Minneapolis Park Board Intrigue!

Guest post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, images from Michael Guest for Minneapolis Park Board Facebook page, and www.minneapolisparkboardwatch.com, respectively.

This email came to me a while ago and I had waited to publish it. Given its direct, although intricate, political content, my preference was that John would blog about it instead of myself. But we're getting too close to the election to allow this information to remain unpublished. "Information wants to be free," John says. I prefer "Information begets information," but the sentiment is the same.

In that spirit, here is some Minneapolis Park Board information to get out there...

The email sent to me is as follows (links added are mine):

"Recently the Star Tribune wrote about the conflict of interest between Brian Rice and the Minneapolis Park Board." (JNS disclaimer: Strib links often go dead over time, but there is no other link to this pertinent story.)

"Considering the challenged state of north Minneapolis parks and the important role they plan in the vitality of our community, we decided to take a look at the Minneapolis Park Board race.

The lawyer-lobbyist has worked for the Park Board since 1985. His firm made over $600,000 last year and this has been a consistent amount over the years.

We looked at Jon Olson's report.

Olson’s campaign finance report, dated September 1st. Olson raised $5,600. Of that, $2,400 was itemized. Of the 9 itemized contribution – those over $100 – 6 had a direct connect with Brian Rice. Two were labor PACs a third a PAC for motorcyclist.

Brian Rice’s contracts are up for renewal after the election. Do his and his allies' generous contributions to candidates around the City influence their decision on who to hire? Are we getting the best value? Considering Rice has recently lost two high profile legal battles, is the Mpls Park best represented by the Rice Michels firm?

Shouldn’t the Park Board have a Conflict of Interest policy that would not allow employees or contractors to be allowed to make a donation to Park Board candidates?"

(End email message)

I am admittedly unfamiliar with some of the questions raised here, but I do believe they are important ones to ask, especially in the days leading up to an election. JNS readers are encouraged to submit comments. I was also sent campaign finance reports for both Jon Olson and Michael Guest. Those are included in the JNS pdf site. I've looked at both of those reports and see that the itemized section of Olson's report shows contributions from PAC's. Guest's itemized contributions are from individuals. Personally, I'd rather have someone in office who, due to contributions, is beholden more to voters than to PAC's (even ones that I like, such as Police and labor).

My DFL Penance

Guest post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, videos from Keith Ellison for Congress on youtube.

I ALMOST went a day without a blog post, after being quite tired from a foreclosure prevention doorknock. But "the blog" is a monster that must be fed. Plus, after my drunken dabbling with the Republican party, I figured I had some making up to do on behalf of my fellow DFLers (don't expect me to like Entenza or Dayton anytime soon, though. Just sayin').

And I have to say, knowing that John is a Green Party stalwart, using his blog to prop up my DFL party is fun in a subversive way.

A while ago, one of my favorite DFLers, Keith Ellison, waded into the 2009 NoMi political scene with a few endorsements of his own...


This was the only candidate-specific video I could find. I also want to share my personal experience with DFL-endorsed Barb Johnson. When I first started up at Hawthorne, I was not a supporter of hers. I remember one specific city council meeting where several people, myself included, were trying to get a city resolution about foreclosures passed. Barb had issues with how we were approaching this, and started to list some statistics about foreclosures in north Minneapolis. Sitting next to me was then-executive director of JACC, Jerry Moore. He started to shake is head, and CM Johnson stopped, looked right at us, and said, "No. You're wrong, Jerry."

At the time, the shameless agitator in me was just plain excited that we had ticked off the city council president. But then a funny thing happened when I did my homework on what Barb was saying. It turns out she was right. This has happened time and time again; there's been the politically expedient thing to say or do, and the right thing to do. When those two don't intersect, I've seen CM Johnson do the right thing without fail. I've got nothing bad to say about either of her opponents, but from working with her, I'm right there with Rep. Ellison. Let's get Barb re-elected.

Barb had a fight on her hands to win the DFL endorsement. Our next candidate has a fight on his hands for re-election, but won the DFL endorsement in only three rounds.

We still need your help to make sure the 5th Ward returns DFL-endorsed CM Don Samuels to represent us. For more volunteer opportunities, email goodponyz@yahoo.com.

Rounding out north Minneapolis DFL endorsements, Mayor RT Rybak and CM Diane Hofstede both had "no endorsement" take 2nd place at their respective conventions. The Board of Estimates and Taxation has DFL-endorsed Carol Becker running.

NoMi is home to District 2 of the Park Board, but the DFL did not endorse the incumbent. While no formal endorsement happened, challenger Michael Guest has received the support of Keith Ellison.

Know who else has supported Guest? Walter. Mondale.

Hopefully, all is right between me and a certain higher power now. Sure beats saying a bunch of hail mary's.