PARKS UPDATE
By Mary O'Regan from the March 10, 2008 Southwest Journal
2008 legislative agenda
On Feb. 20, the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board’s Legislative and Intergovernmental Committee approved its 2008 legislative agenda with several amendments. The agenda will direct the efforts of the board’s lobbying team, Rice, Michels & Walther, LLP, in 2008.
Projects listed as requiring state bonding money, in order of priority, include:
$10 million for the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, which includes relighting paths and parking lots and completing the missing link;
$5.3 million to rehabilitate the Minnehaha Falls Lower Glen;
$1 million for the Father Hennepin Regional Park; and
$3.1 million to build a new community center in East Phillips Park.
The board had originally planned to include rehabilitating playground equipment at up to eight locations, including Calhoun, Harriet and Theodore Wirth parks; building additions to three community centers; continuing winter recreation redevelopment at Theodore Wirth Park; and developing J.D. Rivers Gardens for youth usage, but Park Board Attorney Brian Rice noted the projects would likely not get funded.
The legislative agenda also includes using Metropolitan Council bonding money to rehabilitate Theodore Wirth Beach; protecting local government aid (LGA); developing dedicated funding sources for environmental programs; finalizing a park-dedication ordinance; combating invasive tree species; opposing the elimination of the city’s Board of Estimate and Taxation; and collecting the proceeds from the sale of parkland at the site of the I-35W bridge collapse.
Format of board meetings to change
Beginning March 19, the format of Park Board meetings will change. Committee of the Whole meetings, in which commissioners receive in-depth information about topics determined by President Tom Nordyke and staff, will take place on the third Wednesdays of each month after the regular board meetings that start at 5 p.m. Until now, the Committee of the Whole had been meeting at 4 p.m. — a time that was difficult for some commissioners and many members of the public to make.
On the first Wednesday of the month, regular board meetings will begin at 5 p.m. and committee meetings will follow. Normally, all commissioners are allowed to participate in discussions about items on a committee’s agendas, but under the new meeting format, commissioners have been asked to refrain from speaking during meetings of committees to which they don’t belong. Staff hopes that board members can accomplish the majority of their discussion during the monthly Committee of the Whole meetings, leaving fewer questions from nonmembers during committee meetings.
Southside Commissioner Carol Kummer said that if nonmembers want clarification on issues during committee meetings, they could always write their questions down and pass the paper to a member of the committee.
The board will try the new format for three months and then decide whether to adopt the method. All of the meetings will remain public. Additionally, staff will attach placards to each commissioner’s spot at the meeting table to let the public know which committee each member is on.
Contact Mary O’Regan at moregan@mnpubs.com or 436-5088.