Finding a Green Way to Govern

A newly-formed tenants union under the auspices of Children and Family Services has brought a problem to my attention, and I have been working with my colleague Ralph Remington to address it. Under the City's current ordinances and policies, certain unscrupulous landlords have been allowed to get away with not providing adequate heat for their tenants, especially in autumn. The current ordinance is a convoluted mess. It requires that landlords begin providing heat when the temperature stays below 60 degrees for 24 hours or more. At this point, a 72-hour clock starts, at the end of which landlords face a small fine of $200 and risk having their property condemned. However, if the temperature goes above 60 degrees during that 72-hour period, the clock restarts. Landlords who wish to save money by not providing heat have learned how to play this game with the City, leaving their tenants cold for much of October. Ralph and I have already succeeded in convincing staff to change the...

One of the concerns my office has heard from victims of auto theft is that when the auto is found and towed to the City's Impound Lot, the victim must pay the towing and storage fees. This understandably places an even greater burden on folks who have been victimized by criminals. I'm happy to announce that the Council on Crime and Justice is one of ten recipients of the Auto Theft Impound Fund, established by the Minnesota legislature in 2007. The purpose of the fund is to provide auto theft victims assistance with towing and storage fees incurred due to impoundment of a recovered stolen vehicle in Minnesota. In order for a victim to receive funding they must have simply filed a police report and have had insurance on the vehicle at the time it was stolen. To apply for funding, auto theft victims can call the CCJ hotline at 612-340-5400 between the hours of 8am and 4pm, Monday through Friday. For more information, you can call the above number or the Minneapolis City Attorn...

I encourage Minneapolis residents to consider supporting a school board election reform proposal (known as the “Davnie Bill”) that will be coming to the School Board next month and possibly, if they do not approve it, to the voters in 2008. I believe that this proposal offers us a way to improve representation, help hold elected officials accountable and make them more responsive, simplify our government structure, improve possible collaboration between jurisdictions and open up the system to political diversity. If enacted, it would change the School Board from the current 7 at large seats to 9 seats voted in by 3 at large seats and 6 district seats. Those six districts would mirror the Park Board districts (although district lines could be redrawn after 2010). The enabling legislation states that the School Board can implement this law or let it go to on the 2008 election ballot. The School Board is scheduled to vote on this issue during their December 11 meeting.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is proposing a "biomonitoring" pilot project in the South Minneapolis Arsenic Contamination Site. Biomonitoring basically means measuring the amount of a chemical in people's bodies to determine how much exposure to that chemical they have had. It's a good way to determine exposure to a chemical because it indicates the amount of the chemical that actaually gets into people, rather than the amount that could potentially get into them. By statute, the scope of the pilot project is to measure arsenic levels in 100 people. MDH is proposing to measure arsenic in children, as they are most likely to be affected by arsenic exposure. Children will be selected by MDH based on eligibility criteria and invited to participate in the pilot project. With their caregivers’ informed consent, these children will be asked to provide a sample (such as urine or hair) so that the level of arsenic in their bodies can be measured. The measurements w...

I am starting work on an amendment to the Administrative Review process for new housing under four units. The current process features a list of 24 design standards of quality housing, and requires builders to get at least 15 points. It has quite a bit of support on the Council and among Planning staff, because it significantly streamlines review of the most common, and usually least controversial structures in our communities: new single family homes and duplexes. However, some neighborhoods, especially those with substantial student populations, object to the type of single family home construction going on. In these neighborhoods, there are some well-documented examples of very large houses with inadequate numbers of windows, incomplete porches and other structures, clearly built as cheaply as possible to extract maximum profit from student renters. The Administrative Review process does not include any opportunity for formal comment by neighborhood groups. The downside to the effic...

On November 6, Morningstar Coffee appealed four different administrative citations issued by Minneapolis Environmental Management: two $400 fines issued in August and fines worth $800 and $1,600 in September and October. Environmental Management Supervisor Dan Huff and Inspector Anne Stahn did a great job of laying out facts and complaints underlying the citations. Jose Vido, owner of Morningstar, presented three main arguments against the fines: 1) he was not given enough time to come into compliance, 2) the odor is not that bad, and not very many people are bothered by it and 3) the neighborhood is interested in redeveloping the piece of land on which his business sits as part of the Bystrom Brothers site. I also spoke, to share the breadth and intensity of concern among residents of west Seward about the negative impacts Morningstar has created, and to rebut Mr. Vido's three defenses. Staff pointed out that the violation orders were written in January of 2007, giving the comp...

The work started with the resolution recognizing youth violence as a public health problem that I introduced last November is approaching completion. The resolution called for the creation of a 30-member Youth Violence Prevention Steering Committee to develop a comprehensive plan to address youth violence. The group, made up of City, County and community experts, has drafted an impressive a multi-year approach, coordinating education, outreach, funding and policy across the City and County. First, I want to let you know I am very proud of all the work we have done so far and very excited about seeing our plan moved forward for approval and implementation. But, I am writing primarily to let you know that we have decided to bring the Violence Prevention Plan into the Council Process a little sooner then expected. There will be a report to the Health Energy and Environment Committee on Monday. I apologize for this short notice, but during discussion with the chair of the committee, Scott...

The National Association of Town Watch gave Minneapolis its “ National Night Out 2007 Award ” for cities with a population greater than 300,000. This summer, more people than ever participated in NNO events. 62,000 Minneapolis residents gathered at more than 1,117 confirmed NNO celebrations citywide. I’m proud of the work done by the Second Ward Interns along with block leaders to help organize additional NNO parties throughout the Second Ward. I strongly believe that the relationships created and strengthened by events like NNO are among our best crime prevention tools.

One of the recommendations of the Civilian Review Authority Work Group I helped form and lead last year was that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) conduct an external audit of the City's other organization charged with holding police officers accountable: the Internal Affairs Unit . Earlier this year, the MPD came to Council with a proposal to give a no-bid contract to the Everett Law Firm from Buffalo, MN. The reasoning at that time was that Everett had a good working relationship with the MPD from past collaborations and Everett understands the Minnesota Driven by objections that I raised, along with Council Members Glidden, Hodges, Schiff, and Remington, the Council rejected that proposal. We frown on no-bid contracts, and the closeness of the two organizations called into question the extent to which Everett could conduct a meaningful external audit of the IAU. The Council directed the MPD to put out a Request for Proposals and go through the formal process. Today, th...

Construction has begun on the replacement I-35W bridge. Workers will be demolishing concrete and drilling test shafts Monday through Saturday, 7am-4:30am. Pile driving will begin on November 5, but due to the noise of this work, it will only occur between 7am and 5:30pm.