Tag Archives: city council

West St. Paul City Council Recap: March 11, 2019

A relatively quick and uneventful city council meeting tonight in West St. Paul. Here’s the recap:

Food Drive

The South St. Paul vs. West St. Paul food drive beef continues, but it’s all in support of Neighbors Inc. Mayor Dave Napier taunted South St. Paul, saying he just picked up some Henry Sibley Warriors jerseys, ready for the South St. Paul city council to wear when they lose. You can get all the details at WSPFoodDrive.com.

A food local businesses are offering special incentives for bringing in donations, such as a free day pass from the YMCA. You can find the listing on the WSPFoodDrive site.

Survey Results

A survey was conducted at the recent West St. Paul Neighborhood Meetings, along with participation online, and the results are now available (the report also includes results from 2017 and 2018).

One of the most interesting (and obvious) results of the survey is the proportion of people who took it online and their corresponding ages. While the 65 and over crowd was easily the largest age range in all three in-person meetings, three younger age brackets them in the online survey. The online responses even beat the in-person responses in sheer numbers (158 responses online, 147 in person).

Council member Lisa Eng-Sarne encouraged residents to keep contacting the city council, noting that it’s never to late to give input.

Passing of Tom Hoban

Mayor Napier noted the passing Tom Hoban, former West St. Paul city manager (1972-1985) and city council member (1962-1966; 1968). Napier noted that Hoban had been his mentor (“we always met at Perkins”) and taught him how to bring people together.

The funeral is on Thursday, March 14 at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church. Napier noted that the city would prepare a proclamation at a future council meeting.

New Firefighters

Four new firefighters were welcomed to the South Metro Fire Department. Mayor Napier also gave a heartfelt thanks to retiring Fire Chief Mike Pott, who has served with South Metro (which was the WSP Fire Department before that) for 36 years.

Act on Alzheimer’s Team

Claudia Egelhoff from Act on Alzheimer’s gave a presentation about their group’s effort to help address dementia in West St. Paul. The group started in 2017 when a citizen approached Mayor Jenny Halverson. The community has rallied in response, with participation from nearly every major organization in the city.

  • There’s a brochure making the case for why businesses should care: “70% of people with dementia live at home and shop in their own community.”
  • The group has accomplished a lot in two years—including raising $2,500 for the Alzheimer’s Association, training 200 community members in West St. Paul, and sending 300 info packets to local businesses.
  • Here’s a list of dementia resources.

Winter Storms Having a Spring Impact

We had record snowfall in February, and we’re starting to see the impacts:

  • Council member John Justen encouraged residents to shovel out any blocked storm drains to alleviate the flooding that’s bound to come this week with rising temperatures and—that’s right—rain.
  • Council member Dick Vitelli noted that the city is nearly out of salt and will be using a mixture of sand and salt from here on out. So if you see a lot of sand out on the roads, that’s why.

Livingston Street Improvements

The city council awarded a bid for the reconstruction of Livingstone Avenue from Mendota to Wentworth. The bid came in nearly $1 million $550,000 lower than the estimate, so that’s some good news.

Temporary No Parking

At a recent city council meeting a resident suggested during citizen comments that the city should allow for temporary no parking zones. They gave the example of moving and needing to park a moving truck in front of their house and wanting to save that parking spot. Having dumpster delivered is another common example—what do you do if cars are parked in front of your house and there’s no where to put the dumpster?

The city had an ordinance to allow for that dumpster, but nothing to ensure that cars weren’t parking there when it was delivered.

The idea also expanded to allow for temporary parking for special events in areas where parking isn’t permitted.

Overall it’s good to see the city responding to citizen suggestions. Mayor Napier encouraged citizens to read over the new ordinance (plain English explanation and the actual ordinance) and give the council feedback. This was a first reading of the proposed ordinance. Next will be a second reading and a public hearing.

Women Confront West St. Paul City Council

Last night’s West St. Paul city council meeting was incredible. Women came out in droves and packed the city council chambers—bearing tampons—to protest sexism.

More than 150 residents showed up (is that a record for a West St. Paul city council meeting?) and citizen comments went on for an hour and a half as women berated the sitting council members, detailing stories of harassment, mistreatment and—at best—neglect.

The tensions spilled over after the overt sexism on display at the previous city council meeting on April 23, but as Mayor Jenny Halverson testified (and former council member Darlene Lewis, who served from 2005 to 2012, confirmed), sexism has been an ongoing problem.

The tampons were part of a Pad Drive where feminine hygiene products were donated to a local food shelf (and over $2,600 was raised online), after the mayor and another citizen were harassed.

Many of the woman dressed in green and wore buttons quoting Mayor Halverson, “This will not be forgotten, folks!” Continue reading Women Confront West St. Paul City Council

West St. Paul City Council: Sexism in Appointee Debate?

The West St. Paul City Council meeting on April 23, 2018 was a curious descent into misogyny and sexism. It can be a little hard to follow city council meetings if you’re not aware of the entire history and context. Sometimes it seems our elected officials rely on that fact. You can always watch the video yourself (11:51 in the council video), but I’m going to try to clarify some of what happened.

Here’s the short version: Mayor Jenny Halverson appointed three people to fill vacancies on the Planning Commission. City council has to approve those appointments. In the past, mayoral appointments have mostly been honored, though that hasn’t been the case for Mayor Halverson. Two of Halverson’s appointments were confirmed, and a third was rejected. Two of the council members who voted ‘no,’ (Ed Iago and John Bellows), argued back in 2015 that mayoral appointments need to be honored.

That honor seems to have disappeared in 2018, during the term of West St. Paul’s first ever female mayor, while considering female appointments.

So let’s look at what happened in more detail. Continue reading West St. Paul City Council: Sexism in Appointee Debate?

West St. Paul City Council Ward 3 Race: Dave Napier vs. John Ramsay

Update: Read my latest post about Dave Napier running for mayor in 2018.

The heated elections in West St. Paul continue. I already posted about the West St. Paul mayor election, and now I’m going to look at the West St. Paul City Council Ward 3 race. We have the incumbent city council member Dave Napier running against challenger John Ramsay (who also ran in 2014 and lost a close race).

Much like the West St. Paul mayor’s race, in city council we’re facing the same issues. I think it comes down to vision and investment vs. penny pinching.

You can read the Dakota County Chamber of Commerce candidate questionnaires and watch the public television candidate forum and meet the candidates (though it does not include John Ramsay). You can also get details from official sites for John Ramsay and Dave Napier.

Dave Napier has been on the council for four years and has been involved and advocating for strategic planning. In the candidate forum he talks about getting community input and then pursuing those goals.

John Ramsay talks about the importance of business to the exclusion of everything else. He campaigned hard against the Robert Street project in 2014, and continues to declare this necessary, vital project a fiasco. Continue reading West St. Paul City Council Ward 3 Race: Dave Napier vs. John Ramsay