Let’s face it, while Huether accomplished a lot during his tenure (building monuments and bonding our future) it was all done under a dark veil of secrecy. Just look at the RR redevelopment plan that he touts as his greatest achievement. A deal cut in the dark of the night in a Minneapolis board room. Just today I had to wait 20 minutes at 1 PM while trains re-switched right next to Avera hospital on Cliff Avenue. My wait was actually shorter than the 4 blocks of cars on either side backed up because I finally just drove around the mess. The train traffic has become more frequent which opens us up for more incidents of accidents. And it’s not a matter of when but how? Will it just be corn next time or something more dangerous? This is what happens when you negotiate in the dark, you get very bad deals that are ripe with corruption.
Tomorrow when the new council and mayor get sworn in, they should have one priority on their list, sunshine in government. I hope they think about that while taking the oath to the defend the US Constitution, the State Constitution and the City Charter.
As I told a friend recently, I could care less about diversity, equal rights, higher wages, affordable housing, roads, public safety, and public transit, without a transparent government you can’t tackle any of those issues properly. Period.
Some of the first initiatives our new council and mayor should take on should focus on transparency. I have suggested a wide reaching ordinance that requires the mayor and council share information with each other, not when it is just convenient, but ALL OF THE TIME.
They should also pass an ordinance that requires them to disclose all real estate investments that require city approval of any kind. I don’t care if this is a multi-million dollar city parking ramp or a tool shed.
They should also be required to say ‘why’ they are recusing themselves from a vote.
They should allow public input at 1st readings. I actually think this would cut down on regular public input.
They should update the city website so that ALL documents are online available for download for citizen use. They should also post all contracts and applicants of RFPs and TIFs. In that vein they should also live stream as many meetings as possible and have some of the more important boards be required to have their meetings at Carnegie and be recorded, like Board of Adjustment, REMSA and the Parks Board.
They should allow city employees to speak openly about their job with the media (as long as it doesn’t involve litigation or personnel).
All I have ever asked is that we have open government, everything else comes easy when you do these things in the open.
I actually believe that Huether’s lack of transparency killed his opportunity to ever run for public office again and win. His darkness will haunt him forever.
