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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

As many of you know I have a background in business finance and am particularly interested in finance issues.  You are also probably aware that the City of Rochester was directed by the FTA to have competitive bids to run OUR transit system (I refer to it as ours since we own the buses, streets, shelters, set the fares and routes, and have paid for most of everything for decades…).  You probably also know that I believe that we should have bid this competitively even if we weren’t required to.  Here are the financial results in 3 charts.  If you look at these 3 charts, I think you can see why competitive bidding is good for the city.

For a decade we saw double digit growth in expenses compared to less than 5% population growth + inflation.  The bid resulted in growth rates that are far better.  FT = First Transit

Edit:  Today I asked staff about this and part of what we need to look at is revenue hours for each year.  Staff is getting me that information and I will update.

Here are total expenses per the bids vs. what would happen if RCL had continued to grow at the same rate as the past 10 years.

Edit 2: The jump in 2012 is due to an adjustment in revenue hours (I think).  I will confirm.

Edit 3: I will update this chart to adjust for revenue hours when available.

This is the request for proposals to evaluate operations at the Mayo Civic Center.  We have a pretty good staff out there, but we also have a pretty old building in need of some repairs and rejuvenation.  It only makes sense as we move toward rehabbing and expanding the facility that we ensure our operations is the best it can be.  I personally have a few concerns, and I know there are community members with additional concerns.

Here is the entire Request For Proposal (RFP), unedited.  Not quite sure what a “pubically” owned civic and convention center is though…

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As always I believe in transparency, so here are my 2011 expense reimbursements Year-to-date.

Expenses 1

Expenses 2

Expenses 3

Expenses 4

Twice in the last month I have pursued tax records when I suspected that the city was providing services or empowering individuals that were negligent in their responsibilities to the city.  Both times I was proven correct.  Apparently I touched a nerve because because staff is actually suggesting that I not have the power to do this kind of investigation.  Is this right?  Maybe you should contact your elected officials…

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For 2011 I will be serving as chair of ROCOG (Rochester-Olmsted Council of Governments).  This working group includes representation from Rochester, Olmsted County, Smaller Communities in Olmsted County, Townships, the School District, and often has individuals from MNDOT and other organizations present. Read the rest of this entry »

The City lost a Supreme Court Decision.  Here is the note I received from City Attorney, Terry Adkins… Read the rest of this entry »

Updated 4/15 there is just so much to say…

Around the time that this report came out I volunteered to judge some 7th and 8th grade science fair projects.  This report failed to live up the that level of scientific validation.

I am going to post my questions and answers that I posed to consultant Glenn Dorfman, who wrote a report, “Development Services Redesign Report.”  This report was paid for by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, and the Bush Foundation.  I will add some summary points later, but because the council will be discussing this today I wanted to post the information now. Read the rest of this entry »

In accordance with my transparency obsession, here is the unedited video of our discussion on 65th street.  I have received requests for information from state and federal officials. The total video (2 parts) is about 16 minutes.

Part 1:

Part 2:

There are a number of questions that need to be answered before the city should commit taxpayer dollars to the 65th street interchange.  To date, city administration has failed to even have meaningful discussion with the City Council for as long as I have been on the council. Read the rest of this entry »