City wonít pay bills until finances in order

Posted 2/28/01

City wonít pay bills until finances in order

By Danielle Strenke

At its meeting Wednesday, Feb. 21, the Harris City Council put a temporary hold on paying any bills pertaining to the city. When asked about the cityís financial situation, the only comment from the council and Mayor Richard Hanson was the city is not paying any bills until the finances can be put in order. The council then set a special closed meeting for Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 3 p.m. to discuss a personnel issue. The cityís attorney, Barry Blomquist, will be present at the meeting, as required by law for any closed meeting.

The city has been dealing with several financial discrepancies and problems with certain financial practices since last year, when an audit by Tautges Redpath revealed questions about some city checks, chosen randomly for audit by the firm. After the audit report, the city accepted the resignation of the city clerk, and has since hired the firm to continue auditing city books back to 1998.

Fire Chief John Pelant asked whether it was necessary to have an audit of the fire departmentís finances as well. ěThey said we didnít need another audit at this time because we only wrote one check,î Pelant said.

The council told him it most likely did not cost that much to have the audit done, and the original $600 for the audit on Tautges Redpathís statement was an estimate only.

ěThat was just an estimate, because a lot of fire departmentís have more going on, like selling pull tabs, etc.,î Councilor Lyle Holmstrom said.

Tautges Redpath had sent a letter to the city requesting to remain as the cityís auditing firm. ěThey say they didnít charge us full fees for these last audits, and I think theyíre doing a good job,î Mayor Hanson said. The council members agreed.
ěTheyíre the ones who found the information, and they know what theyíre looking for,î Councilor Dan Walton said.

A question about building fund dollars was presented at the last council meeting, asking why the fund balance for the account was around $13,000 when previous statements showed it at around $46,000. Pelant told the council the decrease could have been due to payment on the fire departmentís tanker and tank work, which totaled around $30,000, and the money was probably taken out of the building fund to pay for the equipment and repairs.

The meeting last week was held on Wednesday due to Monday being a holiday.

In a report that night from Steve Thatcher of Thatcher Engineering, the council was informed of possible costs to new businesses near I-35 for being connected to city sewer and water. Thatcher told the group he had come up with a formula for projecting the costs to commercial property owners surrounding the freeway interchange.

He said the current owner of land on the northwest side of the freeway is looking for a buyer to possibly put in a gas station/convenience store. Another store is also planned for the southeast side of the freeway.

Mayor Hanson was concerned about that type of business coming into that area. ěThey have a problem with extreme sensitivity to contamination in that area, so that makes gas stations a little tricky,î he said. ěWould there be a contingency fund, if something happened as far as contamination or runoff,î Councilor David Christianson asked. Thatcher said he assumed the city would want to negotiate such a fee on an individual basis with each commercial developer.

Amy Washenberger with EnComm, the contractor responsible for installing the new water meters throughout the city, was also on hand. Thatcher told the council that the city needed a total of 122 meters, which was five more than had been on the original order. He confirmed with Washenberger that meters had yet to be installed on nine homes. She said the subcontractor putting in the meters had made two or three separate appointments with property owners to have the meters installed. ěThey need to be home when he comes, and for some reason, they werenít,î she said. ěI donít know what else to do but try a fourth time.î

Most of the water meters were installed last year in Harris, and the
remaining nine were supposed to have been sent letters warning them of possible interruption in service if they could not be there to have the meters installed. ěWe need to send them out a certified letter, set a date two weeks in advance, and if the plumbers get there and the people arenít home, shut off the water,î Walton said. Thatcher said one of the meters could not be installed until spring, but the others could be done now.

Mark Vahlsing, with the Chisago County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, requested that the council look at recommitting money that was pledged through the countyís Business Enterprise program. The city had made a $50,000 pledge in 1994. This money is deposited in the bank, until it is needed by the county. The county uses the money to loan to new businesses, and is able to offer it at a lower interest rate, which in turns means the city is earning only about half of the current interest rate on that money.

Vahlsing said that more than 20 loans have been distributed through the county-wide program, assisting businesses in the area such as in Rush City, North Branch, Wyoming, and Stacy. The main goal, he said, is to keep the money as local as possible. ěThey arenít being used by retail businesses; these are given to manufacturing companies mostly,î Vahlsing said. He said along with the loan, the businesses need to guarantee that one new job will be created for every $15,000-$20,000 of loan money within the first two years of the loan. The council will consider its pledge at an upcoming meeting.

In other business, the council:

-Will consider approving the cityís new subdivision ordinance at its next meeting.