Residents voice opinions on spending ordinance

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 07:23 a.m., February 10, 2010

The idea of a spending ordinance isn’t new to Fergus Falls residents.

Almost 900 people signed a petition in December calling for a measure to be implemented that would give residents a say in how elective projects proposed within the city would be financed.

Many have read numerous stories in The Daily Journal as the ordinance has progressed through city council debate. Many others have watched the council proceedings on public access television. Some have even attended city council meetings in person.

Tuesday night was time for those residents to be heard.

About 70 people turned out at Legacy Hall Tuesday night for a public hearing on the proposed spending ordinance and for two hours about a quarter of those people headed to a podium and shared their opinions with the city council.

Nine speakers supported the ordinance, nine people were against it. A 19th resident admittedly took the middle road.

Mayor Hal Leland said at the end of the meeting that all the comments would be considered as the council evaluates its next move on the ordinance, a measure brought forward by a group of five residents called “Fergus Votes” after they became disenchanted with the process employed by the city council when moving forward with an arena project last October.

The council will discuss the measure at its Tuesday, Feb. 16 council meeting. Leland said he tentatively expects a vote on the measure that night.

If the Council does not enact the ordinance by March 10, the ordinance must be placed on a ballot for a public referendum. April 22 is the last date (120 days after Fergus Votes’ filing of the petition) for a special election.

For the first half hour of Tuesday’s meeting it seemed as if there was no support for the ordinance as the first five of six speakers were anti-ordinance.

Hockey rink scheduler Ernie Pyle said the ordinance kept the council from doing what it was elected to do.

“I don’t like the idea of handcuffing the council and keeping them from doing the job we voted you in to do,” Pyle told the council.

Eleanor Stadum said the proposed ordinance “puts too many cooks in the kitchen.”

“I’m disappointed. This is nothing more than a reaction to something a few people didn’t like,” Stadum said, suggesting the ordinance was an attempt to kill the arena project.

“I voted for this council and stand behind the council. I want them to continue to do the job we hired them to do and not tie their hands,” she said.

Pam Muxfeldt, president of the Fergus Falls Hockey Association, said she questions the decision that Fergus Votes made in offering up the ordinance and brought up at least eight opportunities that the public would have had since 2006 to be involved in the arena process through public meetings held by the city council.

“The opportunity for public input has been available. The meetings have been advertised, posted at city hall and on its Web site and publicized in the paper,” Muxfeldt said.

People just didn’t take advantage of the opportunities and waited to get involved after the process had run its course and a vote was taken on the issue in October, she said.

Keriann Stenstrom called the proposed ordinance unnecessary, unrealistic and said it defeats the purpose of having elected officials.

“I believe the council does what is best for Fergus Falls and I trust their judgment. Fergus Falls needs to move forward or young families like mine are going to leave,” she said.

John MacFarlane, a 30-year resident of Fergus Falls and former president of Otter Tail Corp., asked the Fergus Votes committee and the city council to come together to find a workable solution in addressing city spending and to avoid a referendum on the ordinance.

“This ordinance provides a refuge for weak leadership and places landmines for our future,” Macfarlane said.

“It’s bad public policy and an embarrassment to our community,” MacFarlane said.

MacFarlane encouraged the city council to “Come to its senses and have a little humility” and admit it may have been wrong in the manner that it approved the arena project last October and commit to using different processes in the future.

If not, the winners won’t be the people of 56537 — the winners will be people in the communities that compete against Fergus Falls for jobs, economic development, and as a regional retail hub, MacFarlane suggested.

It was at that point that the tide switched and pro-ordinance people came to the podium.

One was Don Roggenkamp, a man who said he signed the petition calling for the ordinance.

“I’m not against kids or something for them to do, but I want a say in what happens in Fergus Falls,” Erlencamp said.

Many speakers shared similar sentiments, including Gene Thompson.

“This is about needs and wants. We need water and city infrastructure. A hockey arena is a want. Whether we’re talking an arena or whatever, voters should have an opportunity to say yes. This referendum proposal? I hope it does that job,” Thompson said.

Barbara Smith, a 40-year resident of Fergus Falls was almost in tears as she discussed the hardships she believes city projects will bring upon her.

“It’s a hard time for anyone and if you just knew the pressure this puts on residents…,”Smith said.

“I think this will be a hardship for me and I think you need to start listening to the people,” she said.

She said the school redevelopment project, Tower Road and its new bridge, an arena and possible projects involving the library and police station are too much to handle.

“How would you like to lose your home after living here so long,” she asked the council.

“Let’s have the people have a voice. I don’t think people have a voice,” Smith said.

Greg Palmer isn’t bothered so much by arena plans as he is by what he calls the sudden emergence of money to fund one.

“When it comes to our parks we’ve constantly been told there’s no money, there’s no money, there’s no money,” Palmer said.

There are a lot of facilities for recreation in Fergus Falls that are in rough shape, he said, including public restrooms that he said resemble some in Mexico for lack of repair and cleanliness.

“We’re always told there’s no money, but it seems like a lot of money became available for (the arena) real quick,” he said.

Darryl Synstellein, the main spokesman for Fergus Votes, said Fergus Falls is at a crossroads.

“It’s time Fergus Falls moves forward. We will move forward with the voice of the people being heard. This ordinance allows that voice to be heard,” Synstellein said.

“Fergus Falls will move forward and its most potent economic engine is its people,” he said.

He told the council it was time for the city to walk away from backroom deals that rob the city of its spirit.

“It’s time to choose to be a leader of this city,” he told the councilmembers.

“We’re here at a crossroads and its time to turn the key to that powerful economic engine and that can be done by listening to and respecting the people of Fergus Falls,” he said.

Lynn Brand, a self-described hockey grandma, said referring to the current arena as a dump is using a nice word.

“It’s disgusting and I’m embarrassed by it,” she said.

But not enough so to support the city council’s initiative in moving forward with an arena project.

"The ordinance, I support it,” Brand said.

“It’s my naïve belief that in order for this to fly you have to make it important to those who pay for it,” she said.

She used as examples the Hospice House, Cancer Center, and a few other projects in which the community bought into the project and felt it had a sense of ownership in them.

“Right now not everyone gets it. That’s your challenge with the arena, and how you do that, I just don’t know.”

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