Willmar, Minn., mayor says he intends to downsize city government
November 28, 2011 at 6:00 pm in West Central Tribune
WILLMAR Mayor Frank Yanish said he intends to help downsize city government. He announced his intention in keeping with his administration’s commitment to transparency, he said.
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In a time of tough decisions and trimming the fat so to speak, the main objective is to do this in a manner that will not bring undo hardship to those already experiencing financial hardships. The main objective is to work with what we can, then cut back on and squeeze some additional revenue from. For instance the committee formed to revamp the downtown area to which we paid a hefty 300 grand to, should have the plug pulled. I read where those in charge stated they put in an ex amount of volunteer work and the so called money saved tax payers from this venture an ex-amount of dollars. After doing a little math that came out to 22 dollars plus an hr. Now who makes this type of money per hour in a town such as Willmar where average hourly wages range from 7an hr to maybe 12 dollars an hour, especially when this committee was paid over 300G to redesign the downtown area? They have yet to come up with a workable solution, and even if they did the funding is not there. To even have a shot at making downtown attractive the first thing to be done is re-routing the roads going in an out of downtown. I believe some buildings need to be demolished, and new buildings need to be constructed. We can’t change the manpower needs of lawenforcement, but putting some reserve PD officers on during the weekends using students out of school who don’t mind volunteering would beef the manpower without passing more costs on to tax payers. I believe the county has a reserve unit and they even use 2 man patrol cars on the weekends. Puttting up the 200 Thousand dollar bus shelter was a mistake and I don’t believe we need any more of these. A few parking meters could help, as well as eliminating some costly but nusiance arrests such as small amounts of marijuana which costs the city more then its worth prosecuting. The city police should use their own towing which would also save on paying private companies. The city should change their own oil in the sqauds and wash them as well and could hire a person at 10 maybe 12 an hr for in house maintenance to service the squads saving the city down the road instead of farming this out. Its nice to know the mayor is working on ways to bring down costs without laying employees off. The city needs to attract new businesses if at all possible.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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