaced but there was no way to pay for it.  That's how this got started.  It's a lot of work and not a lot of immediate benefit.  It's an evolution of process."
Victoria councilmembers accepted the draft audit and hope to accept the final draft in April.

MN LEGISLATURE SPEAKS TO CITIES
FEES MUST ALWAYS BE RELATED TO NEED
City Attorney Mike Norton reported that a new bill being proposed before the MN State Legislature could be problema-tic for the city.

"This new legislation would impose a new standard, a much more rigid standard, in setting fees," he said.  The city would have to show a specific need and how it specifically correlates to the amount of the fee.  And the fees could not be changed except upon a 180-day notice.
Said Attorney Norton, "Developers could challenge your fees so there is a potential for litigation."
Parkland dedications would also have to come under the direct and necessary standard.  "This is a significant change in how cities do business," he said
According to City Planner/Acting Administrator Mark Kaltsas, "The city already has to show a nexus and propor-tionality between the fees collected and the need of the community for the land."

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