Carver County Republicans

Unlike meetings, work sessions of the Carver County Board of Commissioners are not recorded or televised. This is unfortunate, as the citizens of Carver County were thus unable to witness a moment of fiduciary responsibility that would have warmed the cockles of the hearts of fiscal conservatives.

 County park staff were presenting a request for $200,000 to cover the engineering and planning work on a dozen new projects, capital improvement projects to existing facilities and to process and apply for several grants. (Including $20,000 for Coney Island, the Island in Lake Waconia, did you know the county parks department plans for this project?) The county parks representatives reported that they have been successful in doing the county taxpayers a service by obtaining several grants that cover the majority of the cost for several projects, but they do not cover the necessary environmental and engineering or application preparation costs, in addition to the required local component for the project cost.

 County Administrator David Hemze spoke up and stated that, (not a direct quote,) while County staff is to be commended for pursuing outside grants and funding for county expenses, these outside grant and funding options are requiring larger and larger local components, and more and more ancillary expenses, such that they should not be pursued blindly, as the County is not ready to accept the continual onslaught of these incremental expenses which accompany the ongoing winning of these funds. Sitting in the back of the room, upon hearing this statement from Administrator Hemze, this fiscal conservative heard the Hallelujah Chorus going off in my head. Staunch fiscal conservative Commissioner Tom Workman then spoke at length in support of this sentiment, while the other Commissioners present gave no clear guidance on this call for direction from staff. One Commissioner was absent.