On 7/26/05 9:19 AM, "gemgram" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I believe if Mark read many of those posts he would find that I have been > very, very critical of the City Council that has allowed the deterioration > of the City. Plain and simple we do not have adequate leadership of the > City. The Council bears a great deal of the fault because in a "Strong > Council" system they should be in a leadership role. Unfortunately, the > Mayor' staff seems to be the ones doing the leading. Mark is correct in at > least ONE aspect of his criticism the Council bears tremendous fault for > allowing the Mayor to get away with dragging them around by the nose. Can > anyone imagine Alice Rainville, or Tony Scallon allowing what has gone on. > To the Council's credit they did not allow Rybak to successfully use his one > veto while in office to support that criminal Basim Sabri. Though he and a > couple of Council Members tried.
I apologize in advance if this is considered a personal attack, but I'm starting to wonder if perhaps that yellow water that Jim was exposed to might have been more hazardous than we were told. To suggest that all thirteen members of this council are being bullied by Mayor Rybak is quite possibly the silliest assertion I've ever seen in this forum. It's made even more foolish by drawing comparisons with Alice Rainville. Jim - do you know who Alice Rainville's daughter is? If not, I offer this refresher for you from the archives of the City Pages: http://citypages.com/databank/25/1206/article11812.asp After reading this, who actually thinks Alice Rainville's daughter is being bullied by Mayor Rybak or anyone else, for that matter? > The problem with "StormwaterGate" is not the original idea and policy, the > problem is one of execution. The policy has been stupidly carried out; > unless the intent was to create a regressive hidden tax upon poor people in > neighborhoods with high numbers of rental units. I will leave it to the > reader to decide which is worse, stupid execution or evil intent. I had > taken the high road and defined it as just inept leadership. I hate to break this to you Jim, but the City Council approved the entire storm water utility package, execution and all. Unlike Congress or even the State Legislature, which passes laws with vague language that is left to departments and agencies to attempt to determine their intent, the City Council looks at, or is at least supposed to look at, the whole deal, outlined in staff reports, which includes the fee structure and everything that you have found fault with. Specifically, the Transportation and Public Works committee is the group that had the responsibility of overseeing how this fee would be implemented. So if you are going to blame Mayor Rybak for how the storm water utility fee has been implemented, you'd better darn well spread that blame to include at the very least committee chair Sandy Colvin Roy as well. She had just as much opportunity as the mayor did, if not more, to question the fee structure or propose adjustments and she obviously didn't do it. And while I suppose Barret Lane can get a pass on this since he's not running for re-election, those who live in wards where Robert Lilligren, Scott Benson, Gary Schiff or Dean Zimmermann are candidates and who feel they are getting screwed by the storm water utility fee, should be asking those candidates what they are doing to fix it. Now I want to make sure I'm not giving the impression that I have a problem with the storm water utility fee because, as I've noted in earlier posts, I don't, other than with isolated cases like the stuff someone like Dottie Titus was put through, whose home was misclassified and who had a heck of a time getting that straightened out. Oh, and rain barrels not being counted towards a fee credit because I think they're being seriously undervalued, especially now that I actually have one collecting runoff from my garage roof and I can see firsthand how well it works. However, I knew the fee was coming because my council member was proactive in raising awareness about it, which included getting time on the monthly Windom Park neighborhood meeting to present the purpose behind the fee and how it works. Although I wasn't able to attend that meeting, I was able to read up and make sure I understood the fee before it actually started. However, I know there are folks like Jim and others who don't share my opinion on the fee, so I want to make sure that those who are upset about it know exactly who their displeasure should actually be directed to because I think Jim is barking up the wrong tree on this one. Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
