Finding a Green Way to Govern

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...