Hello Minneapolis,
What sort of distortions are we referring to,
specifically? I've heard Mr. Delmonico speak on the
current Public Safety problems facing the city and the
Police Department. The things that Mr. Delmonico
highlighted were; rising crime rates in specific
areas of the City, the breakdown in the PCRC process
and the Federal Implementation agreement, and staff-
levels within the Police Department. Rising crime
rates: Does Mr. Blackshaw contest this, because if
he does he might want to consider that his boss
agreed-
wasn't that the reason for hiring 71 Officers? On
the second issue, the implementation of the Federal
Mediation Agreement. Well, two weeks ago the PS & RS
Committee of the City Council met and all present
can surely bear witness that the dissatisfaction of
of some members of the Police Department, as well as,
the PCRC leadership and many community leaders was
all too apparent...and that this dissatisfaction is
clearly with the role the Mayor has played in the
Implementation process. The fact that Mayor Rybak
attended 1 PCRC meeting in 2 years is incontestable.
The fact that the PCRC leadership places a great
deal of the blame squarely at the Mayor's doorstep
was eloquently portrayed by Reverend Bethel. This
assertion was further buttressed by Mark Anderson's
artilce entitled "The Mayor and Mediation". 5
Candidates for City Council, 2 Mayoral Candidates,
3 non PS & RS Council Members, folks from the CRA,
Council on Crime and Justice, leaders of the Latino
Community (including RT's former Latino Community
Liaison--who, incidentally, quit due to opposition
to the Mayor's role in the process), Homeless
advocates, Law Students, neighborhood reps, the
President of the NAACP, and many others attended
this meeting. The meeting was covered by the Observer,
Spokesman-Recorder, the City Pages, and KFAI...so,
the Mclaughlin campaign has no need to distort
anything
whatsoever in this matter. All anyone needs to
understand the Mayor's dismal record on the PCRC
issue is read the facts for themselves. Another
point of interest would be that at last week's Urban
League debate between Rybak and Mclaughlin, Mayor
Rybak asserted that he had stood in that very room
2 years prior and proudly signed the Mediation
Agreement. One problem: RT's signature appears nowhere
within the document. Now that's a phenomenal
distortion. Did RT or did he not have a role in
reassigning Arrodondo or did the Mclaughlin campaign?
How 'bout the issue of diversifying the Police Force?
When pressed by Council Member Natalie Johnson-Lee
about the issue of doing a personnel search for the
MPD OUTSIDE the Metro area (in fact, Out-State)
Deputy Chief Harris indicated that 72 applications
had been taken from OUTSIDE the area...we don't have
the 'resources' to pursue diversification in our City,
but we do to recruit from another State? Another
ludicrous assertion. On paper, Lt. Arrodondo was
the Compliance Lieutenant...yet the Mayor's Office
repeatedly-it would seem-stalled the PCRC
implementation. The third issue, staff levels, is
directly related, in some aspects, with both the
PCRC process and rising crime rates in some areas
of the City. I am still very unclear about the
proposals and budgetary concerns on this issue.
One interesting question is that if we add 71
new officers, who will be prosecuting them? According
to the City Attorney's Business Plan the ABA
recommended Caseload level for Misdemeanor offenses
is already exceeded-per prosecutor-by 300% in the
City of Minneapolis. If you increase the number of
officers on the Street there will surely be more
arrests...but the City Attorney's criminal division
is already swamped. In addition, they will be
losing 500,000 in LLEBG funds over the next 3 years.
Not alot of direction or vision from the Mayor's
Office here, either. Again, no need for any
distortions
about Public Safety to be fabricated...all one has
to do is look at the Mayor's record on these issues
and that should be sufficient information for any
reasonable person.
Lastly, I am also interested as to how it comes
about that the Mayor, apparently, rates a "heads up"
from staff at the StarTrib? This is the most
reprehensible of all and does no service to the
idea of a Free and Objective Press. I think the
public readership of the StarTrib has every right
to demand a clear answer to this rather serious
faux pas. If the StarTrib did, in fact, trade
such information with the Mayor's Office they have
surely lost one reader.
Guy Gambill
(Uptown)
"Mayor Rybak's campaign manager John Blackshaw called
on Mr. McLaughlin to publicly request his top
supporter, the Police Federation, to curtail its
expected distorted attack campaign directed at Mayor
Rybak. We've heard that Police Federation president
John Delmonico is about to engage in a highly negative
assault against Mayor Rybak,said Blackshaw, I expect
the attacks to be similar to the primary - full of
distortions and attempting to scare people."
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