I am bothered by the exchange concerning the efficacy of Citizen Advisory Groups and the resulting AMEN from Council Member Elect Zimmermann. Andy Driscoll began by writing that "Citizen advisory groups are a complete sham, no matter what they're studying." And to this Dean added his AMEN.
I offer one story to Dean. The Park Board, as Dean acknowledged, had money issues up to a few years ago. They were not receiving,or spending,enough money to properly maintain their existing infrastructure. Every year they submitted requests for more money then was available, with standards that seemed at times to reflect no long term strategy for their assets. I remember the year they requested and received funding to fix the wood gym floor at Lynnhurst, that was wrecked from the leaking roof. The interesting part is they didn't submit a request to fix the roof,the cause of the problem, until the next year. What happened to change their approach to maintaining their assets? Not being a member of the Park Board or its staff, I only can go with what they have put in print. To quote their own Infrastructure Summary and GAP Report: "The Capital Long Range Improvement Committee (CLIC), the citizens committee that prepares a capital budget for the Mayor's review, requested that the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board prepare a comparable (to the Public Works report) study for Park Board assets." It was this study that was the basis for the Park Board's numbers that were used to begin the process of bringing their capital program into some sort of long range plan. And according to the Park Board, based on advice from a CITIZEN ADVISORY GROUP. I agree with Andy and Dean that some citizen groups are used by the powers that be as a "sham". The politicians know what they are going to do from the beginning and whatever the group comes up with is most likely going to only make modest changes to the plan as they have laid it out. At the same time, I believe the failure of many citizen groups is that they become citizen ADVOCACY groups, not advisory groups. When they come up with their opinion they assume that is what should be done. The problem is they are selected not elected, they have no responsibility for the ultimate decision, they do not have the knowledge of all the other components involved in the project under study, and often they are blinded, just as politicians can be, by advocating for the true and right way, which is their way. Hopefully when Dean becomes an official Council Member, he recognizes the role citizen groups play. I would hope he listens to their advice, but I also hope he understands that he was elected to make decisions. His decisions must be made on a total picture, that at times might not agree with what a citizen group recommends. Bob Gustafson, writing today from the Mushy Middle of Minneapolis __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
