Finding a Green Way to Govern

Today the Minneapolis City Council unanimously removed the question requiring disclosure of past criminal records on applications for employment with the City. The Council on Crime and Justice has been working with Council Members Glidden and Samuels on this for months. (I have been supportive as well, but they took the lead.) The reason to "ban the box" is that otherwise qualified applicants are discouraged from even applying for work with the City if they know that they will be asked this question. State law prohibits the City from making the answer to that one question the sole basis for refusing to hire someone, but it's understandable that folks are less likely to apply when they see that question asked right on the front of every application. There are some positions that require background checks. If and when a background check is needed, it will still be performed. All we've done is remove a question that doesn't provide meaningful and useful information ...

Months ago, the Civilian Review Authority (CRA) Work Group recommended that the City put subpoena power for the CRA on our Legislative Agenda. The purpose is to increase the quality of CRA investigations by giving them more access to information. City staff, including police officers, are already required to participate with CRA investigators, but there is obviously information concerning alleged incidents of police misconduct outside the City's enterprise: surveillance tapes, witnesses, documents, etc. There was some back and forth in the group about how broad our request for subpoena power should be. Should we ask for full powers, like the EEOC, Civil Rights Commission and others use, or should we ask for a narrower, limited power to subpoena just documents and not witnesses? At first, the Police Federation said they would fight us at the legislature if we asked for full subpoena power, but might not fight us if we asked for the narrower version. Partly for this reason, the subpo...

Several weeks ago, my office started getting calls from concerned Mpls chicken owners. They had noticed a proposed ban on roosters in the city, and wanted to know whose idea it was. My office asked Council Member Don Samuels' office about this, as Don was listed as the author. They pointed us to the Animal Care & Control staff, who had included the proposed ban in a list of amendments to the animal ordinances. Don was listed as author by dint of being Public Safety & Regulatory Services Committee ( PS&RS ) Chair. When we asked staff what the rationale was for the proposed ban, we heard it was about crowing. Staff had received some complaints about roosters crowing, but felt that they could not respond if the rooster is permitted. However, they could not provide me with the number of complaints, which had not been tracked. Additionally, the current ordinance requires chicken owners to get 80% of their neighbors within 100 feet of their property to sign a petition expre...

There has been a great deal of justified community concern and involvement about Library funding in recent months. Libraries are a vital public investment. Their health and welfare are intrinsically linked to the overall health and success of our residents and our City. I believe that we should be working to improve and expand library services and that we are right to resist closing libraries or limiting services in any way. I also appreciate the enormous pressure on the library board to make responsible decisions based on the funds they have available. Clearly this is a complex situation and serious issue worthy of the most informed and careful decision-making. All of this came into focus for the City Council this month during our budget deliberations and at our final budget meeting where we approved the budget on December 11. Throughout that process, and for the meeting on the 11th, there were three major goals I wanted the Council to accomplish: 1. Allocate enough "emergency...

A new Community Engagement Report , which reviews and summarizes a variety of reports and recommendations on the City’s current community engagement system and activities, is now available for public review and comment. The City Council plans to discuss the Community Engagement report early in 2007. I encourage you to review this report and get your comments in as soon as possible to Clara Perrin , Community Engagement Coordinator. It was brought to my attention that the timing of the comment period was just about the worst possible - releasing the report in late November and asking for comments by the beginning of January, coinciding with the holiday season. Many neighborhood organizations skip their December meetings, or hold more celebratory and less business-focused gatherings, or conduct annual meetings whose agendas are already full enough without a discussion of the City's Community Engagement Report. I forwarded these concerns to Steven Bosacker , the City Coordinator, alon...

Recently, I've gotten involved in another air quality issue (see the Morningstar post below for the first), this time up in Southeast Como. Southeast Como Improvement Association ( SECIA ) staff have recently learned that the air pollution permit for Greatbatch Globe Tool is coming up for renewal in December. They had earlier been told by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency ( MPCA ) that they would be notified of the renewal and have a chance to make public comment. This didn't happen. They found out on their own. This is problematic for several important reasons. First, because according to SECIA staff, Globe Tool emits 26,000 pounds of trichloroethylene (or TCE, a known endocrine disruptor and carcinogen) per year, or 15% of the annual Minnesota TCE emissions. The facility is the 4th greatest emitter of known endocrine disruptors and 3rd greatest emitter of known carcinogens in Hennepin County. It's reasonable that not all air pollution permits require hearings, but ...

Since about June, my office has been receiving complaints from neighbors about nuisance odors originating from Morningstar Coffee Company , which operates a facility on Snelling Ave, near the Franklin LRT station. The smell of roasting coffee (for those of you who haven't experienced it) is surprisingly unpleasant, reminiscent of badly burnt toast. The odor is pervasive and widespread - you can smell it during certain morning hours at the LRT station, and it gets into people's houses and lingers. Those with chemical sensitivies and asthma find the odor particularly problematic. I have learned that this is an ongoing issue that neighbors, the company and staff have been working on for over a year. The company has installed a "scrubber" technology to deal with the odors, which passes the smoke through water. This technology is clearly not working well enough. Many residents believe that the only technology that will fully address the odor is what most of the other coffe...

Yesterday, the Executive Committee decided to reject the current terms of the proposed lawsuit settlement presented by her attorney and directed the City attorney to begin the process for removing Fire Chief Bleskachek as Chief of the Fire department. The first step to do this is to formally notify the Cheif of our intention. This decision was the result of one of the most intense, focused and serious meetings I have participated in since taking office. It took place during a closed meeting (closed because we were discussing confidential personnel matters) of the Executive committee over the course of nearly 4 hours. Even though it was a meeting of the 5 person Executive Committee, all 13 Council Members, as well as the Mayor, attended. We all listened carefully to staff reports, asked questions, engaged in earnest discussion and worked hard to come consensus about what the best next steps should be. In the end, all five of the other Committee Members: Mayor Rybak , Council Preside...

Last week, a bit of a brouhaha erupted over the art project that Seward Neighborhood Group and Seward Redesign had put together on the vacant Riverside Market. (See past posts for more information on the planning process for the redevelopment of this site.) The project's goal was to cover the large, blank walls that had increasingly become graffiti magnets with public art. The artists were each given a portion of the wall to work in, and their finished products were striking and, as art often is, controversial. My office heard from the City's Solid Waste and Recycling (SW&R) department that they had received numerous complaints through the City's 311 program about graffiti on the site. Unless the owner of the property agreed to cover the 'graffiti', it would be covered by a City crew. My office forwarded this information to SNG and Redesign to alert them to the possibility that the murals might be covered, and the response was immediate and unequivocal: the ...

Youth violence is one of most serious problems we face in Minneapolis. Murder is the number one cause of death for our 15-24 year olds and just this morning another 24 year-old fell victim to another shooting death. Working to stop the disturbing and persistent increase in youth violence in our City is, in my opinion, one of the most important things that we can do as a community and as policymakers in City Hall. Today I think we took a significant step forward. The Youth Violence Prevention resolution that I've been working on for weeks passed the Council unanimously today. I encourage you to read the full resolution ( here ) - it presents a powerful rationale for why we ought to view this as a public health crisis and spells out a framework for developing a muti-year, muti-faceted strategic plan to dramatically reduce youth violence in Minneapolis. The resolution redefines youth violence as a public health problem, rather than just a public safety and criminal justice problem. Th...

I was thrilled on Election Night to see that Minneapolis voters adopted Ranked Choice Voting (also known as Instant Runoff Voting or IRV) as our local election method. It was a landslide: 65% yes , 35% no. I'm proud that the Second Ward had the highest vote totals of any Ward in the City: 70.7% yes . This is a huge step forward for Minneapolis democracy, and hopefully only a first step towards better voting methods for the State and Federal levels. I also consider this an important victory for the Green Party as well, which has had IRV in its platform for almost a decade and a top prioriy in Minneapolis since 2001. It's exciting to see mainstream voters enthusiastically embracing such a fundamental part of the Green platform. This is also gratifying for me personally. I have been advocating for IRV for years now, since the book clubs with Tony Solgard (now outgoing President of FairVote MN ) and others in 1997. I remember how hard it was in 1999 and 2001 when we tried to get I...

The decision on Mayor Rybak’s selection of Chief Tim Dolan has been an extremely difficult one for me. On the one hand, I represent communities that have seen dramatic increases in crime over the past two years. When I conducted a survey of Second Ward residents over the summer, crime and safety were the number one concern of neighbors. I have heard from many, many of the residents of my Ward that they want a permanent Chief now, and they will accept Tim Dolan. On the other hand, I am deeply committed to helping create lasting, systemic change within the Minneapolis Police Department. The Department must connect better to our communities, especially our communities of color, and our community members must know that when officers engage in misconduct, there will be accountability. I have heard from many that Dolan will be an obstacle to this necessary progress. I held a public meeting on the Chief selection on October 9th. Not one person who attended supported the nomination of Chief Do...

Today, I sent a response to the Library Board's Finance Committee's decision to close three community libraries, including the Southeast Lbrary, with my colleague Diane Hofstede (who represents Marcy Holmes, the one Southeast neighborhood outside the Second Ward). Response to the Library Board’s decision to close three community libraries 10-20-06 From Council Members Cam Gordon and Diane Hofstede We were extremely disappointed that the Library Board Finance Committee voted last night to close three community libraries, including the Southeast Library. We have both heard from numerous residents of our neighborhoods, urging us to find a solution that will save our neighborhood libraries. Working with other Council Members, we drafted a letter to the Library Board expressing our willingness to work with them to find alternatives to closure. This letter was signed by nine Council Members, which indicates broad support for keeping neighborhood libraries open. We also had personal c...

Today the arsenic ordinance I authored unanimously passed the Health, Energy and Environment (HEE) committee. Thanks to the good work of Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM), especially Paula Maccabee and Representative Karen Clark, the City is stepping in and doing what needs to be done to protect renters' right to know that the soil at their unit is contaminated. The ordinance will now go to the full Council for final passage. I think its chances of passage are very good. Then landlords within the South Minneapolis Contamination Site will get notice that they must inform their tenants. Then the work begins - EJAM, the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, the Women's Environmental Institute and other outside organizations have agreed to help let renters know their rights. My office will be organizing the impacted Second Ward neighborhoods (Seward, Longfellow and Cedar Riverside) to make sure residents know their rights. Here's what Paula recently wrote ...

I wanted to take a moment to talk about how people outside City Hall can have a major impact on the policies that those of us on the Council enact. The best illustration of this that I've seen since taking office is the story of Ross Abbey. Ross is a great, energetic, intelligent guy. He knocked on doors for me in both my 2001 and 2005 campaigns, the latter while in town for his summer vacation from law school. He's now an attorney at a respected downtown law firm. He contacted my office in February or March with an idea: Minneapolis should follow the lead of other major American cities and launch a public campaign to convince residents to use renewable energy. His idea was that we would ask folks to sign up for the Xcel Energy program Windsource. That idea has morphed and changed as the policymakers, the Citizens Environmental Advocacy Committee, and others have met, discussed, studied and weighed in. The end result: the Minneapolis Energy Challenge that is being launched this...

We're moving towards the big finale for the Civilian Review Authority (CRA) reforms that started all the way back in February. In today's joint meeting (see previous posts), the recommendations of the Work Group passed both the Public Safety and Regulatory Services (PS&RS) and Health, Energy and Environment (HEE) committees. I understand that this piece of good news might be subsumed by the Dolan nomination, but I'd like to mark it. Council committees have voted to substantially improve the CRA process, resulting in the best civilian oversight system Minneapolis has ever had. When I originally moved and fought to form an internal work group to review and reform the CRA based on the recommendations of the a Civil Rights Department Report, I was hopeful that we had a real opportunity to make some positive difference. Now, even though compromises were made regarding the imposition of discipline for sustained CRA complaints, I believe that my optimism was well-founded - the...

The majority of our time at the Council meeting today was spent discussing and amending (and re-amending, and re-re-amending) the Minneapolis taxicab ordinance. This has been a tough issue for me. As I've outlined in a previous post, I do not believe the cap is good public policy. I think it should be gradually, carefully lifted. People who want to start a cab company in Minneapolis should be able to do so. However, I did not vote for the Ostrow amendment today. I should note that I have had numerous discussions just this week on this issue, with Greens, current taxicab owners and drivers, and folks who are kept out of the market in Minneapolis currently. I understand very clearly that the people currently involved in the taxi industry in Minneapolis stand to be hurt by lifting the cap. In response to these concerns and others, my office prepared four separate amendments to the Ostrow amendment in the last three days. I knew that CMs Schiff, Hofstede, Johnson and Lilligren also had...

In another move to help halt global climate change, the Council unanimously passed a Sierra Club-sponsored resolution voicing the city's strong opposition to the proposed Big Stone II coal-fired power plant. You can view the resolution here, near the end of the agenda. Co-authors included myself and Council Members Benson, Glidden, Hodges, Hofstede, Lilligren, Remington and Schiff. Big Stone II is an expansion of an existing 450 Megawatt (MW) powerplant in South Dakota, which would add 600 MW in new dirty coal capacity. The carbon dioxide this plant will dump into the atmosphere is greater than all of the aggressive Minneapolis emissions-reduction plans. Even if we're able to reduce our carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 (as we've committed to do in the Sustainability Indicators), we will be offset by this plant. Worse, the plume of mercury and particulate-laden smoke will regularly come our way. Most tragic of all, this dinosaur-era project is an incredible waste of ratepayer...

A resolution supporting the Minneapolis Energy Challenge passed the Council unanimously today, with all twelve present Council Members signing on as co-authors. The resolution (which you can see here, near the end of the agenda) formalizes our partnership with the Center for Energy and Environment, the folks putting together the MN Energy Challenge. The concept of the challenge is that residents can go to the website and calculate our current emissions, commit to actions steps that will reduce our energy use, learn more about available resources to help us change our energy habits, and participate in online forums with energy experts. It's a way to help those of us who know that we should do something to halt global climate change figure out what that "something" should be. It connects a positive impulse to real, effective action. In addition, the Energy Challenge will put on a number of Energy Fairs in the city, with speakers including WCCO's Don Shelby and polar exp...

Next Thursday, October 12th is shaping up to be a Big Important Day. That afternoon, a joint meeting of the Health, Energy & Environment (HE&E) and Public Safety & Regulatory Services (PS&RS) committees will hear public testimony on the recommendations of the Civilian Police Review Authority Work Group. You can see the recommendations here . Then, later in the same meeting, the HE&E committee will hear public testimony on my proposed arsenic ordinance. The final draft of that ordinance is below. Two of the major projects that my office has been working on all summer will come to the committee on the same day. When it rains it pours. *** Tenant Notification of Environmental Testing and Remediation ARTICLE IV. EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES 244.380. Tenant to be notified of arsenic testing, removal and remediation in South Minneapolis Neighborhood Soil Contamination Site. a. For the purpose of this section, the “South Minneapolis Neighborhood Soil Contamination Site” shal...

As one of Cam's ongoing series of roundtable discussions, he will be hosting a conversation about Ranked Choice Voting (also known as IRV) at Matthews Park on October 26th, 7-9pm. More information on IRV is available from the Better Ballot Campaign and FairVote Minnesota . Be sure to check out their fun new " Introducing IRV " video, and be doubly sure to join Cam and me (and many, many others ) in voting YES this November 7.

In last Wednesday's PS&RS committee, I voted in favor of an ordinance change to gradually take away the artificial cap on the number of taxi licenses granted in Minneapolis. Here is my main reason for doing so: I believe that gradually lifting the cap on taxi licenses in Minneapolis will be good for taxi drivers (present and future), customers and the city at large, in the long term. I also believe that this will make the taxi industry similar to other industries, in terms of City regulation. We put all sorts of restrictions and regulations on bars, restaurants, coffee shops, rental housing, etc. What we don't do in any other industry is regulate the number of people who can participate. I think this is a question of basic economic fairness and justice: if I want to start a coffee shop, it doesn't matter how many other coffee shops already exist. If I want to drive a cab, I have to convince someone else (a competitor) to sell me a license for $20,000. I understand that...

Today the Council voted to introduce the subject matter of my ordinance on arsenic. The proposed ordinance will require landlords within the South Minneapolis Soil Contamination Site to inform their tenants (and prospective tenants) of the level of contamination the EPA has found in their soil, and require people selling homes citywide to disclose known soil contamination to prospective homebuyers. The public hearing on this is likely to be on October 12th, at 1:30pm in the HE&E committee . So far, the Seward Neighborhood Group Environment Committee , the Northstar Chapter of the Sierra Club , Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota , the Women's Enviromnetal Institute and the Green Institute have signed on supporting the ordinance. In other arsenic news, the EPA will be holding the first public input meeting on the "risk assessment" next week: Tuesday September 26th, 7-9pm at the Midtown YWCA. The risk assessment is how the EPA will determine what minimum leve...

Cam would like to invites you to one of his ongoing series of roundtable discussions: Light Rail Transit in the Central Corridor In June, the Met Council voted to support building light rail on the Central Corridor connecting downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis, designating the University Ave route, and moving forward with preliminary engineering. This fall, they are expected to establish a project office and management structure, name a Corridor Management Committeee and establish a Community Advisory Committee to provide local input. Join us to learn more about this important project and explore what we can do to make sure it is designed and built in ways that serve local residents, businesses and neighborhoods as well as our city and the region. September 21st, 7-9pm St. Francis Cabrini Church 1500 Franklin Ave SE For more information contact Cam: 612-296-0579, cam@camgordon.org

The "alley ordinance" that Cam opposed on this blog, in local media and electronic forums was resoundingly defeated by the full City Council on a vote of 10-3. It is gratifying to see that the vast majority of Council Members agree that we must protect and preserve our civil liberties even during an acknowledged public safety crisis. Our office received more contact from constituents on this topic than any since the term began in January. All but one were resoundingly opposed to the proposed ordinance. This helped push us to do all the work we did to help defeat this proposal - walking the halls, talking to other Council Members and their staff, and encouraging residents to voice their opposition to this bad idea. Take a celebratory walk down your neighborhood alleys.

The CRA work group that I helped set up met for the last time this morning. Our last official action was to recommend that the City go to the Legislature and actively pursue granting subpoena power to the CRA. If we can't get the Legislature to grant the CRA this authority, the group recommends that we go forward with a charter change. Coming into this morning's meeting, the recommendation from the subpoena power subcommittee was to pursue limited subpoena power for the CRA, which could be used only for documents and materials. I moved to remove that limitation, and the group agreed. Concerns were expressed about how the Police Federation might not support this at the Legislature, but it was clear that they also would not have supported the limited power either. This recommendation joins the rest of the recommendations that the group has already made, which you can view here. Last night the group held our final public hearing at the Brian Coyle Center. It was fairly well atten...

Today, the Public Safety and Regulatory Services Committee held a public hearing on a proposed ordinance amendment changing how pedestrians can use alleys in Minneapolis. The proposed ordinance was forwarded to the Council without recommendation on a 2-3 vote. My motion to return it to author failed on a 2-2-1 vote (two votes opposed, two in favor and one abstention). A substitute by CM Johnson, to send it to Council with the committee's recommendation, also failed on a 2-2-1 vote. The proposal would amend Title 15, Chapter 385 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances relating to Offenses—Miscellaneous: In General, prohibiting use of alleys for through pedestrian traffic, except for abutting property owners, tenants, their guests and invitees, law enforcement personnel, emergency medical or fire personnel, persons performing public service activities or inspections, and person performing services for public or private utility, garbage collection, or communication companies. I have con...

There will be public hearing on the new Civilian Police Review Auithority reforms we are proposing. Here are the details: Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 7 p.m. Brian Coyle Center, 420 15th Ave S The Coyle Center is near Cedar-Riverside. (Coyle Center – 338-5282). The location is within walking distance of Metro Transit Bus Routes 2, 3, 7, 16, 19, and 50 and the Hiawatha Light Rail line. (Metro Transit – 373-3333). There is bike and vehicle parking on site. WHAT THIS IS ABOUT The Civilian Police Review Authority (CRA) investigates complaints about any Minneapolis Police Officer and decides if the Police Chief should discipline the officer. People that feel they have been mistreated by a Minneapolis Police Officer can file a complaint with the CRA. We have been working to improve the way the CRA handles complaints and have recommended - changes to improve communication between the CRA and the Police Department - research on how complaints are handled by the CRA and the Police Department’s I...

In regards to the ongoing discussions on e-lists and elsewhere about the Greens, the Zimmermann trial and ethical standards, I feel the need to make a public comment. I am proud and honored to be a Minneapolis City Council Member, Green Party member and Green Party endorsed elected official. One of the things that first drew me to the Green Party was that it was based on principles , not personalities, and put its platform and grassroots democracy before politicians and party leaders. One of the things that helped me make it my political home is the fact that it is part of a larger global movement to transform humanity and make the Earth a more peaceful, just, democratic and sustainable place. Recently, with the trial and conviction of one of our members and a local party leader we are being challenged with something the Greens, as a political party, have not faced in Minnesota before. I know that this is an incredibly delicate situation, perhaps more so for me than other people in th...

Today the City Council passed a resolution supporting federal legislation that would create a United States Department of Peace and Nonviolence . This effort is being led by the Peace Alliance and the legislation is sponsored by both Martin Sabo and Mark Dayton . Several other cities have passed similar resolutions, but this makes Minneapolis the first in Minnesota. I hope that others will follow. Clearly, this is only a very small step in the effort to make this a more peaceful and nonviolent City and world. Still, in light of the recent wars throughout the world but especially Iraq and Lebanon and the recent 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki it is nice to think that I was able to be of use to do something to further the cause of peace and nonviolence. One of the things that made this resolution appealing to many of us on the Council is the proposed Department's direct link to promoting nonviolence domestically, through an Office of Domestic Peace...

Hennepin County’s fall Household Hazardous Waste collection is coming up: August 17-19, 9am-4pm, at 2231 Garfield St NE . The next collection date is September 14-16, 9am-4pm, at 3607 E 44th St . The county will accept many items, including: mercury items (fluorescent and HID lamps, thermostats and thermometers) pesticides consumer electronics (computers, televisions, video cassette recorders, stereos, etc.)automotive wastes (fuel additives, starter fluid, waxes) aerosol cans, paint, lead-based paint chips, fuels, solvents and thinners pool, photographic and hobby chemicals rechargeable tools, household batteries and lead-acid batteries Items are accepted from households only. Find out more here .

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is holding a series of public meetings to help set their long term vision for our park system. The last such plan was prepared more than four decades ago. Go here for more information, including locations and date/time of events.

Please take a moment to fill out the Ward 2 E-Survey at the Ward 2 website . We developed this survey to get general feedback and help assess which issues residents find most pressing in their neighborhoods. Your input is important to me and the results will help me understand people's views better and prioritize my own work in City Hall. I plan to communicate the results widely.

The Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support has completed its summer edition of Healthy City; Thriving Families . This is the department’s quarterly publication and this issue has articles on the Youth Violence Prevention grants I worked so hard to get as well as public health emergency plans ; a decline in sexually transmitted diseases in Minneapolis and more. It also includes new department goals and a call for the development of an Urban Health Agenda for Minneapolis. These goals could prove to be powerful in guiding future work and resources. They include: • Improve infant and child health • Promote youth development and prevent violence • Improve teen and young adult sexual health • Increase physical activity and healthy nutrition • Assure health care safety net for underserved populations • Assure preparedness for public health emergencies, today and into the future

The Civilian Review Authority work group decided on some recommendations today: 1) Forming a Police Accountability Coordinating Committee (PACC), comprised of the MPD/CRA Liaison, the Director of Civil Rights, the CRA Manager, the Chair of the HE&E committee, the Internal Affairs Unit Commander, the Chair of the PS&RS committee, the CRA Board Chair, the Mayor and the Police Chief, or any of the above's designee. The group will meet monthly to address "police accountability issues and concerns among the CRA, Civil Rights, and MPD, by promoting communication and greater understanding among the entities dedicated to public safety and police accountability." Topics discussed include, but aren't limited to: a. Administrative issues concerning CRA, IAU, Civil Rights b. MPD policy recommendations c. Disciplinary decisions d. Community outreach e. Emerging trends: patterns of complaints f. Other matters deemed appropriate 2) Establishing two different processes - ...

I want to post two additional links relating to civic engagement in general and to future funding for NRP in particular. This is the latest issue of the NRP Link , the Mpls. NRP Newsletter. On the first page it does a nice job of summarizing the work of the NRP Future Funding Task Force and outlining some of the options for the future funding of NRP. The full report can be read here . These recommendations make an excellent starting place for finding ways to fund NRP in the future. They have been forwarded to all the jurisdictions involved in NRP: City of Minneapolis , Hennepin County , Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board , Minneapolis Library Board , Minnesota State Legislature and Minneapolis School Board , for comment. If we are to secure future funding for NRP it will take a great deal of grassroots support and effort. Please take the time to look these over and share your thoughts and ideas with me, other elected officials, community members and neighbors.

My office has organized a meeting of City staff members from a number of departments (Housing Inspections, Environmental Services and the Attorney's office) and Paula Maccabee from the Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota to talk about arsenic . Here's the scoop: decades ago, a pesticide company called CMC Heartland contaminated a large area of south Minneapolis with wind-blown arsenic. From Environmental Protection Agency wind dispersion models , the affected neighborhoods include Midtown Phillips , East Phillips , Ventura Village , Powderhorn Park , Corcoran , Longfellow , Seward and Cedar Riverside . Since 2004, the EPA has been testing soil at residential properties within what they term the "South Minneapolis Neighborhood Soil Contamination Site." As of mid-June of this year, the EPA has tested about 3,100 properties. The EPA will clean up yards with soil contamination above 95 parts per million (ppm), the level they've judged to be "acute,...

There were some definite sparks at the 6-29-06 CRA work group meeting. My esteemed colleague and fellow work group member Betsy Hodges introduced an ordinance amendment for the work group's review. Here's the text: "172.130 Disciplinary Decision. (a) Upon conclusion of the hearing and request for reconsideration process, the review authority shall forward the investigatory file, the findings of fact and the panel determination to the chief of police, who shall make a disciplinary decision based upon this information. A disciplinary decision is the issuance of a verbal warning, written warning, suspension, or termination. The chief's disciplinary decision shall be based on the adjuicated facts as determined by the CRA Board, and shall not include a de novo review of the facts by the MPD's Internal Affairs Unit or any other police officer, unit, or division. Under this ordinance, a sustained CRA complaint shall be deemed just cause for disciplinary action by the ch...