One year ago the Mayor came to the City Council with $5.5 milion in cuts from the 2002 Budget.
Among those cuts was a reduction in Civilian Review Authority to $100K specifically to study what to do with CRA. The more cynical of us said that the Mayor was paying off on a campaign promise to the Police Federation. When we squawked another $100K got put back into the budget. Then various city staff and community leaders sat down for three months to wrangle out a new Civilian Review Authority. Some time this past Fall the results of that work came to light though they were nothing like what had been recommended by a majority of the committee. This past week a final ordinance came before Health and Human Services and Public Safety & Regulatory Services Committees. In its present form the CRA has come to be a mockery of what it once was which wasn't much itself. Who could have thought it could get worse? But it did. Seeing as how it has turned out this way it makes perfect sense to eliminate it completely. Believe me: To spend one penny on the reconstituted Civilian Review Authority would be fiscal mismanagement in the extreme. Let people sue the city if they have issues with the police and let the City Attorney's office fight them. It may be bad policy but it might be cost effective. This is where things like "No new Taxes" pledges lead us. In the long run I cannot but believe they destroy our social fabric. Tim Connolly Dowtown Member of both CUAPB(Communities United Against Police Brutality) and The Barbara Schneider Foundation __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
