On 10/31/05 8:05 PM, "broberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am sorry you were as bam-boozeled as the Sierra Club Political Committee > when they heard the candidates for the Mayoral election. Mayor Rybak claimed > responsibility for many environmental initiatives and projects that were in > the making long before he became mayor (Phosphorus ban, vapor recovery, source > water protection, to name a few).
As a Sierra Club member of the Political Committee and also a volunteer with the Clean Air committee for nearly five years now, I take strong exception to this statement from Laura Huseby, who, as far as I know, has not been involved in any of our committees' work. I was one of those folks who volunteered on the vapor recovery issue and on the Riverside Generating Plant issue. While both of these efforts involved numerous organizations and people to make them happen, Rybak deserves all of the credit he's taken on those issues and then some. With the vapor recovery issue, it was his leadership that played a big part in making this happen not only in Minneapolis, but his involvement helped gain passage on state legislation to make vapor recovery a requirement throughout the metro area. This was an important effort for reducing VOC emissions in the Twin Cities and heading off violations of the federal air quality standards for ground-level ozone (smog) levels (VOCs react with nitrogen oxides to form ozone). With the Riverside Generating Plant, Rybak was also a strong leader in this effort. He was very helpful in organizing the community support that got this project approved and stood up to powerful industrial and commercial interests who opposed the project. I constantly saw him in the news coverage on this issue talking about how important it was and specifically remember seeing him participating in one of the Celebrate Northeast parades a few years back, talking up the conversion proposal, telling people about how much it would improve local air quality and encouraging people to participate in public hearings or write in with their comments - he handed out flyers with information about both. In the meantime, I would encourage Sierra Club members like Laura and also Bill Kahn to volunteer next time a Political Committee is convened for endorsements in Minneapolis elections. You might learn a lot from this experience. For instance, in the case of the mayoral endorsements, both candidates responded to questionnaires and participated in screening interviews with with the Political Committee, which included volunteers from most of the major campaigns that the Club is currently involved with - in other words, the people who actually know what's going on and who's doing what with the various projects the Sierra Club is working on. To dismiss the many long hours that this group spent reviewing and discussing candidates as having just been "bamboozled" is, quite frankly, highly insulting. 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
