I apparently did not complete my "analyze this" list. A reader off list
suggested that I also add to it and mention that the same eight "Impacted
Neighborhoods", that absolutely do NOT have adequate public safety and
police protection, are also the same neighborhoods where the greatest
percentage of rental properties exist. So the very same poor people, who
are paying the largest amounts for RT Rybak's stormwater tax on the poor,
are also receiving the least protection from the City of Minneapolis.
My, My, My, what a mess poor administration of a good program can cause.
When poor executives, administer it. Even the public employees of
Minneapolis are distressed by how badly the City is being run. I have been
contacted by City employees from at least four different departments asking
what can be done to get the City back on track. They all agree that the
City administration has become a mess. I am sure the employees really do
know how lame their bosses really are. Those employees get the heat for the
inept jobs their bosses do. They also are in the best positions to know
just how badly the City is really being run. The employees at Public Works,
the Fire Department, Police Department, and yes even CPED, all seem to know
that they can not do their jobs unless managed properly.
If the present City leadership was not so out of touch with the real people
they could just ask neighborhood residents and their own City employees how
to straighten out this mess. I guess the "leaders" just think so little of
that public that they supposedly serve that they need experts like McKenzie
to tell them something. They just do not realize that the real experts on
Minneapolis are its own people. That same public is shaking their heads,
and like me and Tommy Lee, looking at the train-wreck saying MY, My, MY,
what a mess!
StormWatergate is a symptom of well meaning, bumbling management. We have
management that is indeed well meaning, and I do not for a minute believe
that RT Rybak and most Council Members are not well meaning. BUT, we the
public are looking for management skills that just are not there. No matter
how good you look on TV, and no matter how much fun you are having
pretending to run a City for the cameras, you still have to manage a City.
No matter how good that Cadillac convertible looks sitting in the driveway,
if it does not have a motor to do the work or driver to direct it, that cute
Cadillac is not taking us anywhere. It is time for the Rybak administration
to stop partying and get to the work this City really needs.
Jim Graham,
Ventura Village
"The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."<
- Thomas Jefferson
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the
other direction.
----- Original Message -----
From: "gemgram" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>; "Nick Coleman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 10:07 PM
Subject: [Mpls] Stormwatergate robbery gets personal
Unfortunately, (for me) Stormwatergate has reared its ugly political head
even higher. Today I looked at the waterbill for the small duplex that my
son homesteads. The duplex sits on a 1/2 lot that is only about thirty feet
wide. It occupies about 850 square feet of area and has neither a driveway
nor a garage. The monthly bill was $10.00 for water, $8.00 for sewer,
$44.50 for solid waste, and a few 2.00 or 2.50 charges and then the real
killer, the stormwater fee for that less than 900 square feet house is
$55.10.
A neighbor in a larger single family house with a cement back yard is paying
less that ten dollars. Ten dollars for probably 3000 square feet of
impermeable surface. Is RT Rybak's administration something or what?
Hiding a regressive tax on the poor as a "FEE". RT Rybak and Governor
Pawlenty sure share many things in common. Boyish good looks, a willingness
to have their rich friends profit at the expense of poor people and a
willingness to pee up our backs while smiling and telling us it is only
raining. Perhaps since RT did not get the DFL endorsement after his hiding
taxes on the poor and his "caring" fiscal conservative" hollow fluff will
the get the Republican endorsement.
Nick Coleman once asked for examples of this fiasco, well Nick I have five
in hand. The largest utility bill that anyone of those duplexes have is the
Minneapolis tax on the poor posing as a waterbill. For those of you who do
not think this is a tax on the poor analyze this, over 80% of all really
affordable housing in Minneapolis is supplied by duplexes; rental duplexes
are paying sometimes nine times what more affluent houses are paying,
waterbills and wastewater bills are passed directly on by a landlord to the
renter of those "truly affordable" units. Not only are the legitimate
charges passed along but also the fraud that the City is perpetrating.
Rybak's tax rides directly and heaviest upon the backs of the poorest people
in the City of Minneapolis. So RT, are you the Simon Legree that is sucking
blood from poor people, or is it the City Council that should be blamed?
These politicians, including Rybak and some of the heartless on the Council,
must think they are getting away with this. That the landlords will be
portrayed as heartlessly raising rent. Well they are wrong, we intend to
keep hammering this until they are found out. Here is a suggestion for
making renters aware of who is really robbing them. All leases, for even
small duplex holdings, should be charged with a flat sum stipulated, PLUS
all City of Minneapolis Fees. In that way it is directly apparent to all
voters whether renter or owner how they are being robbed, and by who.
Example, "The rent is $550.00 and the Mayor's fees are $120.00".
RT, and his rich friends, certainly do make it expensive to be poor in
Minneapolis. The Mayor rides along on the poor's back while telling everyone
he has not raised their taxes. Meanwhile he and his wealthy friends are
grumbling that those poor neighborhoods also do not need better police and
public safety services. My question is, where the hell is all that extra tax
money going? Oh that is correct, now I remember, RT brags that the total tax
revenue for stormwater has remained the same. So, if the poor are being
robbed, and all things stay even, who is benefiting? Oh yeah, that's right,
RT is helping his more wealthy friends with poor people's money. RT Rybak
and some Council Members should be ashamed to call themselves Democrats.
If what I say is not the truth, then I challenge either RT Rybak, or any
Council Member, to go "On List" and prove me wrong. It is not the poor
civil servant's fault for this, so please be gentle when calling to scream
about it. Please speak kindly to them, their cowardly bosses have left them
to bear the brunt. Speak kindly , then call your elected CM, or the Mayor's
office, and scream bloody murder.
Jim Graham,
still being robbed in Ventura Village
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PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list.
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For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html
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