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I was traveling far too much in March. In March I attended the Rochester Day at the Capital, National League of Cities, Nation Bike Summit, and a Young Elected Officials Network Meeting. For the first time since 2008, by business suffered a losing month, so I really don’t like traveling that much. It is good to be home. I did meet a number of interesting people who inspired some new ideas.  In between the events I got to spend some family time in the nations capital.

As always I am posting my expense reports as a sign of transparency that I started in 2009. Here is my travel policy again for those that missed it in the past. 1) Treat the dollars like my own, that’s why I stay in building that are under construction, the Super 8 in PHX, or in B&Bs with a shared bath. 2) I return about $13,000 annually in entitled benefits to the city of Rochester and always keep travel expenses to less than that. 3) I try new things, but hate wasting time because every time I travel, I lose business income.

Here are the latest updates:

Personal Expense 032412 (NBS)

Personal Expense 032412 (YEO)

Personal Expense 031712 (NLC)

Personal Expense 031512

Personal Expense 020112

Personal Expense Invoice 111511

I was excited to learn today that I was appointed to the National League of Cities Community and Economic Development (CED) Steering Committee.  In 2011, I served on the policy committee, but the steering committee will allow me to provide more input into policies for doing community and economic development the right way.  As always I will focus on sustainable mixed use, mixed income, high quality development.

Here is the note:

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I found a new website where I will be burning innumerable amounts of time.

Here is the press release for the new institute.

Since 2009 NLC’s work on sustainability – including topical guides, case studies, and a national survey – has been largely supported through THDF as NLC’s official Sustainability Partner. The transition of SCI to NLC will build upon this existing partnership and further enhance the range of resources and opportunities available through NLC to support local government leaders and staff meet their sustainability goals.

Here is the direct link to the website: http://www.sustainablecitiesinstitute.org/view/page.home/home

Another area where we are a national model.  Active living is one of the best ways we be a world class community in a future with a much older population.

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From the National League of Cities:

Washington, DC – The National League of Cities issued the following statement in response to Standard & Poor’s statement on municipal credit ratings: Read the rest of this entry »

I have been getting this question often and the answer is always evolving.  Here is the latest.

Question: What in Rochester is affected by a state shutdown?

Answer:

• July LGA biannual payment may not be made on time. LMC.org
• Here is a pretty complete list courtesy of the League of Minnesota Cities.
• Per Library Staff: Workforce development functions at the Public Library will cease.
• Per Public Works: Zumbro River Dredging project that we had intended to start in mid to late July, is a victim of the State Shutdown.   Corey Hanson, Mn DNR, called and told us we cannot work in the “Public Waters” during the shutdown.

I’ll update these as I hear more.

Here is some more good work being done by the National League of Cities.

What I particularly like about this statement is that they specifically equate sprawl to higher taxes, which is seldom discussed, but absolutely true. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t write much about Federal issues, but as we saw last week their budget decisions do effect us.  The linked video is something that I think everybody should see.

I wanted to share with you a video of one of the seminars at the recent NLC Conference in Washington DC.  Erskine Bowles (Clinton Chief of Staff) was one of the leaders along with Sen. Alan Simpson (R – Wyoming) who worked to come up with recommendations for deficit reduction.  Mark Bilderback and I really liked this speech.

Here is a link to the video. Read the rest of this entry »

I am still waiting to see how the budget compromise will affect Rochester, but here is a high level summary of where the funding levels will fall.  Read the rest of this entry »

Young Elected Officials Article on Implementing Complete Streets for Elected Officials.  This is a national organization which I belong to.  A shout out to Mitzi Baker who helped make this happen.