Rybak and Olson--Let's Move On and Take a Wider Look... I tried without success to post a message on this subject last Saturday morning prior to heading off to the Shingle Creek watershed cleanup. If the Star Tribune account is true, I think Mayor Rybak is correct in taking a step back to catch his breath to think through this process to ensure he is making the right decisions.
In reading numerous other posts to the site, there clearly was concern among persons in different parts of our city about our police department. The number and variety of posts seems to confirm that problems exist with police-community relations. There did not appear to be consensus on this board or in the larger community that ousting the police chief will bring a quick solution to these problems. During the past week I had occasion to discuss this topic with people from wards 8 and 11. Both felt Mayor Rybak's position was wrong. They felt that either there was no basis for ousting the chief, the cost was too high, or RT had not laid a groundwork for his position before this matter went public. In Shingle Creek (northwest corner of the city), in contrast to complaints about police-community relations, a concern that I have heard is alleged lack of adequate policing due to demands in other parts of town. I would say that community relations with CCP-SAFE are adequate. We have seen our crime numbers heading steadily downward. It should be apparent to all city residents that Minneapolis is facing EXTREMELY tight budgets in its municipal functions, including our redevelopment authority funding, concerns about future NRP funding, struggles to find resources for affordable housing development, paying for needed capital infrastructure improvements (including a $142 million membrane filtration phased program for the water works) and to close the public works and park board infrastructure gaps ($ in the tens of millions), etc. etc. I could not easily dismiss the estimated $300,000 buyout cost in this context. Rather than devoting time and resources to the move to oust Chief Olson, I urge Mayor Rybak and Council Members to begin a dialogue to consider the feasibility of having law enforcement functions consolidated at the county level under the authority of the county sheriff or a new entity. One would think that consolidation would achieve efficiencies and cost savings for the taxpayers through avoiding redundant facilities, overhead and management costs. Maybe this dialogue could be continued by the citizenry and officials to discuss the functions and structure of all local government units, many of which have been carried over from the 19th century right into the 21st century. Jeffrey Strand Shingle Creek/4th Ward _______________________________________ 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
