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------ Forwarded Message
From: Michael Mischke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 15:06:25 -0500
Subject: The State of the Disrict Councils
A gentleman I know from St. Paul�s Hamline-Midway neighborhood was visiting
his sister in Los Angeles in the summer of 2002. He happened to be
introduced to a group of LA neighborhood activists who were thrilled to
learn he was from St. Paul. An otherwise well-informed and civically engaged
citizen, he was nonplused to discover that he had to travel 1,900 miles to
learn from residents of this country�s second-largest city that his hometown
enjoys a national reputation as a model for citizen participation in
governmental affairs at the neighborhood level. He was unable to answer most
of their battery of questions about
the history, funding and effectiveness of St. Paul�s nearly 30-year-old
district council system.
Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining former St. Paul Mayor George
Latimer as a guest speaker at the annual meeting and election of one of
those district councils�Macalester-Groveland�s. The event attracted a
neighborly gathering of about 100 people who care deeply about their corner
of the world and give freely of their time and talents to make it better.
The Macalester-Groveland council is an especially active one, having been
engaged for years in such neighborhood improvement pursuits as home fix-up
financing, child care, tree-planting, curbside recycling, crime prevention,
garden planting, senior chore services, spring cleanups, block club
organizing, stump removal, home improvement fairs and youth activities.
And those are just the initiatives that the Macalester-Groveland council has
taken on itself. It has also been deeply involved in a host of city land-use
and licensing issues, the creation of a city-mandated neighborhood plan to
guide future development, as well as the formation of the city�s biennial
Capital Improvement Budget.
All that activity takes time and money�two commodities that district
councils across the city find increasingly hard to come by. The fact is, by
any number of measurements, the state of St. Paul�s nationally heralded
citizen participation system is probably as weak today as it has been since
it was instituted in 1975. Consider:
� The strength of a district council depends largely on volunteer labor, and
working parents stretch mightily today to find that kind of time.
� District councils have not seen an increase in the money allocated to
them by the city since 2001, and last year they took a 7 percent cut in city
funding across the board.
� Foundation grants that used to cover a portion of many district councils�
annual budgets have all but dried up.
� The citywide district council coordinator position no longer exists in
City Hall.
� The city planning staff members who used to be assigned as liaisons to
each district council have either been reassigned or eliminated.
It is against this backdrop that the city of St. Paul has begun to reassess
the funding formula it employs in its annual allocations to district
councils. As it stands, per-capita funding is all over the map, from a low
of $1.10 per person in Merriam Park to a high of $6.62 per person in
adjoining Snelling-Hamline. A more equitable split of the $670,000 annually
allotted to the city�s 19 district councils certainly seems to be called
for. I would argue further that for the value the city receives, city
officials would be wise to increase the annual investment that is made in
the district councils.
Beyond that, the city could do much to better support district council
operations. Among other things, city officials ought to consider:
� Providing training for district council volunteers and paid staff who wish
to avail themselves of it.
� Providing financial management assistance where accepted accounting
procedures are not already in place.
� Providing fundraising expertise to help district councils supplement their
city allocations with outside funds.
At a time when the city of St. Paul is asking more from its district
councils, it is not at all unreasonable for those councils to be asking more
from the city.
------ End of Forwarded Message
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