Star Tribune
St. Paul mayor and city council meeting to reach budget compromise
The middle ground: a 7.2% increase.
In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Mayor Jamie Tincher said Carter, too, would like the levy to be lower. But proposing a 5% increase would mean an additional cut of $6 million from 2025 city services — a reduction that could increase fire response times, slow the processing of license applications and reduce parks and rec and library services.
“He doesn’t have a path to do that without reducing services that will be felt by the people who are currently getting them,” Tincher said.
If the two sides cannot agree on a tax levy for 2025, state law would require the city to institute this year’s levy. That, Tincher said, would lead to drastic cuts in city personnel and services, as costs go up every year because of things like health care, insurance and previously negotiated salary increases.
The gap between revenue and costs then, she said, would be $16 million.
Tincher was asked if this year’s negotiations felt “different.”
Star Tribune
Hermantown cracks down on ‘deplorable’ trailer park
He eventually found that about a dozen homes are in severe disrepair, but the worst of it, Holmes said, was one that had been without water for months after a line failed and flooded. A caving roof was held up by a two-by-four. Human waste was stored indoors. A porch had collapsed. The resident’s complaints to the owner and a maintenance worker had gone ignored, yet rent, which ranges from $800 to about $1,100, was still collected.
While Holmes worked with St. Louis County to find alternate housing for the resident, a disabled veteran, the man took his own life. Shortly before that, he had filed a lawsuit against the park owner. A 60-year-old who had served in the U.S. Army, he had been the first resident to allow Holmes in.
Hermantown’s complaint alleges several misdemeanor crimes, including failure to provide safe living structures and potable water and sewer connections to all units.
Corrective actions have been ordered by the city and the state, but the little work that has been done continues to be unpermitted and substandard, Holmes said, calling living conditions “deplorable” and the situation a “park-wide failure.”
Maintenance of manufactured homes can be difficult, he said, but he’s never seen anything so dire in his career.
“The last thing we want is to see people hurt or displaced, and we’re starting to run out of time,” Holmes said. “A lot of this is related to being provided with drinking water and bathing water, which they’ll lose most likely in these freezing conditions.”
Star Tribune
St. Paul Public Schools names 3 superintendent finalists
But intervention efforts are underway, board members were told.
Here’s a look at the superintendent finalists:
CEO, Fresh Energy, a St. Paul nonprofit
Education: Doctorate in organizational leadership and policy from the University of Memphis.
On the job: Started her career as a St. Paul Public Schools teacher and then held administrative positions in the Minneapolis Public Schools, Memphis City Schools and East Metro Integration District before being appointed the state education commissioner by Gov. Mark Dayton. Later, she served as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, serving 50,000 students and more than 10,000 staff members.
In the news: Cassellius came from a long line of educators, including two grandparents who were professors at a historically black college, and she faced a steep learning curve when appointed commissioner, but was up to the challenge, the Star Tribune reported in 2011.
Star Tribune
Man shot in chest during carjacking in Twin Cities alley; 5 suspects flee
Several people ambushed a Minneapolis motorist late at night in an alley, shot him in the chest and drove off with his vehicle.
The carjacking occurred about 11:25 p.m. Thursday in the 3900 Block of 11th Avenue S., according to the Minneapolis Police Department.
The critically wounded victim, a man in his 20s, was given immediate medical attention before being taken by emergency medical responders to HCMC, police added.
Five suspects, male and female, fled the scene in the man’s vehicle and possibly a second vehicle, police said. No arrests have been announced.