Finding a Green Way to Govern

News from Cam Gordon Council Member, Second Ward Vote. Please vote on Election Day, Tuesday November 8 th , if you haven’t already used the early voting, no-excuse absentee voting opportunities provided this year.  On Election Day, polling places will be open on the 8 th from 7 :00 am until 8:00 pm. You can find your polling place at http://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/ . This year the City is working to send each household a voter’s guide that includes a sample ballot. You can use this to preview all the races, candidates and questions on the ballot, mark your choices on and bring to use when casting your ballot at the polls. Early voting is still underway until Monday afternoon. For more information about early voting, registering and voting visit vote.minneapolismn.gov   or call 311 or 612-673-3000. 2017 Budget. The budget process for this year is well underway and now for the first time, the proposed budget is available online in an interactive format at https:...

About ten days ago, on Friday October 21st, the police department announced that they had completed their  internal investigation into the police officer killing on November 15th, 2015 of Jamar Clark and that the chief has determined that there were no violations of City policy and that the officers will not receive any discipline. She wrote, “After looking at all the evidence and all the verifiable facts in this case, I can say with absolute certainty that I fully support the actions of [the] Officers….We did not find any violation of MPD policy.” While not surprising, given the long history of not disciplining officers involved in police killings and similar determinations by other investigating bodies who looked into this case, the result was a shock and disappointment to many, including me. While I have confidence and trust in the Chief and the Mayor and have not been given the same access as others to the evidence, I remain deeply concerned by a number of things about th...

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I was very heartened by the decision by Judge Susan Robiner on Monday that the minimum wage charter amendment should be placed on the ballot in Minneapolis. It was a powerful decision, and echoed many of the arguments that I made when opposing the Council majority's decision to keep this amendment off the ballot. The City of Minneapolis is doing a real disservice to our constituents and our democracy in appealing this decision as reported in the paper . I want to be clear: there has been no formal Council vote to authorize the appeal. The City Attorney has decided to move forward with the appeal under the authorization of the Council vote on August 5th. I would strongly prefer that we leave this precedent in place. It's a good, pro-democracy ruling that clears up something that seems to have been confusing: the people do indeed get to decide whether a given issue is appropriate to address in the Charter or not, through the process established by state statute (which the c...

This month's conversation about the minimum wage charter amendment has been interesting and sometimes intense and contentious. Despite being on the minority-end of the decision, and having the City Attorney's opinion arguing against my opinion, I still strongly believe that the City Council reached the wrong conclusion when we voted 10 - 2 to block the proposed minimum wage charter amendment from being on the ballot. While in the end we may have moved a little closer to the ultimate goal of raising wages for the lowest-wage workers in Minneapolis through a promising staff direction, if the action on Wednesday is formally approved by the full Council on Friday, the fair, democratic process set out in state law is not being honored. If the committee recommendation is ratified, the voters of Minneapolis will be wrongly prevented from having the chance to vote on an issue that they should have been able to in November and we, as a Council, did not fulfill our responsibility and du...

It has become a tradition in the Ward 2 Office to look back at the end of each year and review our accomplishments.  There is little doubt that 2015 was a challenging year for the City of Minneapolis.  With the death of Jamar Clark in late November and through the protests that followed, we have had to face ongoing impacts of historical and present-day racism and injustice and our City government is struggling to find a way to respond with meaningful changes.      But 2015 also saw the success of many initiatives the Second Ward office has championed.  Here is our list for this year: For Justice : -           I coauthored (with Council Member Blong Yang) the successful repeal of the City’s antiquated and unjust ordinances that criminalized “ lurking ” and spitting -           I coauthored (with Council member Lisa Bender) an ordi...