Thanks for posting this, Steve. I find it mighty peculiar.Victoria Heller writes: Monday, I will drive downtown and ask the MCDA/CPED Sears site project manager for a copy of the appraisal. If necessary, I will invoke the Minnesota Data Practices Act -- though I believe the agency would then have ten days to comply with the request.
Steve Brandt writes:
If Ms. Heller is still listening, she might want to call before she
goes. Generally, appraisals done for a public agency are nonpublic data
under state law in the early stages of negotiation. Here's Minnesota
Statutes 13.44 on the topic:
Subd. 3. Real property; appraisal data. (a) Confidential or protected nonpublic data. Estimated or
appraised values of individual parcels of real property which
are made by personnel of the state, its agencies and
departments, or a political subdivision or by independent
appraisers acting for the state, its agencies and departments,
or a political subdivision for the purpose of selling or
acquiring land through purchase or condemnation are classified
as confidential data on individuals or protected nonpublic data.
(b) Public data. The data made confidential or
protected nonpublic by the provisions of paragraph (a) shall
become public upon the occurrence of any of the following:
(1) the negotiating parties exchange appraisals;
(2) the data are submitted to a court appointed condemnation commissioner;
(3) the data are presented in court in condemnation proceedings;
(4) the negotiating parties enter into an agreement for the purchase and sale of the property; or
(5) the data are submitted to the owner under section 117.036.
Steve Brandt Star Tribune
It sounds a lot like the question about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. That is, the interpretation of this law will vary widely depending on which lawyer or court is interpreting it. After all, the esitmated or appraised values of ALL PRIVATE property, made by "personnel of the state, its agencies and departments, or a political subdivision [counties and their tax assessors]" is PUBLIC information in all counties. I regularly look up the governmentally appraised value of PRIVATE real estate via various county records. Most counties have that information available publically via their web sites, even.
So when does that data become private? When the property is already owned by a government entity, then for some strange reason it's nonpublic data? What kind of strange logic is that: private property data is public but public property data is private?
Or -- at least in my reading of the law above -- when private property is about to be acquired by the government, then suddenly the appraisal they make of that property is nonpublic data. Do the counties then quickly remove all appraisal information about that piece of land from their public records? I highly doubt it. In fact, we all know that doesn't happen.
Have the "negotiating parties" exchanged appraisals for the Sears site? Did the city of Minneapolis show theirs to Ryan and Ryan show theirs to the city? If the data is nonpublic, how will we know if they exchanged them or not?
Once Minneapolis decides to give away a valuable piece of property to Ryan for a mere pittance, than according to b(4) above, the data becomes public -- when it's too late to change anything.
Chris Johnson Fulton
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