Laura Sether writes: > We got a call today saying that the Skyway News reported that the Mayor was > going to eliminate the city's Health Department and the Civil Rights > Commission, due to budget reasons. That is not true, and neither has been > considered in budget talks. Incidentally, the Civil Rights Commission has a > negligible (if any) budget impact.
To correct the caller's error, the Skyway News story reported no such thing about the mayor. The piece (http://www.skywaynews.net/display/inn_news/news02.txt) does say: "One might well wonder how the mayor managed to pull 11 politicians together to endorse a plan that, according to various sources, **could** (emphasis mine) mean elimination of the city's Health Department and its Civil Rights Commission, scrub the mayor's own promise of 24-hour snowplowing service, shorten park and library upgrades and hours and probably bite into key basic services such as police and fire protection and public works." We never said the mayor has specified cuts. In fact, the story specifically states: "The mayor won't tip his hand on where he thinks cuts ought to be made, allowing department heads to suggest their own cuts before weighing in. He only suggests that some city-owned properties could be sold to get them on the tax rolls and raise revenue, or that some services, such as the city and park police, could be combined to cut costs." The story later quotes council members worrying that social services will be targeted. Among them, Gary Schiff says, "Police and fire are going to take the least amount of cuts. Social services are going to get hit hard, and we're going to look to the county to pick that up." Natalie Johnson Lee is also quoted worrying about this, and later we talked to County Commissioner about further combining the Health Departments. We did make one screw-up: we meant Civil Rights Department, not Civil Rights Commission. That will be corrected in our 7/29 issue. I encourage everyone to read the story (which is also in the SW Journal). We stand behind it, and our sources, and the **possibility** that certain functions could be cut as a result of the plan. David Brauer Editor, Skyway News King Field _______________________________________ 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
