I watched yesterday's inauguration and Council organization, and
have been following the ensuing buzz, with interest, wondering what it all
means and what it portends for the new City government. What an intriguing
morning! I can think of several good titles for discussion threads: "Tea
leaves." "Strange bedfellows." Instead, I am going with "looking on the
bright side," since most perspectives that I have heard so far have viewed
the new Council with reactions ranging from skeptical to downright
pessimistic.
Most Council Members did have some reason for disappointment
yesterday. Barb Johnson and Lisa Goodman lost their respective bids for the
Council presidency and vice-presidency. Paul Ostrow won the presidency, but
was promptly rebuffed in his choice of running mate and committee
leadership, and was quoted in the Strib describing the results as "extremely
awkward." Barrett Lane not only did not win the Ways & Means chair for
which Ostrow recommended him, but he ended up not chairing any committee at
all. Sandy Colvin Roy broke her pledge of support to Ostrow, but did so
without casting her vote for the winning candidate as she expected. Twelve
out of thirteen Council Members voted against the winning candidate for
either Council president or vice-president. The new Council's first
critical votes--on the presidency, the vice-presidency, and the committee
leadership--were split as sharply as possible, seven to six. Finally,
fueling the image of a sharply divided body with a hostile undercurrent,
both Ostrow and his supporters and Johnson and her supporters let slip some
opportunities for showing greater unity and camaraderie than were visible in
the proceedings.
But, for as much reason as there was for disappointment yesterday,
there was reason for celebration too. While Barb Johnson lost the
presidency by a single vote, she saw the Council embrace her running mate
and the committee slate that she had carefully crafted, and she herself will
chair the powerful Ways & Means Committee. Robert Lilligren vaulted
straight from rookie to vice-president. Every single Council Member helped
elect the winning candidate for either Council president or vice-president.
Natalie Johnson Lee cast the critical swing votes that elected both the
president and the vice-president, and herself won a seat on the powerful
Executive Committee. And Paul Ostrow came away with the presidency, and a
chance for leadership in the most dynamic environment in City government in
years.
The tea-leaf readers are already searching for meaning out of the
confusion, and quite a few theories have emerged--most of them (at least
most that I have heard) predicting continuing division on the Council,
awkwardness and hard feelings among the Council Members, and uphill sledding
for president Ostrow. Those theories assume that yesterday's votes reflect
some underlying philosophical cleavage that will define the Council for the
next two years (even though Johnson Lee described her decisive swing vote by
saying that "there was no specific thing"). I take a different view. There
will surely be consequences from yesterday's votes, but those consequences
can be positive and healthy, if the Council takes advantage of the new mix
that it has stirred up:
Everyone has a voice in the new leadership--veterans and rookies,
affluent and have-not wards, DFLers and Greens (who chair two committees,
Claims and Health & Human Services). No vote can be taken for granted, as
Natalie Johnson Lee (and Sandy Colvin Roy) demonstrated. The Council
elected Paul Ostrow as president, thereby signaling its confidence in him;
but stopped short of rubber-stamping his recommended leadership, thereby
signaling its independence and its desire for a good thoughtful moderator
rather than a boss. If Ostrow takes those signals to heart, then he can
preside over an era of unprecedented creativity, dynamism, energy on the
City Council--and era in Minneapolis government for which he, Mayor Rybak,
and Council Vice-President Lilligren are admirably qualified. Rather than a
Council of blocs and cliques that vote together out of habit or loyalty,
this Council may become a government of free thought and open minds--a body
where policies are made or unmade on their merits, where leadership comes
from persuasion rather than partisanship, where majorities form around
issues rather than around personalities, and where every vote counts.
The theory that yesterday's votes reflect some underlying
philosophical cleavage that will define the new Council seems as unlikely to
me as the other theories that I have heard over the past few months trying
to predict the new Council's behavior. Before the general election in
November, when Ostrow announced his bid for the presidency, the conventional
wisdom predicted that the Cherryhomes-Ostrow contest would define the new
Council, with Cherryhomes leading the old guard and Ostrow as the insurgent
reformer; but not too long afterward, Jackie Cherryhomes was out of the
picture, and Barb Johnson had positioned herself as the underdog challenger
to sudden front-runner Ostrow. After the November election, with seven
newly elected Council Members, one newly elected Member was telling me about
how well all seven got along and how they would bring harmony and order to a
contentious institution; but yesterday found those seven split four-to-three
on every critical vote. Yesterday's Ostrow-Johnson split will probably
prove equally ephemeral, if the Council Members can let bygones be bygones,
get past their personalities and momentary disappointments, and get down to
the serious business of governing.
Natalie Johnson Lee probably got it right: "Don't count stuff out;
always expect the unexpected." The City Council yesterday signaled a change
from the same old same old. I am looking forward optimistically to the
results.
(By the way, I do have a day job, but I think that City Hall uses
Scott-brand tissue in the restrooms.)
BRM
Brian Melendez
St. Anthony West (Ward 3)
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