"Cheap Shot" at the Minneapolis NRP As an elected neighborhoods representative member of the Minneapolis NRP Policy Board, I object to the "cheap shot" offered up by Victoria Heller in her list of possible solutions to the city's financial problems. I do appreciate Ms. Heller's frequent contributions and insightful perspective on the issues.
Since the program's inception in 1990, empowerment of citizens through neighborhood-based planning and goal setting has been at the core of the NRP. Like any process or program implemented by fellow human beings, the NRP has its faults and failures. The same can easily be said of other areas in the public and private sectors--remember Enron? The NRP Policy Board has adopted and implemented a strong conflict of interest policy to which neighborhood associations and participants must comply (view the policy at www.nrp.org) NRP Director Bob Miller has also maintained a strong annual budget line item for financial audits. As a neighborhood chair and director in Shingle Creek for the past decade, I find this "cheap shot" insulting and offensive. Thousands of Minneapolis residents in the various neighborhoods have volunteered countless hours of their valuable free time to help plan our futures. To dismiss the value of these contributions toward neighborhood-based planning efforts that have added value to the quality of life in Minneapolis by commenting about "neighborhood bullies" was a "cheap shot." The NRP is governed by joint-powers agreement between five government jurisdictions that serve the residents of Minneapolis. I urge list members to actively engage and offer constructive ideas for the betterment of NRP as well as community planning and economic development in general. The Policy Board is at this time doing just that through a Work Team actively evaluating how the NRP relates to the Focus Minneapolis initiative. Jeffrey L. Strand, NRP Policy Board Member Shingle Creek 4-1 ===================================================== From: "Victoria Heller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mpls Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 11:17:07 -0600 Subject: [Mpls] The Era of "Voting Yourself Other Peoples' Money" is over When the financial markets crash, so do tax collections. Those big nasty companies that Listmembers love to hate are not making profits anymore - and they are laying people off left and right (no pun intended.) There are no more surpluses, only deficits as far as the eye can see. So stop spending hope. Possible Solutions to the Minneapolis financial crisis: 6. Stop giving NRP money to neighborhood bullies so they can pay themselves to figure out ways to spend it. Vicky Heller North Oaks and Cedar-Riverside _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
