News & Articles

The Community Investment Trust (CIT) fund is the best friend the city ever had. Established by referendum vote in 1993, the CIT is where our casino money piled up, generating free, delicious income for years. The fund grew untouched until 2004, when Mayor Herb Bergson and the Greater Downtown Council convinced the city council to take a nibble of the fund—just $200,000 a year for five years—to hire a small team of ambassadors to stroll around town in fluorescent yellow T-shirts, picking up litter, assisting tourists, and generally spreading a vibe of safeness and welcome around Duluth.
It didn’t seem to be a huge sacrifice to make at the time. There was $60 million in the CIT, and more coming in from the casino every year. At its height, the balance of the CIT approached $80 million. So healthy and robust did the fund seem that the Bergson administration returned to it several times after the initial withdrawal, removing $1.2 million to help build the Heritage Sports Center, $3 million to help alleviate homelessness, and $12 million to kick-start the city’s unfunded (at that time) retiree healthcare liability.
When Don Ness was elected mayor, CIT spending increased. To avoid long-term bonding debt, the Ness administration adopted a pay-as-you-go approach to street repair, whereby each year’s street project budget was withdrawn in full from the CIT. Old street debt was also paid off, sometimes early, with money from the CIT. All of this improved the city’s debt picture (and streets) while sharply drawing down the CIT.
In 2009, the casino stopped making payments to the city, unexpectedly shutting off the money hose. Everything went into the courts, and it all turned into a big mess, as everybody is well aware. Withdrawals from the CIT have continued, because the city really has no choice but to continue them—the street bonds aren’t going to pay themselves. The most recent withdrawal from the CIT was in December of 2013, when the city council approved another $2.2 million for debt service.
Today, ten years after the first tiny withdrawal was made for fluorescent yellow ambassadors, the balance of the CIT stands at less than $20 million. Even that reduced amount may be in jeopardy.
The proposed streets plan calls for continuing to pay off old street debt with money from the CIT, and then replenishing the CIT with money the casino owes us, which is supposed to be $12 million. The money, like everything else, has been tied up in court for years, and will probably be tied up for years to come. There is no telling when, or even if, the city will receive this money. Assuming—worst case scenario—the city does not get the money, the entire balance of old street debt will have to be paid from the CIT, leaving little more in the fund than pocket change and lint.
Assuming—best case scenario—the city does get the money, and the money does go into the CIT, it won’t stay in the CIT for long. The city has too much need for it. Do you want to bet?
The bottom line is that the CIT has ceased to be a healthy, growing fund. It is a suet ball being pecked ever smaller by the birdies. Let us remove it from our budgetary ruminations, stop thinking about what might have been, and regretfully wave it goodbye.

City bow hunt harvest down; large deer populations remain at both ends, in middle of city

In a presentation to the city council on April 28, representatives of the Arrowhead Bowhunters Alliance updated councilors on the city bow hunt, which wrapped up its ninth season in December. Phillip Lockett, president of the ABA, said that hunters have harvested 4,750 deer in nine years, “which is a huge number.”
The hunt may be accomplishing its hoped-for reduction of Duluth’s urban deer herd. After years of roughly stable harvest numbers (generally between 500 and 600 deer annually), 2013 saw the harvest drop to 399—the lowest number since 2005, the year of the hunt’s inception. The drop occurred despite having 391 hunters participating in the hunt, the most ever. The ABA has been slowly but steadily increasing its number of hunters every year. Lockett said that they might now consider capping that number, or even reducing it.
“More hunters isn’t necessarily the answer,” he said. “If you put too much pressure on [the deer], then they move.” He is also concerned about hunter-to-hunter conflicts that arise when too many people hunt too small an area.
Lockett was careful not to give the bow hunt too much credit for the drop in deer numbers. “We had a very hard spring last year, had lots of snow in April. I think that really impacted the deer herd as well, and the fawns.”
Despite the lean harvest, there remain areas of heavy deer concentration in the city. Lockett showed a map of the various bow hunting zones in the city, color-coded by number of deer harvested. Red and orange zones, signifying high deer harvest rates, were at both ends of town. (The map, and a plethora of graphs, may be viewed at the ABA’s website, bowhuntersalliance.org.)
“It’s been amazing,” Lockett said. “Up in the Woodland area, at the top of the city, it’s been, probably, one of our biggest producing areas of the city, and I don’t know if it’s that so many deer feed in from the north, or what, but it’s just been amazing, how many deer we have comin’ out of that area.”
The far southern end of town, where Fond du Lac abuts Jay Cooke Park, is another deer-heavy zone. “This year we actually saw a very large harvest out of [that] zone,” said Lockett, sounding slightly surprised, “which is typically where a lot of our new hunters get put, so they really stepped up this year as well.”
Traditional areas of deer concentration—the Antenna Farm and the mall area—remained heavy in 2013 as well.
All in all, Lockett said that he hopes the good partnership between the city, the Arrowhead Bowhunters Alliance, the police, and the citizens of Duluth will continue. Councilors seemed confident that it will.
It’s the perfect arrangement. The bow hunt does a service for the city, makes hunters happy, and costs taxpayers nothing. You can’t beat a deal like that.
(There was one uncomfortable moment during the meeting, when an angry, possibly intoxicated deer broke into council chambers and tried to speak. It was a great relief to everyone when a quick-thinking member of the audience waved a copy of the agenda and scared the beast away.)

I end meetings when I want to end them, yo

The city council meeting of May 12 went on and on. Council president Linda Krug appeared eager to be done. At one point, she said, “Councilors, let’s wrap up for tonight, okay?”—which is kind of an odd thing for a councilor to say. Normally you take care of all the business on the agenda, and then somebody makes a motion to adjourn, and somebody else seconds the motion, and a vote is taken, and the meeting adjourns. In practice, these steps are usually quick formalities, but they provide a check against someone adjourning a meeting on a whim, or for purposes of disruption, or to shut down dissent.
“I understand that we all want to go home,” responded Councilor Howie Hanson,” but we’re here to work!”
 “But, Councilor Hanson, it’s been a long night,” President Krug protested, “and it’s… and so…”
The meeting rolled on, with Councilor Hanson complaining that he was being shut out of the process of crafting legislation for the new streets program. Hanson has shown himself to be a persistent and unavoidable voice in his short time on the council, especially when he feels himself to be in the minority, which is fairly often. President Krug just wanted to go home. She repeatedly tried to get Hanson to shut up. Finally he did.
“I wanna be included in that conversation, but I feel like I’m being shut out,” he said. “That’s my point.”
“All right,” said Councilor Krug. “I appreciate that. Thank you, Councilor Hanson.”
At this point, Councilor Joel Sipress and Chief Administrator Dave Montgomery both had their buttons pressed, indicating that they wished to speak. It is the council president’s job to call on councilors or staff whose buttons are pressed. But Councilor Krug decided that she really, really didn’t want the meeting to go on any longer. “Councilor Sipress, you don’t need to say anything,” she said. “Mr. Montgomery, I think it is time for all of us to go home now, and find new words overnight, so that we can be fresh in the morning, to talk again.”
“And sing ‘Kumbaya,’” quipped Councilor Hanson.
“Oh, not ‘Kumbaya,’” said Councilor Krug. “All right. We will adjourn this meeting now.” She brought down the gavel. Bang!
And that was that. The meeting was over.
There was no motion to adjourn, no second, and no vote. President Krug decided it was time to be done, so it was. People with their mouths open to speak had to close them and go away.
It doesn’t seem right, somehow. President Krug isn’t royalty, is she?
I just think it’s important to go through the steps, don’t you?

Meanwhile, the budget-devouring streets plan…

…continues to fluctuate, as city councilors (not including Howie Hanson) and city staff hash out the ordinances and resolutions that will define the terms of the plan. According to the councilors who managed to speak before President Krug shut down the meeting, the shape of the proposed streets plan is changing. What was once a permanent $8.50-per-month household fee has now become a one-year-only $5-per-month household fee, subject to review. The streetlight fee is now supposed to sunset, and a number of other changes have been made. CAO Montgomery seemed dismayed by some of the things he heard. It’s all as unstable as June ice.
I’m pretty sure the end result will cost money.

John Ramos has observed and written on Duluth politics since he moved to Duluth in 1998, with a special focus on tourism and tourism taxes. He has been snarled at by mayors, lawyers, and CEOs for his articles, which he considers to be a form of applause.