Minneapolis Park Watch

The running joke that the elected commissioners represent us, the taxpayers, continues at the Park Board. Last night's meeting once again made clear that certain commissioners are only there to further their own personal agendas, and that no trick is too low for their grasp. They've surrounded themselves with hirelings of equally poor ethics as they continue to fleece the taxpayers.

At 5pm, the Legislative and Intergovernmental Committee, chaired by commissioner Walt Dziedzic, met to hear reports on lobbying efforts at the state capital on behalf of the Park Board by Maryann Campo and counsel Brian Rice. The committee had half an hour of time scheduled. First to speak was Maryann Campo.

Campo has acted as a contract lobbyist for the Park Board since 1999. She had a handout with some details which was given to the commissioners but which I did not see (and don't believe the rest of the public got to see, either). No doubt there are some significant differences in skill sets used in lobbying and in presenting a report to a board of commissioners, but to the extent that they overlap, the Park Board is clearly not getting its money's worth. Campo is a terrible speaker. She said very little of substance, and was incapable of stringing several complete sentences together, um'ing and ah'ing often.

Dziedzic would have been reprimanded by the judge in a court of law for "leading the witness" with the amount of prompting and directing he did, sometimes actually interrupting Campo to get his next suggested reply or leading question in. He variously called her "Miss Campo" and "Maryann" at times.

Dziedzic asked Campo if she wanted to continue working for the Park Board. She answers yes. He asks her if she wants a 3 year contract. Yes.

Commissioner John Erwin asks Campo about the hours she worked for them in 2003 versus 2004, the latter provided on the hand-out. Campo begins her answer by saying she was not prepared to talk about 2003, implying she had not been told anyone would ask her about it, it seems. With some prompting she is finally able to say that with the much longer legislative session in 2003 that she would have worked many more hours in 2003 than 2004 for the Park Board. [One would think that when asked to report on one's work to one's boss that one would spend a little time and actually be prepared for simple, obvious questions like year to year comparisons. Or at least this one would think so.]

Counsel and lobbyist Brian Rice then got up to make his presentation. He starts out by laying on the flattering praise to Campo, saying it's been 6 years they've worked together and that Campo is "just as young looking now as" when they started.

Commissioner Carol Kummer interrupts to say "It was just so much fun!"

Rice continues in his usual sonorously droning style [thankfully he has a pleasant baritone] mentioning tidbits of history and dropping names of people here and there but without really giving a clear picture of anything. He lays on the praise to the commissioners for their help in lobbying, the praise on Campo for her work, etc. etc. He talks about changes in LGA (local government aid) and something about money from LCMR.

At which point Dziedzic interrupts to get him to define what LCMR and other acronyms are.

Rice says LCMR is the legislative commission on Minnesota resources, which at one time got half a cent tobacco tax as a revenue source, but mostly depends on a share of the state lottery money now.

Rice also has a handout given to the commissioners that the public does not get to see as far as I know.

Rice mentions working with Dziedzic and butters up Kummer for pursuing some legislative issue. He says he can't emphasize enough that it's a team approach and a bipartisan effort. He says his firm wants to continue as lobbyists for the Park Board.

Commissioner Annie Young asks why she does not see work the charter on the handout as lots of hours were spent on that. [Are these billed hours not on the previous bill of $327,619.51 for legal work and $76,383.02 for lobbying from his firm? The former add up to over 3700 hours of billed work in a year -- 2 full-time people and the Park Board is just one of many clients.]

Rice says charter work is under legal. [but I see no "charter" category there]

Young says a lot of the charter work is wheeling and dealing, so isn't it sort of both legal and lobbying?

Rice compliments Young and then goes on.

Erwin has another handout that only he has a copy of at this point that has the charter work billable charges on it.

Dziedzic interjects some commentary about the charter changing so that instead of a 13 to 0 city council vote to change it, it would only take a legislative vote of 7 to 6 at the city council. Not clear what he is talking about.

Commissioner Vivian Mason wants to wait until the Park Board budget for 2005 is set before taking action on rehiring both Campo and Rice.

Someone makes a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Kummer asks about the lobbying contracts. Rice answers that he is by appointment so it can start and end whenever, but that he believe Campo has a contract that ended December 31, 2003 or more likely, ends December 31, 2004.

Young makes a point of order that the motion to adjourn needs to be voted on.

Vote is called, motion fails with Mason voting yes, and others voting no.

Commissioner Jon Olson, president, who is not on this committee, asks Campo if there is a chance that she will not be available for the Park Board to hire if they delay until after the budget is set on December 13.

Campo says there is a risk that she might not be. [It all sounds reasonable but the truth is this is just a ploy to get Campo rehired before the budget is set against Mason's request, and Campo is unlikely to have anything remotely as lucrative as her Park Board contract-well except maybe for representing the Lorillard Tobacco Company trying to stop those anti-smoking ordinances.]

Olson "strongly recommends" the committee move it along to "retain the excellent services" of Campo.

5:25pm

Erwin wants to discuss and wants to move it to the full board at first meeting in December (Dec. 1).

Commissioner Bob Fine also wants to move it to the full board.

Erwin and Fine clarify a mutual position.

Commissioner Marie Hauser, who is not on this committee, also wants to urge the committee to move forward.

Erwin moves that decision and issues be moved to full board December 1.

MOTION CARRIES.

Mason is concerned about contract terms.

Committee is ADJOURNED.

5:27pm

Committee of the Whole is called to order by Olson.

First item is a staff overview and then a public hearing on the interim superintendent's Recommended 2005 Budget.

Assistant superintendent Don Siggelkow outlines the budget and next steps, reusing the slides from his presentation at last week's meeting.

5:35pm

General manager Mike Schmidt gets to be the water boy and sounds very nervous to be on the spot in trying to defuse the public's anger over proposed cuts to the Summer Playgrounds and Environmental Education programs. He says most questions on the budget have been about those 2 items, and the staff and commissioners have received a lot of calls. [And the audience is packed with upset parents and kids with posters and placards...]

Schmidt does his best to explain what exactly the proposed cuts would affect in those programs and what they would not, and likewise does his best to CYA the Park Board with high fog-factor obfuscatory phrasing. He uses such verbal, Jon Gurban-esque* gems like the "thought process about the thoughts" on how it could be done differently. Schmidt appeared to be sweating bullets, metaphorically speaking.

*[Interim superintendent Jon Gurban is given to such unique turns of phrase as "we were developing some plans for developing some focus groups within the staff" and "there are plans and diagrams starting almost with backs of napkins and progressing through more diagrams and that, of how..."]

5:39pm

Olson says they discussed these 2 items at the last meeting. He asks if the staff has worked on ways to restore funding completely to these 2 programs.

Schmidt says they talked about options and other program they could cut.

5:40pm

Public Comments

[I will no doubt butcher the spelling of some people's names, my apologies.]

1. Barbara Milon, Executive Director of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center (http://www.pwccenter.org/) in North Minneapolis talks about the critical needs of inner city youth for structured activities and supervision. She says the Park Board needs to use out of the box thinking to solve the problem of funding these important programs and gives an example of that thinking.

2. Greg Langeson[?] of 27xx Grand St NE, chairman of the Marshall Terrace neighborhood association describes how the proposed 50% reduction in the Summer Playgrounds program will essentially eliminate the program in Marshall Terrace and elsewhere. He refers to the Park Board's stated mission and goals regarding recreational activities for children, and that such are a community value.

3. Joanne Odette[?] of Main St NE near Hi-View Park felt confident that her 7 year old grandson was safe going to the park, especially safe from bullying, because 2 park staff were there [this past summer]. She mentions that she has never been to the Park Board HQ building before and comments that it is "nice." She states maybe supervised recreation activities for children are more important [than the HQ building].

4. Norma Hill[?] of 2nd St NE near Hi-View Park. She ticks off the litany of public facilities they do NOT have in that neighborhood, e.g library, rec center, lakes, etc. [it's wedged into a corner by the BNSF train yards]. Without the Summer Playgrounds program they will have nothing. She then reads the following letter from 14-year old Andrea Whitaker:

"For the last 3 summers I spent all of my time at Marshall Terrace Park. The park means a lot to me. I am going to try to attend the meeting, but if not, I want you to know how much the park staff means to the kids of the neighborhood.

Most of the kids had parents who work during the day. With park staff at Marshall Terrace many of us were allowed to leave our houses during the day and hang out with other kids our ages in a safe environment. Many of the kids I met at the park I had never met before, even though they lived only a few blocks from my house, yet we never heard of each other.

The park staff always made sure we had fun things planned, like arts and crafts, kickball games, painting, karaoke, field trips to Lynx games, or to the zoo. The past two years we had 2 wonderful park staff people, Kim and Erin. They taught us right from wrong, if anyone swore, it meant 20 push-ups or $.25 into the swear jar. We had the "everyday kids", they were the children that just couldn't miss a day of the park, there was about 14 of us, me being one of them. Everyday we had at least 30 kids come through the park. Many of the kids did not get to play games at home. There was a family of about 3 kids, from the ages of 3 to 9, their father worked all day and their mother was totally out of the picture. Many days the park staff would share their lunches with these kids, because if they didn't there would be no lunch for them. These kids needed the park staff there.

It got us kids out and active instead of sitting and watching the TV. It also kept us safe, we were busy with fun and games at the park so we couldn't get involved in negative activities. Even though the summer is now well over, I still call and write to Kim and Erin, they are like sisters to me. Even though they are in college they take time to show us they still care.

Thanks for your time. Hopefully I'll see you at the meeting,

Andrea Whitaker"

6. Liz Wielinski of Hi-View Park neighborhood, Northeast: "President Olson and Commissioners, If I thought it would truly balance the budget I'd say 'go ahead, take service away from our kids.' Unfortunately I know it would not cure your budget woes. The majority of this board has too many expensive plans for the future that are just going to lead to more of the same. Take this building for example. Estimated cost, $4 million; actual cost $6 million and climbing, but not to worry as the tenants will pay the mortgage. But last month, knowing the budget would have a million dollar shortfall, six commissioners Hauser, Fine, Kummer, Dziedzic, Olson and Erwin voted to move the police in downstairs. No rent to collect and at least $350,000 added to the building price.

Or we could talk about the Neiman Sports Complex. $14,000,000 in bonds that are to be paid for using golf revenues; seems you're running $75,000 a year short. When in turn your Local Government Aid is used by the city to pay the bonds, what will be cut with this 19% LGA shortfall of almost $10 million per year? Just last week the Calhoun Yacht Club brought forward a proposal for a new $1.5 million sailing building and in his superintendent's report Jon Gurban recommends an event center at Lake Nokomis. Then he suggests mini golf at Lupient Waterpark as a budget solution. How do you spend yourself out of debt? Who pays for another possible white elephant?

I would like to see the Park Board get its priorities and fiscal house in order, and if our kids still need to sacrifice, so be it. But the kids in my neighborhood should not have to give up their summer park leaders so that some of you can build your "Dream Fields." So on behalf of myself, my son Bobby, and the Hi-View park kids Ahmed, Brooke, Brent, Aisha, Ramon, Jabonte, Nick, Larry, Sally, Brandon, Kathy, Aimee, Peng, Fong, Nancy, Kwaa, Chang, Sarah, Christina, Andria, Leah, Michael, Elena, Rosa, Ashley, Claudia and even the little ones in the strollers waiting for their turn, thank you for your time."

7. Cordelia Pierson and son Alden of Southeast Minneapolis. Alden just had a birthday. His mother Cordelia asked him where his first choice was for having a party. It was North Mississippi Park. She urges the commissioners to reconsider cutting programming in the parks. There need to be partnership solutions, perhaps marketing for Kroening Center. Very persuasive and no-nonsense. Pierson is the Twin Cities Program Manager for The Trust for Public Land (http://www.tpl.org/).

8. Candy Sartell[?] of Dupont Ave N describes how the Kroening Center building would be closed without Park Board staff there when the Three Rivers Park System naturalist was out of the building, and he is, often. The inconsistent hours which would result would cause a gradual death for the facility there. She urges the commissioners to consider their obligation to the public, and not allow such facilities to die of neglect.

9. Kelley Leaf of Northeast mentions that commissioner Dziedzic should take note of all the residents of Northeast in the audience tonight. She describes her job as a guardian ad litem trainer, and how they train guardians [hundreds of them] to use and take advantage of the park system resources. The programs are irreplaceable. "When are we going to stop balancing the budget on little backs" of little children, she asks. We can find $85,000.

10. Max, son of Kelley Leaf, talks about how he doesn't want to see the programs at Dickman and St. Anthony Parks closed, how they are so important to him and other kids he knows.

6:10pm

11. Irene Jones of 41st Ave South and representing Friends of the Mississippi[?] is concerned about funding for North Mississippi Park and the Environmental Education programs. She says North and Northeast have a greater need for this. Environmental spending at the Park Board has already been cut to the bone over the past few years. The natural resources of the park system are what really set it apart nationwide.

12. Pat [impossible to spell last name he says] of 36xx Grand St N came to make sure that Andrea Whitaker's letter got read. He says not to balance the budget on the kids' backs. He notes that the habit of using parks needs to start in childhood.

13. Andrea Whitaker of Randolph NE, wrote the letter which was already read. She is 14 years old and talks about how important the staff at Marshall Terrace was to her and the other kids, how the staff was always there for them, and always found positive things for them to do, things they could excel at. She says it's too far for most children to go to another park such as Bottineau from her neighborhood.

14. Shawne FitzGerald of Powerderhorn neighborhood describes how she has been very involved with the parks for a very long time, from childhood through being a grandparent. She is concerned about the commercialization of the park system. They may be adding too much, too fast. She describes how the 20 year lease on the Nicollet Island Pavilion to a private entity means that it might be out of the public's use until after she dies, how doing that is detrimental. She says the public is concerned about Ft. Snelling. We elected the commissioners to be stewards of the parks, not to be business people. What is the message we are giving our children? There should be a community discussion of the examples we are setting in the way the park system is run for the children. Advertisements are good? [She spoke much more effectively than my hashed synopsis here can represent.]

15. Edward Ray[?] of Penn Ave S, works for a security services firm and for the Salvation Army, and is a single parent of 2. He says his 14 year old girl has learned a lot from the time she spends at Armatage Park in the youth programs there. He then talks about the misspent youth heading for a life of crime of a certain young man, and the hard road that youth had in turning his life around, to graduate from college and to get a good job as a private investigator. He points out that youth was him. He says that our youth of today need more money spent on these programs, not less; they need more hope to avoid the life he fell into before climbing out. He gets a spontaneous round of applause from the audience.

16. Albert Timeerson[?] and son Adam also from the Armatage neighborhood. His son was concerned enough about program cuts that he got his dad to go to the meeting. He says his son had a lot of positive experiences at the parks. He urges and implores the commissioners to find a way to not cut programs and opportunities for youth.

17. Adam says that due to the youth programs, he and his friends go to Armatage park all the time now, instead of hanging out at places like Southdale and getting in trouble.

18. Ruth Jones of 29xx Dean Parkway, former school teacher, is concerned about the proliferation of fee-based programs as a solution to budget problems. She says they are elitist because of course only those who can afford to pay the fees on top of their taxes can participate. She says they need to find a balance between parks for all and this elitist idea. Let us keep the programs for children. She says she pleads they keep the parks for all people.

6:26pm

Larry Brant[?] from Park Board IT Services says the first hour and a half of the meeting was not broadcast live due to a technical difficulty, but that they are live now. He also says all of the meeting was video taped, however, and it will be rebroadcast on Nov. 13 at noon and Nov. 14 at 6pm.

Dziedzic attempts to grandstand to the public but Olson cuts him off.

Hauser has 2 letters from the public who were unable to attend to enter into the public record.

6:30pm

Interim superintendent Jon Gurban leaves.

Oldani Group representative Andrea Sims gives her presentation. She says they had 25 applicants for the superintendent job. Of those, Oldani selected 15 to interview by telephone, and the results were shared with the board. Oldani decided to further interview 8, but by the time they did the interviews, 2 dropped out. So they interviewed 6. She then goes through brief descriptions of the strong points and weak points of those 6, by letter (not by name) and gives a recommendation up or down. 3 are recommended to move forward to final interviews with the board, other 3 are not.

The big joke on the public is that among the 3 she recommends is candidate G, Jon Gurban, who is clearly not as qualified as the other 5, including the 3 not recommended. Among Gurban's "qualifications" are his connections to a statewide organization [hahah], his former employer that he sued.

Olson wants to move these 3 to full board.

Erwin makes the motion.

All are in favor.

Committee of the Whole Adjourns

6:41pm

Special meeting of the board is called to order, and agenda is approved.

Olson wants a motion.

Erwin moves to accept the 3 finalists as received from Oldani.

Dziedzic asks if there names will be made public by state law.

Olson answers yes.

Mason asks Oldani/Sims who they would move forward if candidate G was eliminated.

Sims says she would not move any of the other 3 forward [but it's clear she is stressed].

Mason says candidate G [commissioners have papers with full information on each candidate by letter] did not have the employment experience level as the other 7 semi-finalists.

Sims does not want to belabor her recommendations.

Hauser asks if her understanding of Oldani/Sims' reservations about candidate G are just situational, i.e. the way Gurban was dropped on the board and the public last December like a bomb.

Sims says that "is a good portion of it." [what's the other portion? She keeps refusing to say, doesn't she?]

Olson calls the vote.

8 commissioners vote in favor. Mason is opposed. [shame on Young, Berry Graves and Erwin]

The names are handed out. They are Cristofer Gears, Dirk Richwine and Jon Gurban. 6:48pm ADJOURNED

Posted by Chris Johnson on Fri, 11/12/2004 - 6:40pm. | Permalink | Login to post comments