The announcement about Rybak's police chief selection is little more than a day old and I'm disturbed to see any council members announcing whether they will choose to support him or not.
This should be a time where council members do their own review of the candidate's background and experience so that they can make an educated decision based on that candidate's qualifications. Since that's what matters in this issue. Council members can complain that their preferred candidate was passed over, but once a final candidate is selected by the mayor, that no longer matters. It's not something that should affect how one votes on whether to approve the mayor's choice. That vote should simply be about whether McManus would make a good chief. Not about whether Sharon Lubinski or Lucy Gerold would make a good chief, because neither of them is the candidate. I agree with Peter Schmitz on how a council member should address grievances with how the mayor arrived at his decision: they shouldn't support his candidacy for re-election. But to oppose McManus simply as a means of signaling your displeasure with the mayor is a disservice to your constituents. We deserve a good chief of police as judged by the merits of the candidate's qualifications. I haven't been able to learn a whole lot about McManus yet, but one thing that I did note was his success in reaching out to communities of color. The mayor has repeatedly noted that during his campaign, he saw a huge gap in how communities in our city viewed the MPD. And he said during the selection process that one of his goals was to bridge that gap. It seems to me that's exactly what he's doing. And if the Minneapolis Police Federation doesn't like McManus, it's probably because at his former post, he gained a reputation for holding officers accountable for their actions. What a novel idea! Mark Snyder Windom Park 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
