Please VOTE NO on the one Charter Amendment that will be on the Minneapolis 2009 Election Ballot this fall. If you value the autonomy the Minneapolis Park Board has had for over 125 years, do not support this amendment! Simply described, the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) is the “faucet” for the revenue stream that comes to the Park Board.

A Park Board member presently sits at the BET table and has a voice in the decision making. What this Charter Amendment proposes is to wipe out the present membership of the BET, which includes the Park Board, two independently elected members, the Mayor, the President of the City Council, the Chair of Ways and Means and a Library Board member, which used to also sit at the table until they were dissolved into Hennepin County’s Library System. The BET powers would then be transferred to the City Council, thereby silencing the Park Board’s voice in setting their maximum Tax Levy Rate. If this passes, our Parks’ “revenue faucet” is unprotected from being turned off.

Please go to http://savethebet.org/ and support this effort.

VOTE NO TO:
CHARTER AMENDMENT NO. 168

PROPOSAL TO CHANGE THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND TAXATION

Should the City of Minneapolis adopt a change in its charter to the composition of the Board of Estimate and Taxation so that the Board’s membership consists of the members of the City Council, with the actions of the Board subject to the powers and duties of the Mayor?

Door knocking the district as your MPRB District 6 Commissioner candidate has revealed, not that I’m surprised, how passionate everyone is about our parks. Here is an answer from our Lakes District Manager to those of Linden Hills grieving the loss of their wading pool this summer:
The wading pool at Linden Hills has broken underground pipes. The area under and around the drain in the pool has also collapsed and in essence the pool would have to be torn apart and the area going from the pool to the building would have to be dug up to repair the broken pipes. We knew the pool was leaking but we didn’t know how severe it was leaking until we came in one morning and there was no water in the pool. We filled it again and the water was gone within a day.

The cost to repair the pool could be as high as $50,000.00. It was my recommendation that rather than spend that much money on a pool that is over 30 years old we should build a new pool and splash pad. We recommended a new pool in our priority list of Capital improvements for 2010 and if that is approved we would have $400,000 to build a new pool and splash pad. We could then replace the old mechanical system and have everything brand new. If the money is approved we would begin work on the pool as early as possible and hopefully have it up and running sometime in June of 2010.

Thanks,
Paul Hokeness
Lakes District Manager
Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board