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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Ely wants more bang for the buck from lobbies

Keith Vandervort
Posted 2/26/15

ELY – City Council members talked about the city’s memberships in various state and regional lobbying organizations and are going to take a long and hard look at what organizations give them the …

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Ely wants more bang for the buck from lobbies

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ELY – City Council members talked about the city’s memberships in various state and regional lobbying organizations and are going to take a long and hard look at what organizations give them the most bang for the buck.

“For years and years we just keep renewing memberships in these organizations and this year it came to a head that maybe RAMS (Range Association for Municipalities and School) wasn’t functioning according to its bylaws and constitution,” said Mayor Chuck Novak. “And I think the council needs to probably pay more attention when memberships come up and we should ask if it is worth the investment.”

The city regularly gets requests from all sorts of organizations. “You have the small cities, the mayors’ group, you have this group and that group and everything else,” he said. “When it comes to bang for the buck, you can rank them. We have League of Minnesota Cities and Greater Minnesota Cities. Greater Minnesota Partnership is a good one.”

Ely’s Community developer is a member of the Iron Range Alliance, through the Iron Range Rehabilitation and Resources Board.

“With these we usually see results,” Novak said, “and they benefit this community. RAMS ended up benefitting the school district.” ISD 696 is a separate taxing district.

“If city initiatives are getting ignored, why would we participate?” he asked. “We renewed the dues for another year because there is hope on the horizon.”

Ballots for voting for RAMS board members is underway. Council member Paul Kess and Morse Township supervisor Robert Berrini are running for seats. School Board chairman Ray Marsnik is staying on the board. “That’s a good representation for the area,” Novak said.

“I believe RAMS will return to its original mission,” Kess said. “I think it is difficult for anyof these (organizations) and not just RAMS to see concrete results that benefit Ely directly. For example, RAMS advocates at the Legislature for our taconite (tax) and of course it comes to us but it is not something that we can say comes as a project for us. Some of these organizations advocate for much broader programs that benefit all cities.”

Heidi Omerza added, “I think it goes back to you get out of an organization what you put into it. I think with RAMS, communication has been the issue and I think I’m confident with (council members) being involved and understanding what our concerns have been that we can move forward more confidently and these situations will be resolved.”

Clerk-Treasurer Harold Langowski said, “As far as our projects and what our priorities are and how we bring them to these groups, for the last several years we have been bringing them by resolution. For any of these organizations, that has improved.”

In the past, it has been assumed that the mayor represents the city at RAMS meetings. Last month, Kess volunteered to be the main delegate and council member Daniel Forsman offered to be the alternate delegate.

Langowski noted the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association advocates for utility projects. Annual dues for MMUA are about $5,500. “They advocate for us on regulations,” he said.

“What I’ve seen over the years is that there are a lot of requests and the council has been diligent in looking at them,” he said.