Metropolitan Council

Elections - City Councils and Commissions - Policies
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Re: Met Council

Postby twincitizen » November 19th, 2014, 4:25 pm

Speaking of reforms to the Met Council, I'm sure that issue will come up during negotiations over transit funding (the general fund portion that partially funds bus operations). Though with House Republicans essentially swearing off new revenue before the session even begins (for either roads or transit), I'm not sure now is the time for Democrats to "compromise". The time for reforms to the Met Council was in 2013-14, with total DFL control. We could have used Met Council reform as a carrot to get enough votes in the House for the proposed sales tax expansion.

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Re: Met Council

Postby mattaudio » November 19th, 2014, 4:28 pm

Speaking of Met Council reform, when I had a meeting with John Quincy a few weeks back, I was surprised to hear that the city's position is that an elected Met Council would be a positive thing for Mpls. He made it sound like it was an official opinion, but I don't know if or how it's a part of the adopted legislative agenda. But fascinating nonetheless.

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Re: Met Council

Postby VAStationDude » November 19th, 2014, 4:38 pm

An elected met council would ensure more progressive council representation during GOP administrations. No more Annette Meeks representing Minneapolis. I don't know how an elected council would affect the overall direction.

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Re: Met Council

Postby MNdible » November 19th, 2014, 4:45 pm

It would be interesting to guesstimate, based on the results of the latest MN House election, what percentage of the Met Council area's population voted for Democrats, and by extrapolation, would be supportive of a more urban/transit focused direction.

Keeping in mind the "wasted votes" in the very heavily Democratic urban districts, it might be a close split.

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Re: Met Council

Postby mattaudio » November 19th, 2014, 4:51 pm

I think it would be a net benefit to the core cities. My only concern would be that a Republican gov/leg would push to expand the boundaries of the Met Council to get more GOP voters into the boundaries. The boundaries would need to be very clear from the start, with strict controls to avoid needless expansion.

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Re: Met Council

Postby Elliot Altbaum » November 19th, 2014, 7:06 pm

I can't find it now, but Myron Orfield and the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity did a study to see how a elected council would fare. If I remember right 3 out of the last 5 four year election cycles (not counting this one) would have been DFL controlled and the other to Republican controlled. In both cases with large minority party representation that would maintain continuity.

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Re: Met Council

Postby EOst » November 19th, 2014, 7:22 pm

I can't help but think that the Met Council might be more prone to ticket-splitting than most other races, in which case those numbers might not be entirely accurate.

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Re: Met Council

Postby Nick » November 19th, 2014, 8:41 pm

So you guys really get the sense that an elected Met Council would divide along partisan lines, rather than urban vs. other?
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Re: Met Council

Postby David Greene » November 19th, 2014, 8:57 pm

It's more likely that reform would structure the Met Council as a committee of elected officials, rather than an elected committee of officials. In other words, county commissioners would be Met Council members. That avoids the overhead and expense of another election. Frankly, people are overloaded by the size of the ballot already.

Is that the best way to do it? Probably not, but I just don't see actual Met Council elections happening.

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Re: Met Council

Postby David Greene » November 19th, 2014, 8:59 pm

So you guys really get the sense that an elected Met Council would divide along partisan lines, rather than urban vs. other?
Right. If there were elections for Met Council members, they would likely be non-partisan, as county elections are today. This is why the metro gets DFL legislators and very conservative county commissioners.

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Re: Met Council

Postby David Greene » November 19th, 2014, 9:00 pm

I think it would be a net benefit to the core cities. My only concern would be that a Republican gov/leg would push to expand the boundaries of the Met Council to get more GOP voters into the boundaries. The boundaries would need to be very clear from the start, with strict controls to avoid needless expansion.
I don't see the current GOP expanding the Met Council's domain as the least bit possible.

A lot of people think the Met Council's domain *should* expand because "the metro" extends beyond the seven county area. It's important to control the sprawl there. Whether than means more seats on the Council is an entirely separate question.

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Re: Met Council

Postby EOst » November 19th, 2014, 10:01 pm

So you guys really get the sense that an elected Met Council would divide along partisan lines, rather than urban vs. other?
Wouldn't that effectively be the same thing? The parties are already effectively structured that way. Jeff Johnson was, after all, a non-partisan commissioner too, but no one was confused whether or not he voted for Mitt Romney.

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Re: Met Council

Postby Nick » November 19th, 2014, 10:09 pm

I mean, conversationally, maybe, but when you start thinking about the things the Met Council actually does, it seems farfetched that Average Person in Minnetonka is going to side with Average Person in Minneapolis over Average Person in Maple Grove.
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Re: Met Council

Postby MNdible » November 20th, 2014, 9:44 am

I think it's fairly clear that a growing number of suburbanites (especially those closer in) have realized that they'll sink or swim with the core cities, and that they appreciate things like good transit and a well-governed region. Is it a majority? Depends on which part of the suburbs you're looking at.

To re-frame your situation, I think a better way to ask it is whether Average Person in Bloomington sides more with Average Person in Minneapolis than with Average Person in Lakeville.

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Re: Met Council

Postby EOst » November 20th, 2014, 9:59 am

To re-frame your situation, I think a better way to ask it is whether Average Person in Bloomington sides more with Average Person in Minneapolis than with Average Person in Lakeville.
Exactly. The reason Bloomington and Minneapolis tend to produce officials with broadly similar views isn't just because everyone in those cities blindly votes for whatever has a (D) after it, but because those populations have a lot of the same priorities.

Sure, a lot of what the Metropolitan Council does is managerial, and theoretically that shouldn't be political. But that's true of Governors, Mayors, City Council members, and a hundred other officials as well. And many of the things that the Met Council does, especially transit, have very clear partisan divides.

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Re: Met Council

Postby twincitizen » November 20th, 2014, 12:26 pm

A democratically elected Met Councilperson would represent more constituents than your state representative and state senator combined, and nearly as many as a Hennepin County Commissioner. This is probably the #1 reason blocking an elected Met Council. It's not that the idea isn't the best option (it might be) or that it doesn't have support from the public (it almost certainly does), it's that your state legislators and local officials at the city and county level don't want to be upstaged.

Either way, there has to be a better way than the status quo where there Met Council functions pretty well internally, but it is constantly under attack from all sides and has its balls cut off in a number of duties it is supposed to perform.

If you could somehow fairly distribute state legislators, or County Commissioners, to have something that is an approximation of representative democracy, that would be ok. Perhaps, if done fairly, it would be preferable to adding another elected layer of government. The vast majority of people could not name their County Commissioner if asked. I'm not entirely convinced that adding another down ballot race is the right answer, but to me, it still looks like the "least wrong" answer on a multiple choice test.

Who knows, maybe an elected Met Council could be the first step toward eliminating the 7 counties in the metro and just having the Met Council handle that business instead. It's definitely worth some thought.

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Re: Met Council

Postby EOst » November 20th, 2014, 12:36 pm

Either way, there has to be a better way than the status quo where there Met Council functions pretty well internally, but it is constantly under attack from all sides and has its balls cut off in a number of duties it is supposed to perform.
Well, yeah, but would an elected council actually change that? Even an elected council would still get the criticism that it was unnecessary/urban-centric/dictatorial/freedom-destroying/etc., there'd just be a different pretext. You wouldn't be disarming the barbarians, you'd just be letting them in the walls.

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Re: Met Council

Postby twincitizen » December 22nd, 2014, 9:07 am

Biz Journal has the rundown on who applied to be the new chair and 16 district reps: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... r-met.html

Just 5 people applied to be chair of the Met Council. And just 35 people total for the 16 districts, some of them with no challengers to the current seat holder, though Governor Dayton can go off-book and appoint others who may not have applied (errr...what?) Every single incumbent re-applied for their seat, including Adam Duininck who also applied to be chair.

I really wish someone had stepped forward in District 8 (currently held by Gary Cunningham, Mayor Hodges' husband). Though I've met Gary and I'm sure he does a fine job, it would be best for Minneapolis and the Met Council to remove any perceived conflict of interest. Especially with the Met Council already under fire from the suburbs, why hand them another easy talking point? Surely there's someone else around that can do the job just as well.

EDIT: This guy applied for District 8, and it appears he does have some credentials: http://www.mhponline.org/about/staff-co ... r-official

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Re: Met Council

Postby twincitizen » December 23rd, 2014, 1:39 pm

They apparently extended the application deadline to Jan. 9, so if you're not thrilled with your representation or are seriously interested (or know someone who'd be great), get those applications in!

http://www.metrocouncil.org/News-Events ... y-Nov.aspx

Also, this is interesting - and will quite possibly have an effect on the choice for Chair:
Nominating Committee
A seven-member nominating committee, which recommends candidates for the Metropolitan Council to the governor, will host public meetings to accept statements from, or on behalf of, applicants for the positions.
Governor Dayton has designated the following citizens to serve on the Metropolitan Council Nominating Committee:
Mary Hamann-Roland – Mayor of Apple Valley
Janet Williams – Mayor of Savage
Scott Lund – Mayor of Fridley
Mary Guiliani Stephens – Mayor of Woodbury
Gail Dorfman – Former Hennepin County Commissioner
Melvin Carter – Former St. Paul City Council member
Will Roach - Director of Business Development at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP
Applicants selected to be interviewed by the nominating committee will testify at a public meeting. They will receive details on the format in advance of the meeting.

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Nick
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Re: Met Council

Postby Nick » December 23rd, 2014, 4:35 pm

Kinda bummed none of my adult friends applied for this :(.

Lol @ that nominating committee lineup, though I mean I guess it's more or less proportional.
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