09-11-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING August 28, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 14 of 15 indicted. He will still have to deal with the courts but hopefully they will get it right, he said. He asked why Mr. Crosby doesn’t feel like he has to answer questions about that suff. It sounds like if you are part of an insurrection you are no longer fit to serve the citizens of this country, he said, according to the 14th Amendment. Erickson stated the Holocaust is funny to Crosby as well as being with the Proud Boys at the Governor’s mansion. He said he has a video of Crosby right at the front steps. MAYOR/COUNCIL REPORT Crosby said he wanted to comment on some of Erickson’s comments. Crosby said Erickson revels in the fact that the crooked Department of Justice is going after the next President of the United States but there is no discussion about Joe Biden who is shoveling money over to the Ukraine to pay for kickbacks, money that he has laundered out to the Ukraine and China and that is all okay. Crosby said Erickson’s free speech is slander, degradation, put-downs, and threats. He hasn’t learned from history because for his profession of hating Nazis, he has turned himself into one, he said. Instead of having polite discourse he slanders and threatens people. Free speech is important, the right to assemble is important. Protesting is not necessarily an insurrection, Crosby continued. Calling somebody an anti-Semite because they want it to be so doesn’t make it so. This is old, foolish, boring, and its time should be passed. He said he and wife became grandparents over the weekend. Benson said the most pressing issue at this time in the City of Orono is how fire service will look starting next summer. The City has removed the Navarre service area from the Long Lake Fire Department and plans to begin servicing that area on July 1, 2024, which is less than one year away. She believes residents and the larger community don’t understand why the City Council is choosing to create an independent fire department. This is troubling when it is Orono residents who have been paying and will continue to pay for fire service, she said. Many residents, fire fighters, and neighboring municipalities have expressed questions and many concerns with the direction Orono is taking, she added. Tonight more money was approved in supporting this endeavor. She said public safety should be a collaborative effort between public officials and the residents they serve. An independent Orono department is attainable only through the use of public dollars collected from the residents. They have sent a clear message that leadership in Orono is not listening. She said she looks forward to hearing future updates on the mediation process. Johnson asked the public to understand how the Council works, noting that Council members are taxpayers too, so their decisions impact the amount of taxes they pay on their properties. The decision has been made to move away from Long Lake Fire and open territory 2 in July of next year, he said. No one said this is going to be cheaper. To throw around numbers from the past, Orono already knows the increase Long Lake is giving us under this existing contract. The equipment is neglected and behind for a variety of reasons but that is irrelevant at this point and now the City has to make it right, he said. The City Council has made a decision to start a new department and open that new territory in July. The Council now has to make the decisions to make that happen. To vote against it for no reason other than you didn’t agree with it in the first place is going against the Council’s responsibility to the citizens, he said. The truth is the Council is finding ways to do this without levying for it and increasing taxes. Decisions need to be made to support what is happening in July. Living in the past isn’t effective. These decisions have been made. The Council has to make decisions to keep pushing forward. Long Lake has no business running Orono’s department, he said, and this decision is in the best interest of Orono citizens in the long term. Veach said she is very new to this and everyone has been very kind. She believes Orono and Long Lake can get along and mediation could go well. She cautioned against holding on to the past so much. She