Dorie Rae Gallagher wrote:
"I remember making a call about the library and being told.. his hands were tied. I believed it...how stupid of me! The Mayor's hands are not tied...he can hire and fire. That is a very strong control mechanism to those with mortgages! He appoints a board member where charter states he is to be the member on the board..hands are tied?! He has great influence over the operation of the city. I have a laundry list for the past ..elms, pensions, library money, Walker, MFD/MPD, developers, early retirement etc..."
Peter Vevang writes: I am not sure your criticisms are fair. On the library issue, we are facing tough times, everyone knows that, budgets are tight. A lot of ideas were floated, and hopefully in the end the best one floated to the top, I don't think the mayor was an obstructionist on that, and tried in whatever way he could to minimize the harm. From times I have met the mayor, I have a hard time believing he would be that calloused as to simply dismiss you, he is usually a good listener in my experience, that is one of the things people like about him. It doesn't seem like something he would do.
As for the other things, I can't speak to them, I don't know what your specific criticism is, you make it sound like the Mayor completely dropped the ball on everything. I don't think that is a fair thing to do without talking about the facts of the situation you are basing your criticism on. I think your point is well taken that there have been a few bumps in the road, but how do you link that to RT? I think it is a bit much to blame the Mayor for Dutch Elm disease. That is an act of God.
This is a political season and things have a tendency to get blown out of proportion. I have heard a lot of very rough criticism on both sides of the mayors race, and most of it is kind of slippery and vague. If you have a specific criticism and facts, something solid, I would be interested to hear that. Otherwise from what I know from experience, both McLaughlin and RT are solid, good and decent people and we ought to hear them out before we judge them on their merits. We are talking about party endorsement here, the bottom line should be who is the better DFLer and who can do the best job. We need facts to make a good judgment.
Here are the candidate web pages. http://www.rtrybak.com/ http://www.petermclaughlin.org/
Peter Vevang Audubon
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