Doug Mann wrote: I suspect that all DFL candidates seeking reelection to the city council have taken money from business owners who apply for permits, zoning variances, etc. You can't run a business without being subjected to regulations that might require action by the city council. The question is whether those campaign contributions are made in exchange for promises of favors.
Mark Anderson responds: I think Doug Mann is mostly correct here, as long as one qualifies "taking money" as including campaign contributions. And even if one excludes campaign contributions, I wouldn't be surprised if there are all sorts of "favors" being passed about. As Michelle Hill pointed out, the temptation is just too great for many folks. You know what they say about absolute power, and council members have a lot of it when it comes to certain occupations in the city. I think the root problem is the power the council members have over individual developers and building trade workers. The best thing we could do is simply to deregulate these occupations, which would eliminate the council members' temptations, as well as greatly improve the opportunities of the poor to work their way out of poverty. But even if we don't do that, we must remove the temptations from the direct purview of council members. A department of the city should be in charge of making such individual decisions. The council should be making policy decisions, not micro-managing the city. Of course the bureaucrats in charge would then be subject to corruption. But at least the council would then be interested in rooting out the corruption, and maybe we wouldn't need the FBI to root out the miscreants. Mark V Anderson Bancroft 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:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
