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...