Lakeville's election victors have spending in sights

Lakeville's mayor-elect thinks the City Council is poised to become more business-friendly and tighter with taxpayer dollars after the election of two outsiders who campaigned for more fiscal austerity.

Taking over as mayor in the new year will be Council Member Mark Bellows, who won decisively with about 58 percent of 20,200 votes cast. He has served on the council for a decade and twice that long as the city's police chaplain.

Bellows, 56, defeated two-term Mayor Holly Dahl. She presided over recent staff cutbacks to offset drooping revenues and defended quality-of-life amenities many residents appreciate. Joining the council in January will be newcomers Matt Little, an English tutor, and Colleen Ratzlaff LaBeau, 48, a realty company owner who ran a pro-business campaign along with Bellows.

Little, 25, wants more cops and street repairs, but no new taxes. He proposed $200,000 in cuts at a city budget hearing this fall, including eliminating council members' pay of about $700 each a month. The only incumbent among eight candidates running for two council seats was Kevin Miller. He placed third with 14 percent of the vote, behind Little, with 21 percent, and LaBeau, who had 25 percent.

Bellows hopes Little or Council Member Kerrin Swecker, who endorsed Bellows, will provide the swing vote needed to make changes and pare city budgets even closer to the bone. Bellows was the only council member to vote against the 2010 budget, which had a 2.1 percent increase.

"I have always operated like an outsider. There have been many 4-to-1 votes in the last couple years," said Bellows, the pastor and a licensed counselor at Hope Church, where he runs addiction recovery programs.

LaBeau said she ran as a representative of the business community, many of whom told her they felt unwelcome by staff and council members when they voiced concerns at council meetings. "We felt very unheard and that the community was very business unfriendly," she said.

City Administrator Steve Mielke said state law forbids city liquor stores from competing with private vendors. To allow Costco to sell liquor, the city would have to close its three municipal stores, which generate enough revenue to reduce the tax levy by 5 percent, he said.

Mayor Dahl said a majority of businesses are very happy with Lakeville's business environment, as reflected in this year's business survey. The survey, by Decision Resources, Ltd., said "a very high 85 percent rate the business atmosphere in Lakeville as either excellent or good," according to the city website. Although 24 percent of business owners and managers surveyed cited "high taxes" as a negative, the survey firm said that is about 15 percent lower than the norm for the suburban business community.

Little said during six months of campaigning, "the main thing I heard was people are still hurting in this economy and a lot of people want government to tighten up as best they can." Little said his goal was to keep taxes from rising while restoring police jobs cut in recent years. Over the next four years, he hopes to shift money to police from other areas, or use development fees if construction picks up.

Bellows said he ran for mayor "out of frustration with the direction of the city." He said that while door knocking at thousands of homes, the most frequent concerns he heard were making the city more fiscally conservative and business friendly.

Bellows said city officials are playing a shell game by stating the proposed 2011 budget has no levy increase while issuing $665,000 of debt certificates to buy equipment. The city won't have to levy taxes to pay that debt until 2012. He said he would rather see the city ask for a levy increase up front or else make cuts elsewhere to cover equipment costs.

Mielke said the $665,000 is short-term borrowing that will cover large equipment purchases, including a water tanker and dump truck with a plow and large snow blower attachment. The council has routinely approved such borrowing over most of the past decade, he said.

But Bellows offers a legitimate alternative that the council could choose, Mielke said. "He can legitimately say cut $665,000 [elsewhere in the budget] or find other revenues or raise the levy now so as not push the cost to future years."