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"I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR …"
On January 9th, 2003, Mayor Jerry Bohn, Mary Hershberger Thun, and Terry Bishop were sworn in as new members of the Victoria City Council. Their oath of office declared: "I do solemnly swear of affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and that I will discharge faithfully the duties of my office in the City of Victoria in the County of Carver, the State of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability." Other 2003 city councilmembers include Dave Lindgren and Richard Tieden.
MAKING THE ANNUAL APPOINTMENTS
AT FIRST COUNCIIL MEETING OF THE NEW YEAR
The following annual appointments and assignments were made at the first official council meeting of the year on January 9th ...
Dave Lindgren, Acting Mayor; Jerry Bohn and Richard Tieden, Personnel Committee; Jerry Bohn, Fire Relief Ex-Officio member; Terry Bishop, Planning Commission Ex-Officio member; Mary Thun, Park & Rec Committee Ex-Officio member; Steve McDonald of Abdo, Abdo, Eick & Meyers, Auditor; Laurie Miller of Fredrikson & Byron, City Attorney; Jack Griffin of TKDA, City Engineer; Springsted, Financial Consul-tant; Northland Securities (Juran and Moody), Bond Consultant; David Drown & Associates, TIF; Gary Sohns, Fire Chief; Tim Walsh, Ass't Chief and Fire Marshall; Chan Villager, Official News-paper; Salomon Smith Barney, Security Bank of Waconia, Victoria State Bank, Northland Securities, Municipal Money Fund and Dan Rausscher, official deposi-tories.
In order to be declared the "official" city newspaper, the newspaper must be published on a weekly basis to accommo-date rules for legal notices, regardless the number of residents who receive it.
Residents interested in serving the Lake Minnetonka Communications Com-mission are asked to call city offices.
VICTORIA POSITIONED QUITE WELL
TO WITHSTAND STATE BUDGET SHORTFALLS
Mayor Jerry Bohn reported that he and City Administrator Steve Sarvi at-tended a Minnesota Legislate Update and heard about the state budget.
"It's the same message for everyone," said Jerry. "Cities will have to be part of the solution. Cities make up 10% of the state budget .. They want city spending to go down, and county too, as well as state spending ... Some cities get as much or more than they levy."
Stated Administrator Sarvi, "There were a lot of long faces. But Victoria runs a fairly lean ship. This provides us a way of looking again at how we provide ser-vices."
Mayor Bohn identified three types of state funding to cities:
*Local Government Aid [LGA]. Vic-toria doesn't get much of this because the city basically has higher valued homes and newer homes.
*Fiscal Disparities. Victoria has about $103,000 of this category from the state in its city budget. Its purpose is to "level the playing field" between rural and urban, and large and small cities with varying degrees of industrial tax base, for example.
*Homestead Credit. Victoria gets about $80,000 in state homestead credit.
In other words, Victoria could lose $180,000 in a worst case scenario of state budget cuts. City Finance Jylan Johnson pointed out, "That's about 10% of our tax levy."
Administrator Sarvi pointed out the city also receives some fire aid, insurance aid, and police aid. There was general agreement, however, that Victoria is posi-tioned quite well.
Councilmember Richard Tieden said, "There is the actual threat of some cities falling apart. That's not our situation. We should not be in an alarmist state."
VICTORIA HIRES SECOND PLANNER, LINNDA KRAUSE
Krause of Minneapolis to a full time planner's position in the City of Victoria. According to Mark Kaltsas, who is now titled Planning and Economic Develop-ment Director, the new hire has a Master's Degree in Urban Planning.
Mark reported the city received ap-proximately 45 resumes and applications that were narrowed down to four applicant interviews, and two re-interviews which resulted in the recommendation to hire Lisa Krause. She officially becomes the Victoria City Planner on Feb. 11th.
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