It seems the city council just can’t drop the cell phone ban (even though they already did). At the advice of our City Attorney Loophole David Fiddle-Faddle (who wasn’t present) he previously told council chair Anderson that the only thing the council could do is ask for an advisory vote, and if the majority voted in favor of the ban, it would go back to the council to approve the ordinance, which in turn is no different then what they were proposing to do anyway. I think it should be an initiative process and be citizen driven. Councilor Karsky seemed to be the only voice of reason on the council, pointing out that hands free or not, there is no difference in distraction. This is turning into a real cluster, and the one councilor who championed this to begin with was very quiet on the topic yesterday (Erpenbach, or as Mr. Ideals Anderson calls Michelle, ERF-EN-Bach.)
Anderson also pointed out during the monthly financial report that the platting fees and .08 tax collection for arterial roads had mysteriously disappeared from the reports. Probably they are tired of Anderson pointing out how much of a disastrous idea it was.
Councilor Jamison takes over as the school marm (since she was peepless) during the meeting and reminds director Kearney that the Indoor Pool is not being paid for with ‘cash’ but with paid back ‘borrowed money’ (levee repayment) and in the future he asked Don to refer to it that way. Don just mumbled a yes back to him.
But the shocker of the meeting was when a parking consultant arrived with all new parking fees, and mysteriously the director of parking, Q-Tip Smith, was not even in attendance to introduce them or answer questions.
Smart move Darrin.
Just a few years back the parking department bragged about being an enterprise fund that made the city so much money they could afford to buy scooters for the meter maids and gents and re-brand the whole system (look for the gold ‘P’). But all of sudden fast forward to the city’s largest budget ever and the mayor trying to grab from every cookie jar possible to pay for unneeded TIF’s and parking ramps for private businesses. While they are proposing to decrease some monthly rates in the ramps (to better fill them) they are proposing a large increase in parking meters (side streets from 60 cents to 75, and main roads from 75 cents to $1 per hour). Besides the fact that I find these hikes questionable since the system makes so much money (I think this is a back door plan to help pay for bonds on a new ramp for a private business) I have often said if we want to increase traffic downtown and promote it’s growth, we should make all ramps free and only charge at meters on main arterials (like Phillips and Main).
It will be interesting to see how the council plays this one out, and if director Smith decides to show up to answer questions.
l3wis