The re-appointment of watershed board member Patricia Preiner of Columbus came before the Anoka County Board of Commissioners in December.
Chair Scott Schulte said he had taken over evaluating her application because her commission district currently has no representative on the board.
The county board, not the cities in the watershed, has the authority to appointment watershed managers. The watershed board levies taxes to help fund its efforts.
“This should be appointments direct from from the city to the watershed districts. Unfortunately, we don’t get to make that decision. We are under the heavy hand of Minnesota state statute,” said Scott Schulte, Anoka County Board of Commissioners Chair.
The board heard from Circle Pines and Centerville city administrators who support a list of nominees from Circle Pines, which they say should be fully considered.
“We feel we followed this process, our council is very supportive of this process. They went out and found people, we passed a resolution, and folks filled out an application. We feel they deserve a shot serve on this board. We don’t feel we have the proper representation we need,” said Patrick Antonen, Circle Pines City Administrator.
Mark Statz, Centerville City Administrator, also had comment on the issue. “A large chunk of Rice Creek Watershed District is in District 6, and we’ve got an empty seat there. We’d really like that representative to be a part of that decision making process.”
The board did vote to postpone any vote on appointments to the watershed board until March 10th, a few weeks after the special election to fill the vacant district six seat.
