Well, I'm not neutral at all, and I'm afraid Dave may have been involved both too early and too late to witness the devastating duplicity Chris Coleman demonstrated in our 4-year battle against Gopher State Ethanol.
While I appreciate Dave's personal gratitude for the actions several of us took to bring a not-so-quick halt to the smell, the noise and the 127 chemicals the plant was spewing daily and our kids were forced to breathe. In fact, Chris was not only initially absent from our organizing and political work to bring a halt to those emissions, he was not particularly happy when we - as CASE - intervened to stop the city from prematurely and lazily settling its lawsuit against GSE. Our main support had to come from Jay Benanav and Kathy Lantry. We knew right along that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was no more our friend than GSE itself. It didn't take long for us to figure out that the MPCA sees itself as an agency that permits pollution, not one that regulates, reduces or eliminates it. And sure as hell no friend of the unwashed citizenry that deigned to complain about their lax enforcement of the EPA's and their own rules. If Chris Coleman believed that the MPCA would correct the pollution issues with GSE, why was he, as a councilmember, part of the lawsuit the city had filed against GSE based on the nuisance it was creating for the city and on the noise that violated other ordinances? GSE was represented at that time by Tom Fabel, Norm Coleman's former Chief of Staff/Deputy Mayor, former candidate for Ramsey County Attorney (defeated by Susan Gaertner), and a friend of Chris � who supported Fabel over the DFL endorsed County Attorney candidate, Bob Long, who had won that endorsement over Chris (Chris has now run for about every local office he can except sheriff and county board), and whom Chris had promised he'd support. During the deliberations and mediation and what-not that served as the process by which some closure and consideration could come from GSE on this issue, the city's portion of the lawsuit was settled on the day after Christmas when no one was in town and no one was looking and completely absent any plaintiff or our counsel (Mike Unger) in the final draft and presentation of that suit. It was Chris and the City Attorney in charge who, in collusion with Jack Lee and Bruce Hendry, had put it together in the "dead of night", then railroaded it through the Council by throwing it on the agenda at the last minute with no public notice whatsoever � called bringing it in under suspension (of the rules requiring notice and publishing) and threatening the Council with GSE's immediate shutdown and job lay-offs if it wasn't approved. Coleman deceived our counsel, Mike Unger, about connecting�at least by telephone the night before�to discuss terms. Chris then lied to his council colleagues about whether the intervenors (us) had been consulted and had signed off on it, saying, yes we had when we clearly had not. That settlement left CASE high and dry as the only remaining plaintiffs without the clout City Hall should have continued to provide the problem. It wasn't until the brewery we knew was going belly-up actually went belly-up and filed bankruptcy that we confirmed the big lie that Bruce Hendry and Jack Lee had fed the city and the state�that the ethanol operation would sustain the brewery and its dwindling number of jobs, thus deserved all sorts of public support and money. Now, it became obvious that the political support for GSE, which labor officials (especially Dick Anfang), the Chamber of Commerce and the mayors (Coleman and Kelly) all expressed was not only no longer deserved, it never was. Hendry and company had been siphoning off beer revenues to feed the ethanol operation instead of the reverse, and bleeding the brewery of what little cash it had by paying rent to the ethanol company when the more profitable ethanol side should have been propping up the brewery as promised. Federal Environmental Protection Agency teams of some 10 people�lawyers, administrators, etc�came to town to talk to us about why our lawsuit had spawned a new EPA look at the level of pollution ethanol plants were pouring out (three times their original assessment) and that they, after filing their own suits, were negotiating consent decrees with all 15 of Minnesota's ethanol operations, forcing compliance with reiterated requirements. We all, including the MPCA staffers who stonewalled us over the years, met at the West 7th Federation office and the meeting included neighborhood people not part of the plaintiffs group and several others. Coleman was notified but nowhere to be seen or heard from. Soon, GSE wasn't paying its legal bills (not to mention property taxes and heavy vendor and Xcel Energy liabilities), and owed Fabel's firm and another law firm thousands in fees charged to fight the city and neighbors in court while intimidating them outside of court. Suddenly, Chris was appearing on the scene, including at some mediation sessions, but he was no longer credible to most of us, who saw this as opportunistic (as many of have seen Chris' political career right along). Coleman appeared at a community meeting�the second major gathering of neighbors at Monroe School, numbering hundreds of attendees�and sat in the rear of the auditorium, saying nothing, and walking out when confronted by one or two activists about where he'd been on this issue for four years. No real visibility and sure as hell no leadership. No, we can't blame Chris Coleman for GSE, per se. But we can blame him for not supporting his suffering constituents in favor of friends and political clout, lying about his work with neighbors and counsel and being a Johnny-come-lately to his responsibility for being involved. In my observation (and as a matter of disclosure, it must be said that he received the DFL endorsement over me in 1997 and went on to win the Ward 2 seat without opposition - sad to say), Chris Coleman has simply been where it's been comfortable for him to be and not been where he might have to take a stand against the bad behavior of those who might do his career some good. I call that opportunistic and utterly irresponsible public service. And that, I submit, disqualifies him from serving as mayor. When, as is so often the case, election and reelection become more paramount than responsible public service or policymaking, it's time for the voters to say "No." No more playing both sides of the street, whichever is convenient for the time being. No more trying to do the impossible�being all things to all people and saying anything to please potential voters or delegates in order to get elected, then go your merry way after winning (even losing) the seat you've sought. No more adolescence in public office. Coleman obviously isn't the only one guilty of such irresponsible behavior, and I'm not certain what it will take to weed out the opportunists. But when assessing candidates for public office, citizens have an obligation to question promises and to seek visions and plans. All of us have to work to reverse the trend that allows such arrogance to hold office and SHOW UP at the polls. A city cannot tolerate an abandonment of citizen governance with 10% turnouts for its primaries or just 36% for its general elections. If a candidate wins a seat by just over 50% of the vote, that's 50% of 36%, or 18% of the city's registered voters, less than that of all eligible citizens choosing your leadership. Such low turnouts give those politicians and elected officials the idea that we don't care what they do, don't do, or say, but we see the result in arrogance, lousy public policy and a draining of public resources to those that do show up: well-heeled special interests and continued insider baseball. It's the stuff of corruption. We get the government we deserve, several political scholars and observers have said, including the great Alexis de Toqueville in 1834*, but we only deserve it because we stayed away, not because we erred in our choices. We won't always get our choice when voting for an office; that's no reason not to have voted at all. Voting is the only way to come even close to getting the government we deserve - or want. Andy Driscoll Crocus Hill/Ward 2 *"Democracy in America" -- "Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity." - Lord Acton -- Visit our weblog: http://newswired.blogspot.com Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2005 07:44:03 -0500 From: Dave Thune I'm officially neutral until after the dfl endorses for the mayor's race, but I really have to jump in here and defend Chris Coleman's record on GSE. 1. The GSE debacle started before Chris took office. In my last few days on the Council we heard thru the grapevine that Minnesota Brewing was talking to state officials about adding ethanol production to increase the brewery's capacity and ensure the future of beer production in W. 7th. I set up a mtg with Chris and Minnesota Brewing's Jack Lee to get Chris up to speed. Both of us were assured that ethanol production would not ruin beer sales, the plant would not explode and it might have a small odor of baking bread while in production. Jack invited neighbors to a rural plant to see and smell for themselves. 2. Many neighbors including myself as a civilian/ex elected official at first believed and placed our trust in local and state pollution control officials to protect us. I believe Chris was in this category. Others were skeptics and were proven right! The state had no interest in protecting us from the "smell of jobs". A whole bunch of us were wrong, however I doubt very much that even a united front at the early stages could have prevented GSE from opening and starting production. 3. I saw Chris taking action when it became obvious that we had been duped - and this was pretty early on. Unfortunately, laws protecting big business and flacid support from the state's PCA prevented the city from shutting down ethanol production. I also saw Chris's frustration with being blamed for the whole thing when I knew that his action was limited by lack of city technology and legal and city attorney's positions which don't allow for a city councilman just to walk over and pull the plug on a business. 4. Once we did set a course though for using the public nuisance laws to declare odor a nuisance and prove that there was more pollution coming out of the plant than the state would admit, Chris was consistantly on the neighborhood's side, working to stop the production of ethanol at GSE. Hindsight is deceptive. It may be convenient now, to blame Chris Coleman for GSE but it isn't fair. The heroes were the folks who were early skeptics and sued as CASE (thankyou Diane, Terese, Andy and all the others...), but Chris acted as aggressively as an elected official could possibly act once it was apparent we had all been deceived. One might wish that our state elected officials had been as aggressive in supporting our cause. In hindsight I'd love to take credit for closing the plant because it happened during my term of office but I can't. It was because of CASE, dedicated neighbors and determined legal action by the city AND Chris Coleman, that meeting court ordered emission standards forced GSE out of business. dave thune predecessor and sucessor of chris coleman city council, St. Paul ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
