On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, Andy Driscoll wrote: > The police department of any city is in desperate need of oversight from > elected officials.
In general, I agree with Andy on this point. The need for civilian oversight is glaring and obvious. The department has had plenty of opportunity to reform itself, and failed utterly. > It's the mayor's job to ride herd on the cops. This is where I'm concerned. Certainly, the inability (or lack of interest) of the council in providing for a real civilian review board has been a major problem. And in a weak mayor system, what ultimately can the mayor do? Let's say that the new chief is picked on the willingness to be Rybak's "boy". Even if that is the case, how long will the politics of the situation allow such a chief to continue to be under the thumb of the mayor? If a chief was openly the mayor's choice, how much would that chief be undermined immediately? The weak mayor system puts all responsibility like this ultimately with the council. Certainly, Rybak should try his best and hope for either support or at least an abstention from the council. But the power game aspect of it alone makes this sound very unlikely to me. Erik Hare [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://tcfreenet.org/people/hare Irvine Park, West End, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, North America, Earth Fine Amish furniture, cedar chests, and crafts http://www.harmonycedar.com REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
