As a citizen and property owner, I am adamantly opposed to this monstrous intrusion into our beloved community. It is totally inconsistent with our goals for the city, as detailed in the comprehensive plan. It has a negative effect on our aesthetics, property values, environmental protection and possibly our health. Almost all of the present line is visible from my property.

However, as a member of the City Council, I am obliged to obey the laws governing council decisions.

State law requires that approval or denial of a permit must be based on written findings of fact at the time the vote is taken. The findings of fact must in turn be supported by the predominance of evidence contained in the official record. Well-intentioned lay opinions are no substitute for expert testimony.

The official record in this case is literally thousands of pages of materials submitted by the parties.

I could not in good conscience vote for denial of the resolution. In my opinion, the findings of fact for denial are simply not supported by the predominance of evidence in the record.

Having studied every aspect of the proposal, and spending over a year as a member of the Mayors' Steering Committee doing a thorough critique of the proposal, probably I know too much for my own good.

Certainly, voting for denial was the politically correct thing to do, and my vote against denial may prove to be suicidal, even though I knew at the time the denial would pass.

From all the mass of evidence, the issues really boil down to three:

• Need for the line. Xcel and Commonwealth have identified a substantial number of deficiencies in the metro grid system which, if not corrected, have a high probability of leading to "rolling blackouts" in our area as early as this summer. Our responsibility is to all of our residents as well as those directly impacted by the transmission line.

The steering committee studied all feasible alternatives and concluded that adding another circuit from the strong power source in Newport to the distribution center in Mendota Heights corrected more deficiencies than any others studied.

Geography dictates that this means going through or around Sunfish Lake. Routing along Highway 110/Delaware or I-494 means impacting residential areas in Sunfish Lake or Mendota Heights, in that any route requires connection to the Rogers Lake substation.

• Electromagnetic field, or EMF. All of the authoritative reports from the Minnesota Department of Health, other state, national and international agencies, the Environmental Quality Board, the Public Utilities Commission and the appellate courts all say the same thing, if you read them carefully: sure, there is always the possibility that EMF may prove to be harmful, but in our present state of knowledge, there is insufficient evidence to justify "aggressive regulatory action."

Until we know more, it is prudent to reduce EMF exposures where feasible and economically practical.

Had the permit been approved, a condition was included similar to that obtained in the settlement in South St. Paul. It said that in the event that state or federal regulatory agencies develop standards for EMF exposure, Xcel agrees to immediately comply with those standards.

If that means burying the line at the utility's expense, removing the line, or buying up and removing houses within so many feet of the line, so be it.

• Property values. Virtually everyone wants reliable electric power, but nobody wants the infrastructure where they can see it. Impacting another residential area to protect ours is hardly defensible. Someone's ox has to be gored somewhere if we live in a metropolitan area and want reliable power.

So Xcel will undoubtedly sue the city and the court will order us to negotiate a settlement.

If that does not work, the court will order the case to trial, where only the official record is reviewed and no testimony is allowed.

While a significant part of our litigation costs are covered by insurance with the League of Minnesota Cities, taking this thing to trial and possibly an appellate court would impose a substantial financial burden on all of the taxpayers in Sunfish Lake. Lacking a vigorous defense, that's a waste of taxpayer money.

These remarks do not represent official city position.

All I ask for at this point is your understanding.