Tonight at the swearing in of Tom Baker for the 2nd Park District vacany Ed Garrity(sp?) served to give the oath. Mr. Garrity (sp?) was asked for a few words and he told us some history I would like to repeat for you and hope that my notes are correct. In 1959 there was a 15 member Park Board (at that time it did not have Recreation in it's name) made up of 9 people elected from Legislatvie Districts, 3 at-large and 3 seats ( One held by the Mayor and 2 selected Alderman from their midst). He reported that the Mayor only showed up for the opening swearing in and did not appear unless someone suspected there would be a tie vote from the other 14. This only happened once that he remembered. The Mayor and 2 Alderman served 2 - year terms while the Park Commisioners served 6 year terms. The Mayor and 2 Alderman were full voting members of the Commission. Some of you may know (or may not know) that there exists a Minneapolis Park "Green Book" which gives the history up through the 40's. Former Assistant Park Supt. for Planning, Al Whitman is writing the History Book (volume 2) taking up where the old book left off to the end of the 90's. Wonder if the History of elections and Commissioner changes and time of terms , et al will be included in the book. I find this stuff very intriguing but it is really hard to find many people who know lots about these deep roots of all the jurisidictions which have power and control decision making over the lives of us - the citizens of Minneapolis. In amongst all the campaigning it would be fun to know some of the history of both the Park Board, School Board, Library Board and Council if only because we need to keep aprised of reinventing the wheel, or learning lessons from this and that. History buffs have at it - what is it we are electing all these folks to do and why and how did it all evolve over the years? Annie Young www.annieyoung.org Ward 6 - East Phillips in Minneapolis Citywide at-large Park Board Commissioner Green Party endorsed for re-election in 2001 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
