Savage council candidates: where they stand

It's a surprisingly amicable campaign for a city with one of the stiffest property tax burdens in the metropolitan area. But the candidates for City Council in Savage this fall do sharply disagree on one thing:

The two challengers want to open things up by televising and Web-streaming the informal council meetings at which important issues get hashed out.

"People want to see the inner workings," Darin Coleman said. "How they come up with the decisions they end up making -- and why they didn't make some decisions." Melissa Gorman agrees.

The two incumbents like it just as it is.

"They are open meetings, with minutes and agendas," Jane Victorey said. "It's a much more informal kind of communication, with a lot of give and take -- ideas are bounced around that you don't necessarily want to have televised. You put an idea out there and find out what the reaction is. It's a much more comfortable opportunity to have those discussions."

Gene Abbott agrees. Council workshops, he says, are a place where decision makers "roll up their sleeves and put everything on the table -- where we sort things out and come up with decisions."

Here's a CliffsNotes version of what they said about other issues, at a (televised and Web-streamed) candidate forum earlier this month:

CITY FINANCES

In a place whose tax burden on an average-valued home ranked fourth-highest among 117 metro area cities in the most recent Citizens League survey, one might have expected more sparks.

Challenger Gorman did rank city debt and taxes as her No. 1 and 2 issues, but she hurled no thunderbolts of the kind that were crashing through Shakopee's and Prior Lake's debates. Incumbent Abbott made a point of stressing frugality as well. "People are suffering and don't need tax increases. We need to look at the budget."

SS9 WOODLANDS

The threat to wipe out a patch of high-quality woodlands near Prior Lake High School to create athletic fields drew a firm thumbs down from three of the candidates and a maybe from the fourth.

The so-called SS9 area "is the highest-quality forested area in south Savage," Victorey said. "There are medium-quality wooded wetlands nearby that both would be dramatically impacted. We run the risk of having a large area degraded" in a city that prides itself on its natural resources.

Coleman was most sympathetic to losing it. "If that's an investment we feel want to make, in return ... can we put extra effort into making another area more wooded and add amenities there that counter what was done in one area?"

SMOKING BAN IN PARKS

Everyone was in favor of some limits on smoking in the parks, especially in connection with youth activities. Gorman said she doesn't want her kids seeing people smoking. But everyone was leery of being too restrictive. Said Abbott, of a proposal before the City Council: "It's not an ordinance, it's a policy, with voluntary enforcement -- no police officers writing citations."

ANNEX CREDIT RIVER TOWNSHIP?

A chorus of "no!" "All the people who live there would have to petition for that," Abbott said, "and it would be quite an expense to them as well as to Savage city residents, and it's not a good time for that now."

Victorey was most open to the prospect. "We'd be open to discussion," she said, "but the decision is in their hands."

CITY GARBAGE HAULING

All four opposed the idea of a major change that would involve the city bidding out the job to a single hauler, a la Shakopee. But Abbott, Victorey and Coleman said the city should do more to encourage neighborhoods to pick a single hauler, to cut down on noise and destruction of city streets.

Abbott said his own part of town has done that, and it's a big improvement. Coleman did caution that because the trucks cause damage, the city needs to prepare to pay to fix its streets sooner. "Let's save money in budgeting to make sure we're ready to make those improvements, knowing what is causing the need for them or what may be in the future for us."

CLOSING STATEMENTS

Incumbents were more likely to stress what they've done, while challengers were more likely to warn of what could happen. Victorey, who said she moved to Savage in 1978 at a time when County Road 42 was still partly gravel, said the current council has shored up the city's finances and stopped the "spikes in tax rates" that used to exasperate property owners.

Gorman said she likes it that Savage isn't fully developed and still feels rural in places. "I want businesses revived and empty houses filled before we push forward on development," she said.

David Peterson • 952-882-9023