Finding a Green Way to Govern

Last Wednesday at the Executive Committee we approved designating Assistant Chief Tim Dolan as Interim Police Chief . He is set to take over as head of the police department April 15th and serve for 90 days. We can also decide to extend that time if needed. It is unclear if this means that Dolan is a likely candidate for the permanent appointment. What is clear is that it is the Mayor’s appointment to make. His office is still in the process of looking at options for how to go about making this important decision. I am advocating an open and more extensive search. While I know we have outstanding candidates within the department, I think it would be a mistake to limit ourselves to an internal search. This is a critically important decision. We should make using the most careful, open and complete process possible. I do not want to overlook excellent candidates from outside the city, though I do want to give those qualified officers within the city a fair chance at the position. I wil...

Since Monday, my office, (meaning my hard working and amazing Policy Aide, Robin Garwood and my dependable, competent Associate, Nancy Olsen) has been scrambling to set up a task force to study Instant Runoff Voting . The Better Ballot Campaign and FairVote Minnesota (full disclosure: I was a founding member of FairVote, and Robin is on its board currently) are pushing to put IRV on the ballot in Minneapolis this fall. One of the important steps in the process was to put together a task force representing all institutional stakeholders to study the viability of IRV in Minneapolis and recommend whether or not to proceed. My colleague and fellow IRV advocate Scott Benson moved a resolution creating this task force which passed the full council on March 10th. Then the task force sort of fell through the cracks until Monday, when FairVote President Tony Solgard asked our office what progress had been made. Turns out the task force was to have been convened and chaired by the single...

As you have no doubt heard, Chief of Police William McManus has accepted a new job in San Antonio . With the departure of Chief McManus we will now have to go through another search . I hope we can use this as an opportunity to find the best person for the job, and that we do not limit our search to people already within the Minneapolis Police Department . Among other things, I will be strongly advocating that any new chief must publicly commit to work with the Civilian Review Authority (CRA) and Police Community Relations Council (PCRC) to increase police accountability and responsiveness in Minneapolis. We deserve a new chief who more fully accepts and utilizes the CRA process , and works well with the PCRC. I will be asking every prospective chief whether she/he will comply with all aspects of the CRA ordinance , and I will only vote for a candidate who convinces me that she/he will. In order for civilian oversight of the MPD to work, we need a chief who understands its neces...

Several days ago I was contacted by a candidate running for Green Party endorsement for a State office, asking me to reserve a conference room in City Hall for his and other candidates’ campaign kickoff press conference. (I won’t be mentioning any names in this post because I don’t want this to be construed as campaigning for the candidates in question). I thought this sounded fine, and reserved a conference room. Then I thought about it for a second. A conference room is a public resource and we were talking about using them to assist 3 political campaigns. Was this really city business? A red flag was raised and it is our policy in the Ward 2 office that when in doubt, we check it out. So I decided I’d better ask the City’s Ethics Officer . (Note: as of right now, that link is factually incorrect. The Ethics Officer is now Susan Trammell. My aide has requested that the website be updated.) (Edit: the link is now fixed. Kudos to the City's website folks!) The Ethics Officer was...

Welcome to the new Second Ward blog. I’m Cam , Council Member from Ward Two , and I’ll be posting here regularly. My aide Robin will be posting here from time to time as well. My hope for this space is that it will be a forum for civil, constructive discourse focused on how we can make Minneapolis , and Ward Two in particular, a better place for everyone who lives , works, learns and plays here. I want this blog to be a place where I can share some of what our office is working on, my priorities and concerns, and explain the reasoning behind some of my votes and other actions. I also want to share some of the day-to-day experiences of this challenging, fascinating job and the intriguing world that is City Hall . But it’s just as important to me to hear from you. What do you think of what I’m up to? What should I be working on? Where am I right, and where am I wrong? When posting, please know that your comments are being screened, so don’t waste your time swearing or libeling people –...