Neal Simons said: I hope that fellow progressives who identify with nontraditional political parties will rally with me behind all candidates who want honest government and want to put the people's interests before special interests. Me: Neal, I think your statement describes me and my friends pretty well. I am a progressive. Although I am a registered DFL'er and have described myself as such since the early 90's, I never really felt welcomed in by the "old guard" until this year when I started working on Robert Lilligren's and Peter McLaughlin's campaign. My girlfriend is also working for both of these candidates and she hasn't been involved in an election for 28 years. Many people I ran into on the campaign trail with Peter are brand new to politics. I think the rest of your statement is exactly why many of my friends and I are supporting both of my chosen candidates. We too want honest government and we believe we have found that with Peter McLaughlin. He is a seasoned professional with a lengthy track record of accomplishments. Accomplishments he should be very proud of and accomplishments that have helped to make Minneapolis a better city and Hennepin a better county. I supported R.T. in the last election at least after the primary when my candidate of choice was eliminated. At that time R.T. appeared to be passionate about his support of the ideal of citizen involvement in decision-making at city hall. Remember the big green air freshener and his commitment to throw open the doors of city hall? Yet, for the past four years he has done everything in his power to kill both the nationally acclaimed NRP program and the Citizen Participation program at city hall. I could almost respect his decision to do that if he were honest about it and it was happening out in the open. But, it has been anything but open. It has been a subtle line or word slipped into a policy. It has been an e-mail sent to neighborhoods floating a "trial balloon" on a new policy to eliminate the neighborhoods comment and review on development projects followed by a retraction because the "neighborhood heat" gets turned up. At that point the poor staff person who put the e-mail out gets pummeled just because he did his job. It's a paragraph slipped into a contract trying to take the program income from housing and commercial development loan programs away from neighborhoods or wordsmithing in a city ordinance. It is reducing the revenues for the NRP program by shifting the funds earmarked for the program to other places. It is a proposed change to the city charter that suggests eliminating the planning commission. I feel like Sherlock Holmes every time a contract passes my desk. I have to scour it to make sure language wasn't inserted to screw my assigned neighborhoods out of their NRP money. That is NOT honest government. The citizens of this city deserve better especially the 5,000+ volunteer citizens that have been actively involved in their neighborhoods for the past decade or more. At the DFL endorsing convention, R.T. put out a flyer saying he fully supported NRP. At that same time back in city hall he was trying to kill it. That is NOT honest government. We all know the defunding of NRP began at the state when they retired the TIF districts that provided the major chunk of funds to the NRP Program. Once the funding responsibility shifted to the city R.T. and his henchmen have done everything in their power to choke out the remaining funds as well. If it weren't for the valiant efforts of my boss Bob Miller and council members like Robert Lilligren (who also rose to power through his personal citizen involvement) neighborhoods would be getting a dollar a year right now. My entire experience with city government as a volunteer neighborhood activist in Whittier and as an NRP employee has been to increase citizen involvement in decision-making at city hall. You know, "a government of the people by the people". An ideal I am passionate about. To ensure the NRP program had the ability to educate, inform and motivate citizens to become involved in city government without political interference, it was organized as a joint powers agreement in the control of many jurisdictions. If it had not been created in this form, we would have been dead in the water a long time ago. This is legislation Peter McLaughlin helped to craft. He understands and supports ideal of engaging citizens at every level possible. He is an active member of the NRP Policy Board and has been since the programs inception. So, I echo Neal Simmons call to arms only I will add one more statement to that sentence: I hope that fellow progressives who identify with nontraditional political parties and believe in the ideal of real citizen involvement in decision-making at city hall will rally with me behind all candidates who want honest government and want to put the people's interests before special interests. Vote for Peter McLaughlin and if you live in the 6th ward vote for Robert Lilligren. Barb Lickness Whittier Ward 6
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