I think it's absolutely shameful that so much of the
city is not represented on this commission. Apparently
the charter commission believes that only St Paul is
"east of the river".
People have asked before, but does anyone know what
the makeup of the Charter Commission is? Isn't Kari
Dziedzic, Walt's daughter, on it?
Loki Anderson
Marshall Terrace
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--- "Melendez, Brian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Annie Young wrote, "And don't forget Tony Scallon
> and Scott Neiman
> from the Park Board. I see we have a real balance
> in gender and color and
> lots of people from the wards and districts where
> there is likely to be the
> most change. Seems very skewed to me - but what do I
> know?"
>
> [BRM] I agree with Annie, and I'll go a step
> further: The Charter
> Commission's appointments are shockingly unbalanced,
> and the City Council's
> and the Park Board's appointments do not improve the
> picture. Let's look at
> the appointments in context (party and ward in
> parentheses):
>
> Appointments by the City Council: Fred Markus
> (Green, 10), Rick
> Stafford (DFL, 9).
> Appointments by the Park Board: Scott Neiman (DFL,
> 11), Tony Scallon
> (DFL, 9).
> Appointments by the Charter Commission: Steve
> Claypatch (DFL, 4),
> Everett Pettiford (DFL, 4), Karen Collier
> (Independence, 13), Todd Ferrara
> (Independence, 13), Michael Finch (Republican, 13),
> Lyle Schwartzkopf
> (Republican, 11).
>
> Now consider:
>
> 1. Out of ten members appointed by three public
> boards, only
> one woman. (I gather from Annie's message that
> there is a similar concern
> about racial diversity, but I don't know all the
> members' racial
> backgrounds. Perhaps someone else can furnish that
> information.)
>
> 2. Both DFLers appointed by the Charter Commission
> are packed
> into Ward 4, the City's most northwestern ward.
>
> 3. Both Republicans appointed by the Charter
> Commission come
> from adjacent wards, 11 and 13, packed into the
> City's southwestern corner.
> Both Independence Party members appointed by the
> Charter Commission are
> packed into Ward 13, basically the same southwestern
> corner as the
> Republicans.
>
> 4. The Charter Commission appointed no Greens.
> (Why not?)
>
> 5. The one Green appointed comes from Ward 10, so
> every
> non-DFLer on the Redistricting Commission is packed
> into the City's
> southwestern corner. There are no non-DFLers from
> Wards 2, 5, or 6, where
> the Greens made their strongest showings in the last
> election (and in fact
> elected the only two non-DFLers in the City other
> than Annie herself, who
> was elected at large).
>
> 6. In fact, not only are there no Greens from those
> wards,
> there is nobody at all! The Redistricting
> Commission will not include a
> single representative from north or east of the
> River--Wards 1, 2, and 3 are
> totally excluded. Except for Ward 4, the
> Redistricting Commission will not
> include a single representative from north of Lake
> Calhoun--Wards 5, 6, 7,
> and 8 are likewise totally excluded. So is Ward 12.
> Yet the Charter
> Commission appointed three of its six appointees
> from Ward 13, and two from
> Ward 4--two wards getting five out of six
> appointments. Factoring in the
> other appointments, Wards 9 and 11 are also
> double-represented. The City
> has thirteen wards but, on a ten-member
> Redistricting Commission, only five
> wards are represented.
>
> One further issue: The major political parties
> each nominated six
> to ten members for appointment by the Charter
> Commission, which must appoint
> two members from each party, at least one from the
> party's list. The DFL
> Party dutifully nominated ten members, taking great
> care for diversity--the
> list included members from eight wards, five women
> and five men, three
> members of racial minorities, and three openly gay
> or lesbian members. And
> while the Charter Commission did appoint one member
> from this list as
> required, they bypassed the rest of the list and
> instead appointed a second
> DFLer from the same ward as the first member. I am
> interested in hearing
> from the other parties whether their experience was
> equally bizarre. (And I
> am still curious why the Charter Commission
> appointed no Greens.)
>
> BRM
>
> Brian Melendez
> St. Anthony West (Ward 3)
> Chair, Minneapolis DFL Party
>
> _______________________________________
> Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic
> Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
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=====
"In their styes with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whacking"
-George Harrison
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