Alice Pickering
Wyoming Area Reporter

On the job since May 22, Craig Mattson, Wyomingís new city administrator has been investing part of his time familiarizing himself with city issues, personnel and operation and the pending merger of the city and Wyoming Township.

A Brooklyn Center native, Mattson began his professional life as a teacher and coach; first in Hopkins, then on the Iron Range. A move back to Oakdale as a community services director led to a position as interim city administrator; he was later hired as the city administrator where he served from 1980-1988.

During the years 1989-2001 Mattson was the city administrator for Grand Rapids, before making a move to East Grand Forks, where he held a similar position from 2001 until he came to Wyoming.

In his first job Mattson said he worked with an administrator who implemented a program where department heads learned about other city departments, cross-training in a sense.

As a result, everyone had a better understanding of responsibilities of colleagues and operation of their respective departments. This helped during staff meetings and when annual budgets were developed.

Wyoming hurdles

Part of the appeal of the position in Wyoming was the challenge of the changes coming to the city and township in anticipation of the merger said Mattson.

He has participated in tax increment financing, tax abatement programs, and annexation, in all three cities he has served.

He is puzzled by the delay in the decision about the merger petition, particularly since the city and Wyoming Township have mutually agreed to the terms and have carefully considered services, staff, taxes, utilities and streets in the well developed merger plan.

He wondered how Chisago City was able to annex such a large chunk of Wyoming Township in the first place, since it does not enclose any part of the township, and was not then providing service which might justify annexation.

In his experience, a city must border an area on at least two sides before it can attempt an annexation. In East Grand Forks, the city annexed an area that was being protected by the cityís developing river levee systems.

In his years as a city administrator he has made an effort to avoid reliance on state funding. His experience with local government assistance is that, while originally designed to correct fiscal disparity in communities, in practice it sometimes does not do that.

The laws governing local government aid funding also tend to change often.

He believes there needs to be a new method of distribution to make it work as it should. As examples he mentioned two larger retail stores building in Grand Rapids, which increased city tax revenues, but LGA to the city also increased.

Mattson favors fees for facility use sufficient to generate money necessary for their maintenance and support.

In Grand Rapids the civic center generated about $650,000 in rentals and the city contributed at most about $25,000 to $30,000 for the facility.

On the other hand, in East Grand Forks, the parks budget was picking up the large tab to support two municipal ice arenas.

During his tenure in Grand Rapids he helped develop a city foundation patterned after the locally based Blandin Foundation. With about half of the city income from the local utilities invested, it helped make up for shortfalls in some departments.

The merger decision will impact the 2007 Wyoming budget development. Mattson is preparing for this.

Mattson is currently living with a daughter and her family in Fridley. He is in the process of buying a house and will soon be living in the city.

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