Hello All, Just got back from a 4 day trip and - WOW - a lot of commentary on Parks, Buildings, and City Council. I have been dismayed at City Council's recent actions. Their unilateral actions are hardly what I would call working together for the betterment of the city! This behavior is the last thing the citizens of this city deserve from their representatives. This whole process should have occurred with discussion with the independent boards! It did not happen!
I would like to make a few comments: 1) The city is in a financial mess. They have overspent for years. The new council and mayor is trying to deal with this. I find it ironic that they are the ones slamming the financial management of the Park Board! Seems to me that we (The Park Board) have stayed within our means a lot better than they! It also seems to me they are trying to 1) divert criticism away from the past management, and 2) to try to justify their 14.9% increase at the expense of the independent Boards by making the independent boards look like spendthrifts - WE ARE NOT IN DEBT! 2) Yes, the city is trying to undermine the independence of the Park and Recreation Board and the Library Board. This is a fundamental attack on our existing and historic system of governing in this city. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the city had control of the parks a long time ago the land would have been sold off! What I find disturbing about the attack on the independence of the boards is that they are attempting to try to take away your and my ability as a voter to make financial decisions about where our money goes through the referendum system! This is VERY disturbing to me and should be to any Minneapolis citizen! I do know that I, as a taxpayer, have been far more comfortable spending taxes on parks and schools than sending more money downtown to go who knows where! 3) Lisa McDonald's comments are right on with respect to City Council's historic support of the Park and Recreation system. The Park and Rec Board has been given generous increases. I believe that the Park and Rec Board should be participating in the current cuts! However, I do have a problem with the independent boards taking significant cuts and City Council taking a significant increase at the same time! 4) I could not disagree more with Kurt W.'s comments on city management of Parks. It would be a disaster! It is, and has been, the Park Boards who have fought for the continued development of Park land in Minneapolis and up the Mississippi River. The city has only made this more difficult! After just 6 months on the Board, I see the clear wisdom of a separate Board! 5) I believe there is lots of work to be done on financial management in the Park and Rec Board. I am just getting my feet wet at this time and we will be looking into all financial management. The staff is, however, excellent and has done a tremendous job of using the taxpayer's dollars to leverage additional grants to support the system. I have been pushing for non-tax based revenue for the system. 6) We simply have to figure out where to get dollars to fix some of these buildings! What a mess! If the city continues with the proposed cuts, it will have a significant impact on the system - there will be cut backs. FYI - my priority is our neighborhood and inner city parks. My priority is NOT Fort Snelling! 7) As I said before, the proposed headquarters acquisition along the river is revenue neutral. In other words, the bonding for approx. $5.5 million would result in payments comparable to existing current rent and parking in the downtown offices. There is interest from the city in renting as well - this would result in a clear cost savings. At least we will be gaining equity for the citizens of the city! I support moving out of expensive rental property downtown regardless of what happens with the Mississippi River property. It is far too expensive, not easily accessible for many people and not financially responsible! 8) Lastly, I support the Park Legacy's desire to co-manage the Superintendent's House when it is not occupied by a Superintendent. This facility should be more accessible to everyone than it is now. I guess this wasn't as short a note as I thought! Sticking my neck out on a few of these things. I am passionate about this stuff though! Please write back with comments or e-mail me directly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). Your opinions are always appreciated! John Erwin City Wide Commissioner Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Mark Snyder Sent: Monday, July 15, 2002 9:40 PM To: Minneapolis Issues Forum Subject: Re: [Mpls] Is the City Council playing fair? Terrell Brown gets at one concern that I had, one that Bob Fine had raised last week as well: By demanding cuts of the Park and Library Boards as part of the 8% levy cap, the city is hiding the actual amount of their levy as opposed to being straightforward with us citizens and voters. I also agree with Terrell's point that with the Library Board, the city is trying to do an end-run on the referendum we passed and it plain sucks. Both of these are reminiscent of the kinds of seedy politics that many of us thought we voted out last fall. I personally feel somewhat betrayed that this proposal is supported by a mayor who ran on how he would bring a "breath of fresh air" to City Hall. A campaign that I volunteered for, though my role was small. Guess we may still have some housecleaning to do if this is how city is going to play. Sure hope our mayor or one of those council members supporting this travesty can find some time to share their side of the story. As far as Terrell's wondering where all the money goes though, I can hazard a guess for some of it. Inflation may be down to a percent or two, but things like health care premiums continue to rise at double-digit levels each year. Since much of the city's overall budget is spent on staff salaries and benefits, a good portion of the city's budget increase will probably go towards those increases. That's one good reason why folks ought to support single-payer health care. HMOs are not only hitting our wallets for our own coverage, but they hit us again as taxpayers for covering government employees. Too bad Mike Hatch didn't keep at it with his campaign against Allina. I don't know much about the Loring Park project, but I though John Erwin did a pretty good job a couple weeks ago at explaining why moving the Park Board headquarters was a fiscally sound idea. Here's a link to his post for those who might've missed it: http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2002-July/014425.html Mark Snyder Windom Park (59A) [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________ 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
