Gina Palandri -
It's true that just because a person doesn't show
up for a peace
rally doesn't mean that he is pro-war. Dave's
steady appearance at
anti-war, pro-union and other demonstrations
shows his ongoing
commitment to these causes.
The stadium issue is different. Gary is a paid
employee of the
people of Ward 9. He failed, to my knowledge
(correct me if I'm
wrong) to initiate anything in City Council
opposing the stadium
during the crucial time when Peter McLaughlin and
others on the
Hennepin County Commissioner's Board were trying
to push a
stadium resolution through.
Along with Dean Zimmerman and Natalie Johnson
Lee, Dave
helped draft a resolution against the stadium to
bring before the
City Council. Gary should have been in the
vanguard in proposing
and initiating this resolution, because he ran on
an anti-stadium
platform in the last election. Gary did not
testify at the County
Board's public hearing on the stadium. Dave was
there and did
testify. Dave also handed out an informational
leaflet about the
stadium at the City DFL convention, where he
spoke as a mayoral
candidate against the stadium to enthusiastic
applause. Please
tell me in what way Gary has been proactive
against the stadium.
The stadium issue is a very important test case
for how democratic
our city is. Minneapolis voters approved a city
charter amendment
in 1997 that requires a referendum before the
city can spend over
$10 million on a stadium. We did this because
the issue comes
up again and again, to the considerable disgust
of the taxpayers.
(Gary Schiff, back then, played an important role
in this anti-
stadium initiative.) Now the county is doing an
end-run around the
will of the people - taxing city taxpayers $9.8
million per year for
the next 30 years! And they have the nerve to
ask the State
Legislature for a special exemption from the
normal requirement of
a referendum for a new sales tax.
There is presently not a voice against the
stadium in the mayoral
race (unless you write in Farheen Hakeem, and
many will), so
resistance must come from elsewhere. This is a
serious test of
how our Council members are looking out for our
interests, and not
many of them are getting a good grade.
I look forward to being corrected if I'm wrong,
because I believe the truth should be the winner.
In the interest of disclosure, I am working on the
Dave Bicking campaign and am happy to do so.
Jan Nye
Ventura Village
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