Thank you Scott for your comments.
I am the Political Chair for the Sierra Club Twin Cities Group Political Committee. The Sierra Club has never stated Bob Fine as "their worst enemy on the Park Board". We did endorse Tracy Nordstrom over Bob Fine because we believed Tracy demonstrated a greater commitment to the environment. Although, Bob was an incumbent he did not receive the support of either the DFL delegates or the Sierra Club and Tracy Nordstrom came very close to upsetting him because a significant amount of residents had concerns about his leadership. The Sierra Club priorities are preservation, restoration of green space parkland while improving our cities lakes, creeks and river water quality.
Bob has not been friendly to environmental concerns while serving on the Park Board and numerous Sierra Club members have expressed concern about his desire to protect the environment. Bob voted to give MNDot over 7 acres of Minnehaha Park land for the rerouting of highway 55. This project destroyed 289 trees of significance (by MNDot standards) and dewatering for this project jeopardized permanently damaging Coldwater Springs. Fortunately, State Senator Julie Sabo and Representative Mark Gleason helped to pass legislation protecting Coldwater Spring from being destroyed by this project. Bob Fine listened to hundreds of residents express concerns about this project and the damage that would be caused to Coldwater Springs and Minnehaha Park. He decided to ignore resident�s comments and voted to transfer park land to MNDot. He was presented with over 14,000 signatures from residents that opposed this project. Many Sierra Club Members have serious concerns about a Park Board Member voting to give Minneapolis parkland to be used for highway development. We never referred to Bob as our �worst enemy on the Park Board� and would not make that statement about any candidate. We would hope that Bob Fine would become more sensitive to the concerns of environmentalists and understand his very close election was a reflection of his leadership. We look forward to working with the entire Park Board helping to protect and improve the environment for future generations.
Respectfully.
Ken Bradley
Twin Cities Group Political Chair Sierra Club
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I recently was quite taken aback by Kurt Waltenbaugh's personal and slanderous attack on Bob Fine's character and record as a park commissioner. This was all done in his attempt to slam Marie Hauser for supporting Bob as President of the Board. Of course, if he had at least identified himself as living in the same house as Tracy Nordstrom (the loser in last fall's election) one might better understand his anger and bitterness. I've always understood the forum to be a place to share and learn from one another's opinions, so I would hope outright lies about another person would not be tolerated. Let me point out three unrefuteable examples of Waltenbaugh's false statements regarding Bob. First, he stated that Bob had said "he would honor the (DFL) endorsement" and not run for reelection if he lost. Think about it. Bob had been elected to an at-large seat without endorsement four years ago. He never said he wouldn't run without endorsement and probably never will, even though he's been active in the DFL party most of his adult life. Second, is Waltenbaugh's totally inaccurate portrayal of Bob trying to double the Park Board salaries and when that failed, leading the efforts to approve a 30% increase. Truth-of-the-matter is that Dean Zimmermann, supported by Young, Berry-Graves, and Dziedzic moved to almost double the salaries. To counter this proposal I moved and argued to support a more moderate increase to cover the next four years. This did pass on a 5-4 vote with Bob's support. Otherwise, salaries would have doubled. Thirdly, and probably Waltenbaugh's most absurd remark was that the Sierra Club called Bob "their worst enemy on the Park Board". I called the Sierra Club to verify this. They were quite upset that Waltenbaugh had attributed a statement like this to their organization and were going to investigate the matter. Any spokesperson out there from the Sierra Club? It is ridiculous that someone with Bob's record on environmental issues would be presented in that manner.
Bob Fine was elected President of the Park Board by a vote of 8-1. Only Vivian Mason, who spent most of the fall campaigning for Nordstrom, voted against him. Marie Hauser was elected (not appointed) Vice-President by an 8-0-1 margin. The only non-vote was by Berry-Graves, who in the past had feigned gender issues in the make-up of the leadership of the Board. It is obvious an overwhelming majority of the Board supports this new leadership team, to imply differently is absurd.
The election is over. Bob Fine won a hard fought, well-derved victory. It's time for people who truly care about our park system to put their energy into supporting it.
Scott Neiman
Former 6th Park District Commissioner
Ward 11
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