Way to go, Steve Brandt!
This is a perfect illustration of the corruption of the DFL as a political
party. Young men and women work the party only to change their personal
economic status. In this picture, the players are Kim Havey, Lisa Goodman,
Michael Krause.
Krause was a bust as manager of the Green Institute. Havey, as manager of the
Enterprize Zone skewered the intentions of the Enterprize Zone funds. Goodman,
on whose original campaign Havey worked, escorts Havey and Krause through the
process, and all three form the for profit Kandiyohi, siphon the plans out of
the Green Institute, and retire to reap the rewards of our tax dollars. How
very menage a trois. Huge carbuncle on the nose of the DFL. It is why there has
to be more than one party at city hall to keep in check the worst tendencies of
political parties.
The Enterprize Zone's funds were budgeted federally to raise the economic
status of the people living inside the zone. The sub-text of the EZ is "create
jobs." This wood-burning plant can only create seven (7) jobs, which cannot
possibly meet the intentions of the EZ funding earmarked for it. Zack Metoyer
screamed loud and long about this. (It's true Zack can be a pain in the butt to
all and sundry, himself included, but once in a while, he's right.) And he
nailed it, in his semi-articulate street argot, about the EZ money and the
counter productive investiments it was promoting.
Krause ran the Green Institute into the ground from which they are slowly
recovering, I hope and pray. None the less, the wood burning plant was not the
best idea they ever came up with, it had a predictably short shelf life, so
didn't make good economic sense.
Goodman. It was a sorry move on my part when I endorsed her first campaign and
one I regret. She wants to swim with the sharks as a member of their clan. Oi.
Either she does not have enough ethical backbone or her ethics are
questionable, take your pick. She is, as the elected person, a DFL leader.
I'm happy to see that Gary Schiff is putting his head to use in backing out of
this tangled web. He was not part of this mini-conspiracy, but he looked
willing to buy into it, at least until Brandt's story. Tony Scallon manoevered
mightily to keep that piece of land in the 9th Ward so that it could be
redeveloped. It was Scallon who removed Hungry Hollow, displacing some 128
lives, to level the land for the Green Institute and pave the way to re-use the
garbage collection station/burner. Schiff can get a better deal for that land
and a better economic prospect for the Ninth Ward if he's up to the challenge.