October 6, 2024 • 23 mins
Discover the bold strategies shaping the future of Dayton with Mayor Dennis Fisher in this must-listen episode. Mayor Fisher, known for his forward-thinking approach, shares his vision for managing Dayton's rapid growth while prioritizing the community's character and economic sustainability. He offers insights into his successful initiatives for reducing the city's once-burdensome tax rates through fiscal responsibility and resident-focused budgeting. Mayor Fisher also addresses pressing public safety challenges, including efforts to curb crime and tackle the issue of reckless driving by boosting police presence and enhancing fire department staffing. Throughout, he openly contrasts his policies with those of his opponent, underscoring his commitment to aligning city decisions with the priorities of Dayton's residents.
In a compelling dialogue about Dayton's water quality issues, Mayor Fisher outlines the proactive steps being taken to address the high iron content that affects residents' daily lives. Learn about the infrastructure improvements underway, including the installation of backup pumps and the substantial state and federal grants secured to fund a new water treatment facility. Set to launch this summer, this facility promises to deliver cleaner, iron-free water, improving both aesthetics and appliance longevity. Mayor Fisher reflects on the city council's achievements in budget management and tax reduction as he seeks re-election, emphasizing his dedication to meeting the evolving needs of Dayton's growing community.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the City of Dayton's Question and Answer
Candidate.
Candidate Mayor Dennis Fisheris with us now.
Hi, dennis, hello, okay, thesurvey gave us a number of
questions that we can work with,and I think that we compiled a
bunch of questions just basedupon that.
And let's start out with growthmanagement.
(00:22):
Welcome, dennis.
Our first question is withgrowth management.
Welcome, dennis.
Our first question is growthmanagement.
How will you control Dayton'srapid growth to prevent
overdevelopment and preserve thecommunity's characters without
sacrificing economicopportunities?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
This question has a number of things that factor
into it.
Due to the significant debt weincurred years back to build the
central water and sewer system,we will need new houses to
continue paying that bill.
Additionally, there is somepush from staff and from my
(00:58):
opponent to create a lot moredebt in 2028.
That will also drive the needfor more and more revenue.
Dayton's rapid growth wasslowed considerably by the
recent market slowdown.
Oddly enough, that slowdown putus at a pretty good rate that
the city can handle, which lookslike this year is going to be
(01:19):
roughly 200.
Last year was a little bit over200.
That's actually a pretty goodrate.
Prior rates were significantlyhigher and I think that the city
was in over its head withreviewing those and it didn't
provide as much oversight as Ifeel there should have been.
(01:40):
I've been pushing that the cityperform some late planning on
larger tracts of land than whatwe typically see in a
development.
That way, what we can do is theland.
If it's got some rough planningto it, we can actually point
(02:02):
areas of the land to, sayponding parks.
We can manage the entire tractbetter than individual
development, individual chunksof land that we're seeing today.
If we go that route that shouldeasily provide a way to control
the quantity and the quality ofthese developments.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Moving on to taxes, then yeah, all right In taxes.
What specific steps will youtake to reduce or prevent
further tax increases whilemaintaining the city services we
have?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
As always, I believe every expense that the city
incurs needs to have goodjustification, and that includes
what the residents want.
What I've seen over these pastcouple years is what you know.
My opponent's opinion seems tobe that if staff wants something
, they should just get itbecause they're the experts.
(02:55):
What he and I disagree with isthat's the main reason the
council exists in the firstplace is to prioritize items in
the budget and verify the valueto the resident of that expense
is worth the cost.
Staff will always it's it'slike a negotiation staff will
(03:17):
always ask for things they needand want, and my job as one of
five council members is to makesure I'm convinced that the
value for the residents is there.
Before I vote to put somethingin that budget.
And it allowed us to take ournotoriously high 54% tax rate,
(03:46):
which, by the way, put Daytoninto the top 5% statewide for
taxes per resident Wow.
So it allowed us to take that54 down to 36, which is
comparable to Champlin Rogers.
It's actually just slightlybelow.
So we did that while increasingthe staff to resident ratio, in
(04:11):
other words, the number ofpublic works, police, fire.
We actually increased thatstaff to resident ratio, which
keeps services up and we justshy of tripled the amount going
to roads, so we were able toprioritize things and bring that
rate down quite a bit.
What I thought was kind oftelling was, at some point in
(04:36):
those discussions my opponentsaid that he never would have
cut taxes as we did and if theresidents didn't like it they
could vote him out.
Well, I certainly agree withhim on that.
The residents need someone inthere that will limit spending
to what the residents want andthe recent survey that the city
(04:57):
did made it clear that amajority of the residents want
their taxes to be monitored andreduced where possible, and
there's just no way that myopponent cares about that
message.
I have always felt that if theresidents really don't want
something, why are we pushing it?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Absolutely.
Move on to the nextconversation.
Yeah, public safety.
How do you plan to producecrime and reckless driving, and
what specific metrics will youuse to measure successes and
improving public safety?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
In the past, I'd say about six years give or take
we've almost doubled ourpopulation with all the
development, and Dayton's crimerate has actually stayed flat.
That's not to say we don't havecrime and it needs to be dealt
with, but it hasn't increasedand it's it's fairly low.
(05:56):
The primary problem I'm hearingfrom residents is the driving.
Speeding, uh, is by far theprimary complaint and it's
everywhere.
I live on Pine View and it issometimes like living next to a
quarter mile track.
They get out of that four-wayon South Diamond and they stick
their foot in it.
It's one reason I tell my kidsto stay off their road, but it's
(06:24):
all over the city.
The police chief has added moreradar signs throughout the city,
which I think help because Inoticed I'm more cognizant of
what my speed is when I see thatsign.
But really I think the otherthing that can deterrent is
having more police out there andto that end we've added more
(06:47):
police over the past few years.
Last year we added three, thisyear we're adding one, which I'm
okay with.
And as far as the fire side ofpublic safety goes, when I first
got on as mayor we had nofull-time firefighters.
Two years ago we made the chieffull-time.
(07:11):
Last year there was a newfull-time assistant chief added.
So in two years we've increasedthe fire department's general
budget over 300%.
This year we're looking atpossibly adding two additional
full-time firefighters.
That is primarily because itsounds like and again we still
(07:32):
have to go through the numberswhat staff is saying is that we
will get those two full-timefirefighters for free because
it'll cover costs elsewhere, andif that's actually the case,
I'll support that.
Unfortunately, my opponents runaround telling people that I
don't support police and firebecause I don't hand out blank
checks.
(07:52):
It gets old and it's a littlechildish.
I think we had.
I mean, there are things, likeI said, we look at things as to
what the value is to theresidents.
So we two of us there was afire study being pushed and two
(08:13):
of the council including me wedidn't want to spend that 45
grand it was right around thatnumber On another fire study
because we had just done oneabout three years prior to that
and you know we were sure it'sit's going to say the same thing
and uh, you know my opponentand the department kind of
(08:38):
implied if you don't supportthis study, you just don't care
about public safety.
And, like I said, that gets old.
And when it was finished, loand behold, the study
documentation was soembarrassing to staff that they
quietly ignored the result andwe accepted that study and there
(08:58):
was no discussion whatsoeverover it.
It was a total waste of $45,000.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Okay, moving on.
Moving on Infrastructure, whatimmediate actions will you take
to ensure Dayton'sinfrastructure and city services
can be handled, current andfuture growth, without
compromising the quality?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I covered some of this earlier when we were
talking about how to dodevelopments, to improve the
development process so that weincrease quality.
As long as we continue keepingdevelopment to the south and
this is something that I've beenpushing for for the past couple
(09:38):
of years when we do developmentin the south, the
infrastructure will just keep upwith the growth we have the
ability to add it.
So really, when it comes to tothe infrastructure, I think that
the bulk of it is north andsouth traffic.
How do we move people basicallysouth, down to the 16 and 94
(10:02):
areas In the north?
We have no real way to do thatat this point in time.
You know I've said in the past,you know why we started
development on the north side ofthe city will forever boggle my
mind.
I mean, now that it's there, wedeal with it.
Unfortunately, every new housewe put in the north, that
(10:25):
traffic two cars twice a daygets onto the river road and the
county just doesn't seem to bewanting to look at any ways to
improve traffic flow on thatroad and they won't, for I'm
guessing.
Until I'm guessing at leastfive to ten years out, I would
(10:47):
put odds that it's going to beeven longer than that.
So I have always pushed to keepdevelopment in the south.
We can add infrastructure there.
There are a number ofnorth-south roads.
We do have problems with someof the county roads, but the
(11:07):
rest of the infrastructure wejust put in as the development
goes.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Local economy.
How do you plan to attractbusiness, create jobs in Dayton
and what industries would youtarget to diversify this local
economy?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, the city can do a number of things.
For one, our EDA is aimed atthat exact topic.
One of the differences againbetween myself and my opponent
is he would dissolve the EDAvery quickly.
(11:45):
He believes that the councilshould take that task on.
I think the council has toomany tasks as it is and I think
the EDA is there for that reasonand I think the EDA is there
for that reason.
So some of the things thatcities can do, both in
combination with their EDA andtheir body, the council body, is
(12:07):
to you know, watch theregulation.
If we look at something andthere's some silliness that
doesn't seem to make any sense,it needs to get yanked or it
needs to not go in.
We need to keep our taxesreasonable because you know
(12:28):
those businesses pay that alsoand provide areas in the city
that allow businesses to come in.
We don't have a lot ofcommercial areas.
I think with this next compplan we will probably add a few
more, even if they're smallerareas.
They don't have to be largeareas, but to get some sort of
(12:49):
even a small grocery store orsomething to come in is helpful
to that area, helpful to thatarea.
There are also tools, maybe withsome of these larger areas such
as TIFF, that is, tax incomefinancing.
It's it's kind of a complicatedtopic but it really boils down
(13:09):
to two things.
You can collect property taxesfrom an area to a, either give
it back to the businesses, whichI refer to as the bribery
version of TIF, or you can takethat money and pay for the
infrastructure that theresidents that the city would be
(13:29):
paying for otherwise.
So to put in local roads tothat TIF area, to me that's a
good use of TIF.
Local roads to that TIF area tome that's a good use of TIF.
It also it's a much easier wayto manage that expenditure.
And, like I said, the briberyversion of TIF I made when I
first got on council.
(13:50):
I voted for one of those.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
It would have passed regardless, but to this day I
regret doing that because I wentback and looked and there was
really no justification for that.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I just think if a business wants to come here,
their money, their tax money,needs to be put to work for the
city and not folded back intothem.
You know, over the past coupleyears we have been requested to
do a few of those.
One was, uh, an apartmentcomplex on the south side of the
(14:23):
freeway.
They wanted a that version oftiff that returns the money back
to the back to the company and,uh, you know, we said no.
The all five of us said no, andactually that version would
have lasted I think it was wellover 20 years.
So basically that complex wouldhave been there using up city
(14:45):
resources and not paying a dimein taxes.
We couldn't swallow that, so wedid vote against that.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Okay, next, Traffic and congestion.
What concrete measures wouldyou implement to address traffic
congestion, unsafe driving andhow would you enforce these
changes?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Well, for one.
You know, traffic congestion isreally fixed by having roads
that can support the additionalcars being added to that area.
You can do some things, such asturn lanes.
You can rearrange some of theway traffic flows, but for the
(15:28):
most part you have to have theroads that support that level of
traffic and, like I said before, the roads, the developments in
the north, they're just goingto continue to pile the cars
onto the River Road we do nothave.
(15:49):
The only thing we can do withthe River Road, since it's a
county road, is we can add turnlanes where appropriate, and we
did that with Stevens Park andwe at some point a few.
And we did that with StevensPark and we at some point a few
years back, did that withCloquet.
But it really doesn't help thebackup at some of the areas that
(16:10):
the additional traffic causes.
It's just one more reason why Idon't.
I think we need to focusdevelopment in the south.
We have a number of ways downin the south to move traffic
towards 16 and freeways 81 andto that end, we will also, you
(16:31):
know, continue to apply pressureto the county to fix some of
their messes down there.
They've got, you know, one at81 and territorial.
They've got fernbrook's a mess.
Unfortunately, I think the onlyway to fix fernbrook is
probably a roundabout on rushCreek.
I think I'd prefer lights there, but the county has this
allergy to lights, so I don'tknow.
(16:53):
Like I said, we need tocontinue applying pressure to
the county to, I think,specifically, you know, kevin
Anderson, our representative onthe commission.
He needs to hear from everybodyon how some of these the county
needs to step up and spendmoney in our area and they've
(17:16):
been hesitant to do so for along time.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Very long.
Next subject yeah.
Okay.
Environmental concerns how willyou tackle Dayton's flooding,
stormwater management, drinkingwater issues with a measurable
long-term solution?
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Well, stormwater management, that's built into
every sewer development that'screated and that's why you see
these ponding mechanisms.
I think up until I want to sayaround 1990 or 2000,.
You didn't see ponds, youdidn't see developments put in
(17:57):
ponds.
If you look at some of ourolder developments, they're just
houses.
Since then there is a lot ofengineering that goes into that.
I have a couple of engineeringdegrees but I don't at all
assume that I have a clue howwater flows in the ground, and
(18:18):
so we have a lot of engineeringfirms and people look at
stormwater and there arecertainly a lot of protocols as
to how to deal with stormwaterand we basically leave it up to
those civil engineers tounderstand how to deal with that
.
Water management is just not asobvious as you would think.
(18:39):
As far as the city waterquality goes the water that we
provide to the residents, to theresidents we have so far added
a backup pump on both of ourwater systems.
We have our central watersystem.
We also have the old villagewater system, so we now have
(19:04):
backups on those.
The backup on the old villagesystem is there and in place and
functional.
The one on the central systemis close.
So we have that covered.
As far as water, as far askeeping the quantity of water up
(19:25):
there, as far as the waterquality goes, dayton water, no
matter where you get it from,whether it's private wells or
some of these you 400 feet citywells is loaded with iron and uh
, you know.
So you fill your bathtub andyou see yellow water, unless you
have a whole house water filtersystem.
So we've been hearing, you know, complaints about water quality
and, and it's it, it's reallyan aesthetics thing.
(19:47):
And you, you can also taste theiron.
It's not harmful, it's reallyan aesthetics thing.
And you can also taste the iron.
It's not harmful, it's justbrownish yellow water.
It also kind of can raise havocwith your appliances, and so to
that end, we pushed for a stategrant almost three years ago.
We had Senator Warren Limmerand about 10 additional senators
(20:11):
come and they were looking foritems to put into the bonding
bill that resident that variouscities needed, and so we gave
him a presentation.
Like I said, this is aboutthree years ago.
We gave them a presentationthat year.
They had some money in there,but that bond push didn't happen
(20:33):
.
But it did get the ball rollingwith our various
representatives over the yearsand so and recently in 2023,
that push kind of came to a headwhere we got some about $1.75
million from the state and Ibelieve our EDA had some to do
(20:59):
with that, but also the pushfrom some of us.
Senator Hoffman wasinstrumental in helping to push
that through.
Hoffman was instrumental inhelping to push that through and
we also got a significantfederal grant of close to $4
million.
The system itself was estimated.
Well, you know, originally itwas estimated at four, then it
(21:22):
crawled up to six and when weactually put numbers to the
paper it came in at 8.
So we ended up okaying that andwe started that and we ended up
getting a good portion of it in,and then we ran into a snafu
with a federal agency actually acouple, given that its
(21:48):
proximity to the MississippiRiver was probably not helpful,
because that caused a lot ofadditional red tape.
We are now negotiating whatlooks like our last piece of red
tape.
So if that goes through soon,then right now that facility is
(22:11):
scheduled to go online thissummer and so at that point
residents will no longer havebrown slash yellow water.
They will still need to softentheir water.
It won't be soft water, soyou'll still.
Residents are still going towant softeners to to keep all
their appliances from calcifyingup, but it will, but that that
(22:38):
facility will pull the iron outand it also pulls out some
manganese but we don't have toomuch manganese in that water and
I think residents will be a lothappier with that answer.
And I think residents will be alot happier with that answer.
I'm Dennis Fisher and I wouldlike your vote this November.
We have three members of thiscurrent council, including
myself, that have donesignificant work to reduce the
(22:58):
tax burden on our residents.
There is more work to be done,and the only way to get that
done is to look at the value ofthese expenditures and make sure
it's what residents want andnot just what staff wants.
We're growing, and thereforeour government will continue to
grow, but making sure all needsare balanced is the job of the
mayor and council, and so Iwould like your vote.
(23:19):
I am Dennis Fisher and Iapprove of this message.
Welcome to the City of Dayton's Question and Answer
Candidate.
Candidate Mayor Dennis Fisheris with us now.
Hi, dennis, hello, okay, thesurvey gave us a number of
questions that we can work with,and I think that we compiled a
bunch of questions just basedupon that.
And let's start out with growthmanagement.
(00:22):
Welcome, dennis.
Our first question is withgrowth management.
Welcome, dennis.
Our first question is growthmanagement.
How will you control Dayton'srapid growth to prevent
overdevelopment and preserve thecommunity's characters without
sacrificing economicopportunities?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
This question has a number of things that factor
into it.
Due to the significant debt weincurred years back to build the
central water and sewer system,we will need new houses to
continue paying that bill.
Additionally, there is somepush from staff and from my
(00:58):
opponent to create a lot moredebt in 2028.
That will also drive the needfor more and more revenue.
Dayton's rapid growth wasslowed considerably by the
recent market slowdown.
Oddly enough, that slowdown putus at a pretty good rate that
the city can handle, which lookslike this year is going to be
(01:19):
roughly 200.
Last year was a little bit over200.
That's actually a pretty goodrate.
Prior rates were significantlyhigher and I think that the city
was in over its head withreviewing those and it didn't
provide as much oversight as Ifeel there should have been.
(01:40):
I've been pushing that the cityperform some late planning on
larger tracts of land than whatwe typically see in a
development.
That way, what we can do is theland.
If it's got some rough planningto it, we can actually point
(02:02):
areas of the land to, sayponding parks.
We can manage the entire tractbetter than individual
development, individual chunksof land that we're seeing today.
If we go that route that shouldeasily provide a way to control
the quantity and the quality ofthese developments.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Moving on to taxes, then yeah, all right In taxes.
What specific steps will youtake to reduce or prevent
further tax increases whilemaintaining the city services we
have?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
As always, I believe every expense that the city
incurs needs to have goodjustification, and that includes
what the residents want.
What I've seen over these pastcouple years is what you know.
My opponent's opinion seems tobe that if staff wants something
, they should just get itbecause they're the experts.
(02:55):
What he and I disagree with isthat's the main reason the
council exists in the firstplace is to prioritize items in
the budget and verify the valueto the resident of that expense
is worth the cost.
Staff will always it's it'slike a negotiation staff will
(03:17):
always ask for things they needand want, and my job as one of
five council members is to makesure I'm convinced that the
value for the residents is there.
Before I vote to put somethingin that budget.
And it allowed us to take ournotoriously high 54% tax rate,
(03:46):
which, by the way, put Daytoninto the top 5% statewide for
taxes per resident Wow.
So it allowed us to take that54 down to 36, which is
comparable to Champlin Rogers.
It's actually just slightlybelow.
So we did that while increasingthe staff to resident ratio, in
(04:11):
other words, the number ofpublic works, police, fire.
We actually increased thatstaff to resident ratio, which
keeps services up and we justshy of tripled the amount going
to roads, so we were able toprioritize things and bring that
rate down quite a bit.
What I thought was kind oftelling was, at some point in
(04:36):
those discussions my opponentsaid that he never would have
cut taxes as we did and if theresidents didn't like it they
could vote him out.
Well, I certainly agree withhim on that.
The residents need someone inthere that will limit spending
to what the residents want andthe recent survey that the city
(04:57):
did made it clear that amajority of the residents want
their taxes to be monitored andreduced where possible, and
there's just no way that myopponent cares about that
message.
I have always felt that if theresidents really don't want
something, why are we pushing it?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Absolutely.
Move on to the nextconversation.
Yeah, public safety.
How do you plan to producecrime and reckless driving, and
what specific metrics will youuse to measure successes and
improving public safety?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
In the past, I'd say about six years give or take
we've almost doubled ourpopulation with all the
development, and Dayton's crimerate has actually stayed flat.
That's not to say we don't havecrime and it needs to be dealt
with, but it hasn't increasedand it's it's fairly low.
(05:56):
The primary problem I'm hearingfrom residents is the driving.
Speeding, uh, is by far theprimary complaint and it's
everywhere.
I live on Pine View and it issometimes like living next to a
quarter mile track.
They get out of that four-wayon South Diamond and they stick
their foot in it.
It's one reason I tell my kidsto stay off their road, but it's
(06:24):
all over the city.
The police chief has added moreradar signs throughout the city,
which I think help because Inoticed I'm more cognizant of
what my speed is when I see thatsign.
But really I think the otherthing that can deterrent is
having more police out there andto that end we've added more
(06:47):
police over the past few years.
Last year we added three, thisyear we're adding one, which I'm
okay with.
And as far as the fire side ofpublic safety goes, when I first
got on as mayor we had nofull-time firefighters.
Two years ago we made the chieffull-time.
(07:11):
Last year there was a newfull-time assistant chief added.
So in two years we've increasedthe fire department's general
budget over 300%.
This year we're looking atpossibly adding two additional
full-time firefighters.
That is primarily because itsounds like and again we still
(07:32):
have to go through the numberswhat staff is saying is that we
will get those two full-timefirefighters for free because
it'll cover costs elsewhere, andif that's actually the case,
I'll support that.
Unfortunately, my opponents runaround telling people that I
don't support police and firebecause I don't hand out blank
checks.
(07:52):
It gets old and it's a littlechildish.
I think we had.
I mean, there are things, likeI said, we look at things as to
what the value is to theresidents.
So we two of us there was afire study being pushed and two
(08:13):
of the council including me wedidn't want to spend that 45
grand it was right around thatnumber On another fire study
because we had just done oneabout three years prior to that
and you know we were sure it'sit's going to say the same thing
and uh, you know my opponentand the department kind of
(08:38):
implied if you don't supportthis study, you just don't care
about public safety.
And, like I said, that gets old.
And when it was finished, loand behold, the study
documentation was soembarrassing to staff that they
quietly ignored the result andwe accepted that study and there
(08:58):
was no discussion whatsoeverover it.
It was a total waste of $45,000.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Okay, moving on.
Moving on Infrastructure, whatimmediate actions will you take
to ensure Dayton'sinfrastructure and city services
can be handled, current andfuture growth, without
compromising the quality?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I covered some of this earlier when we were
talking about how to dodevelopments, to improve the
development process so that weincrease quality.
As long as we continue keepingdevelopment to the south and
this is something that I've beenpushing for for the past couple
(09:38):
of years when we do developmentin the south, the
infrastructure will just keep upwith the growth we have the
ability to add it.
So really, when it comes to tothe infrastructure, I think that
the bulk of it is north andsouth traffic.
How do we move people basicallysouth, down to the 16 and 94
(10:02):
areas In the north?
We have no real way to do thatat this point in time.
You know I've said in the past,you know why we started
development on the north side ofthe city will forever boggle my
mind.
I mean, now that it's there, wedeal with it.
Unfortunately, every new housewe put in the north, that
(10:25):
traffic two cars twice a daygets onto the river road and the
county just doesn't seem to bewanting to look at any ways to
improve traffic flow on thatroad and they won't, for I'm
guessing.
Until I'm guessing at leastfive to ten years out, I would
(10:47):
put odds that it's going to beeven longer than that.
So I have always pushed to keepdevelopment in the south.
We can add infrastructure there.
There are a number ofnorth-south roads.
We do have problems with someof the county roads, but the
(11:07):
rest of the infrastructure wejust put in as the development
goes.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Local economy.
How do you plan to attractbusiness, create jobs in Dayton
and what industries would youtarget to diversify this local
economy?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, the city can do a number of things.
For one, our EDA is aimed atthat exact topic.
One of the differences againbetween myself and my opponent
is he would dissolve the EDAvery quickly.
(11:45):
He believes that the councilshould take that task on.
I think the council has toomany tasks as it is and I think
the EDA is there for that reasonand I think the EDA is there
for that reason.
So some of the things thatcities can do, both in
combination with their EDA andtheir body, the council body, is
(12:07):
to you know, watch theregulation.
If we look at something andthere's some silliness that
doesn't seem to make any sense,it needs to get yanked or it
needs to not go in.
We need to keep our taxesreasonable because you know
(12:28):
those businesses pay that alsoand provide areas in the city
that allow businesses to come in.
We don't have a lot ofcommercial areas.
I think with this next compplan we will probably add a few
more, even if they're smallerareas.
They don't have to be largeareas, but to get some sort of
(12:49):
even a small grocery store orsomething to come in is helpful
to that area, helpful to thatarea.
There are also tools, maybe withsome of these larger areas such
as TIFF, that is, tax incomefinancing.
It's it's kind of a complicatedtopic but it really boils down
(13:09):
to two things.
You can collect property taxesfrom an area to a, either give
it back to the businesses, whichI refer to as the bribery
version of TIF, or you can takethat money and pay for the
infrastructure that theresidents that the city would be
(13:29):
paying for otherwise.
So to put in local roads tothat TIF area, to me that's a
good use of TIF.
Local roads to that TIF area tome that's a good use of TIF.
It also it's a much easier wayto manage that expenditure.
And, like I said, the briberyversion of TIF I made when I
first got on council.
(13:50):
I voted for one of those.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
It would have passed regardless, but to this day I
regret doing that because I wentback and looked and there was
really no justification for that.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I just think if a business wants to come here,
their money, their tax money,needs to be put to work for the
city and not folded back intothem.
You know, over the past coupleyears we have been requested to
do a few of those.
One was, uh, an apartmentcomplex on the south side of the
(14:23):
freeway.
They wanted a that version oftiff that returns the money back
to the back to the company and,uh, you know, we said no.
The all five of us said no, andactually that version would
have lasted I think it was wellover 20 years.
So basically that complex wouldhave been there using up city
(14:45):
resources and not paying a dimein taxes.
We couldn't swallow that, so wedid vote against that.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Okay, next, Traffic and congestion.
What concrete measures wouldyou implement to address traffic
congestion, unsafe driving andhow would you enforce these
changes?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Well, for one.
You know, traffic congestion isreally fixed by having roads
that can support the additionalcars being added to that area.
You can do some things, such asturn lanes.
You can rearrange some of theway traffic flows, but for the
(15:28):
most part you have to have theroads that support that level of
traffic and, like I said before, the roads, the developments in
the north, they're just goingto continue to pile the cars
onto the River Road we do nothave.
(15:49):
The only thing we can do withthe River Road, since it's a
county road, is we can add turnlanes where appropriate, and we
did that with Stevens Park andwe at some point a few.
And we did that with StevensPark and we at some point a few
years back, did that withCloquet.
But it really doesn't help thebackup at some of the areas that
(16:10):
the additional traffic causes.
It's just one more reason why Idon't.
I think we need to focusdevelopment in the south.
We have a number of ways downin the south to move traffic
towards 16 and freeways 81 andto that end, we will also, you
(16:31):
know, continue to apply pressureto the county to fix some of
their messes down there.
They've got, you know, one at81 and territorial.
They've got fernbrook's a mess.
Unfortunately, I think the onlyway to fix fernbrook is
probably a roundabout on rushCreek.
I think I'd prefer lights there, but the county has this
allergy to lights, so I don'tknow.
(16:53):
Like I said, we need tocontinue applying pressure to
the county to, I think,specifically, you know, kevin
Anderson, our representative onthe commission.
He needs to hear from everybodyon how some of these the county
needs to step up and spendmoney in our area and they've
(17:16):
been hesitant to do so for along time.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Very long.
Next subject yeah.
Okay.
Environmental concerns how willyou tackle Dayton's flooding,
stormwater management, drinkingwater issues with a measurable
long-term solution?
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Well, stormwater management, that's built into
every sewer development that'screated and that's why you see
these ponding mechanisms.
I think up until I want to sayaround 1990 or 2000,.
You didn't see ponds, youdidn't see developments put in
(17:57):
ponds.
If you look at some of ourolder developments, they're just
houses.
Since then there is a lot ofengineering that goes into that.
I have a couple of engineeringdegrees but I don't at all
assume that I have a clue howwater flows in the ground, and
(18:18):
so we have a lot of engineeringfirms and people look at
stormwater and there arecertainly a lot of protocols as
to how to deal with stormwaterand we basically leave it up to
those civil engineers tounderstand how to deal with that
.
Water management is just not asobvious as you would think.
(18:39):
As far as the city waterquality goes the water that we
provide to the residents, to theresidents we have so far added
a backup pump on both of ourwater systems.
We have our central watersystem.
We also have the old villagewater system, so we now have
(19:04):
backups on those.
The backup on the old villagesystem is there and in place and
functional.
The one on the central systemis close.
So we have that covered.
As far as water, as far askeeping the quantity of water up
(19:25):
there, as far as the waterquality goes, dayton water, no
matter where you get it from,whether it's private wells or
some of these you 400 feet citywells is loaded with iron and uh
, you know.
So you fill your bathtub andyou see yellow water, unless you
have a whole house water filtersystem.
So we've been hearing, you know, complaints about water quality
and, and it's it, it's reallyan aesthetics thing.
(19:47):
And you, you can also taste theiron.
It's not harmful, it's reallyan aesthetics thing.
And you can also taste the iron.
It's not harmful, it's justbrownish yellow water.
It also kind of can raise havocwith your appliances, and so to
that end, we pushed for a stategrant almost three years ago.
We had Senator Warren Limmerand about 10 additional senators
(20:11):
come and they were looking foritems to put into the bonding
bill that resident that variouscities needed, and so we gave
him a presentation.
Like I said, this is aboutthree years ago.
We gave them a presentationthat year.
They had some money in there,but that bond push didn't happen
(20:33):
.
But it did get the ball rollingwith our various
representatives over the yearsand so and recently in 2023,
that push kind of came to a headwhere we got some about $1.75
million from the state and Ibelieve our EDA had some to do
(20:59):
with that, but also the pushfrom some of us.
Senator Hoffman wasinstrumental in helping to push
that through.
Hoffman was instrumental inhelping to push that through and
we also got a significantfederal grant of close to $4
million.
The system itself was estimated.
Well, you know, originally itwas estimated at four, then it
(21:22):
crawled up to six and when weactually put numbers to the
paper it came in at 8.
So we ended up okaying that andwe started that and we ended up
getting a good portion of it in,and then we ran into a snafu
with a federal agency actually acouple, given that its
(21:48):
proximity to the MississippiRiver was probably not helpful,
because that caused a lot ofadditional red tape.
We are now negotiating whatlooks like our last piece of red
tape.
So if that goes through soon,then right now that facility is
(22:11):
scheduled to go online thissummer and so at that point
residents will no longer havebrown slash yellow water.
They will still need to softentheir water.
It won't be soft water, soyou'll still.
Residents are still going towant softeners to to keep all
their appliances from calcifyingup, but it will, but that that
(22:38):
facility will pull the iron outand it also pulls out some
manganese but we don't have toomuch manganese in that water and
I think residents will be a lothappier with that answer.
And I think residents will be alot happier with that answer.
I'm Dennis Fisher and I wouldlike your vote this November.
We have three members of thiscurrent council, including
myself, that have donesignificant work to reduce the
(22:58):
tax burden on our residents.
There is more work to be done,and the only way to get that
done is to look at the value ofthese expenditures and make sure
it's what residents want andnot just what staff wants.
We're growing, and thereforeour government will continue to
grow, but making sure all needsare balanced is the job of the
mayor and council, and so Iwould like your vote.
(23:19):
I am Dennis Fisher and Iapprove of this message.
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