I believe that a couple of weeks ago I mentioned on the list that at a Special Meeting of the Park Board was called to appoint two representatives to the Redistricting Commission. There was a motion to appoint Tony Scallon and Scott Neiman as our reps with no discussion of opening up the process for nominations. In a quick meeting manuever Rochelle Berry- Graves immediately submitted consideration for Naomi Loper and Patty Hillmeyer. It became clear that the five votes weren't there for the original nominees (Ed Solomon was in the hospital) and I wanted more time for discussion so moved to postpone and was able to hold off on the decision until last night. During the subsequent two weeks biographies were gathered, other nominees Rev. Nancy Anderson and George Puzak were also contacted and said they would be willing to serve. In the meantime, all those backroom politics we all hear about but often know nothing about occurred and last night the vote was taken. Scott Neiman and Tony Scallon were chosen. As a matter of public record it was noted that there were several nominees, some who PB members thought would be fair and bring a citywide perspective to drawing the new lines. The two arguments for alternative choices had been: 1. Using the Charter guidelines of people that hadn't been in elected office for a period of time and 2. choosing people not directly involved in campaigns during the last election cycle and 3. people who understood something about the Park Board, its dealings and impacts city wide. So be it.
But even more curious is that I have become the history buff on the Board and did some research to find out how it had been done in the past and found out that the Board had staff work out the lines based on the census and the Board drew them, themselves. So now I ask when and how did that get changed? The point of my sharing this story with you is that I believe you the public needs to know some of the inner-workings of the Park Board and that this 5-4 strangle-hold we have at this time really impedes getting work done in a fair, ethical and cooperative manner, both with the public and with the other jurisdictions that we work with. I have stories a mile long where it just doesn't seem that any rationale is being used in getting the Park Board business done. Some of you may say "I am crying over spilt milk" and we know that significant changes could have been made last election but I am not. What I want you to know is that the minority 4 have their hands tied for getting any substantive work done no matter how hard we try. But I commit to you - we four will keep trying, Annie Young Citywide Park Commissioner _______________________________________ 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
