NEWS RELEASE: Metro Council approves new round of Municipal Consent Hearings;
Availability of Federal Funding appears unclear if Legislature does not provide
more money; bobagain and other submit extensive comments as SDEIS comment
period ends
Note: A .pdf version of this News Release is attached.
Disclosure: bobagain is a registered Lobbyist, representing “We the People”, an
informal association, and has announced a campaign to win a Pulitzer Prize for
investigative reporting, covering the unfolding “SWLRT disaster”.
Contact: Bob “Again” Carney Jr: <email obscured>; cell phone: (612)
812-4867
Visit: www.bobagain.com
Minneapolis 7/24/15 – At last Wednesday’s Met Council meeting, Chair Adam
Duininck recounted to the Council a “successful” meeting with a top Federal
administrator regarding the problem-plagued Southwest Light Rail project. But
Duininck repeatedly avoided a clarifying question from registered lobbyist and
“candidate-journalist” Bob “Again” Carney Jr. (bobagain): “is Federal funding
contingent on more money from the State Legislature for the project?”
Although “conventional media wisdom” appears to be the lead story from the
Council’s meeting was their decision to launch another round of Municipal
Consent, uncertainty over the prospect for Federal funding appears to be at
least an equally important news element of the meeting -- but one that other
news reporters present have yet to report on.
Whatever the reason for that might be, it is not Duninick’s unwillingness to
talk to other reporters – Duininck was videotaped by bobagain talking with
MinnPost’s Peter Callaghan; bobagain also accommodated the Star Tribune’s Janet
Moore, who wanted to have a “private” conversation with Duininck. Before
walking away from Moore and Duininck, bobagain pointed out “this is a public
building”, and said his news coverage included how other news media is covering
the story; bobagain made the same point to Callaghan.
A “raw” youtube.com video of bobagain’s efforts to obtain more information
about the apparent contingency for Federal funding, titled “Met Council 7 22 15
meeting, question, is Federal SWLRT Funding contingent on more State money”, is
online at the youtube “bobagain channel”.
Here is the link:
Late in the Council’s unusually short 7/22/15 meeting, Duininck made this
statement, (underline emphasis is added):
“A couple weeks ago, I think this is since I’ve given a report, but I met with
the FTA Administrator, to talk to her and her senior staff about Southwest LRT
and the tight time line we’re under within the next 18 months. I was joined by
Mr. Fuhrmann and Mr. Lamb, who helped set up the meeting, and I can safely
report to everyone here it was about as successful as we would hope that it
would have been in terms of an outcome. We started by talking about the
success of the Green Line, how that’s been open a little over a year now,
showed the Administrator a video about the business growth and the vibrancy
along the line, and talked to her about the ridership. She was enormously
thrilled and impressed with how that’s been working, and then talked about the
last few months, that we’ve been working through the challenges of Southwest,
and what we foresee the next 18 months to look like. The real challenge for us
and our staff and the project office is ‘how do we work through the
environmental process very quickly, and then move from where we are in the
Federal process into the engineering, be accepted into engineering and be
awarded a full funding grant agreement in a very compressed timeline?’ And
what I can again report back to everybody is the FTA is very supportive of this
project, really understands the value of it, wants to do everything they can to
work with us, to make sure we stay on that timeline. They understand the
sensitivities of it, they know that we have a Legislative Session that we have
to work through, and secure the remaining funds, but they basically said ‘if
you’re able to get those funds, we’ll definitely on our end be able to help
deliver at the technical staff level the environmental and engineering pieces
of the process, to put the project in a position to succeed.’ So that was, I
think and I think Mark would agree with me, about as successful of a meeting as
we could hope for with the Administrator, and she was very happy to spend just
about an hour with us, talking about Southwest. So it was a great meeting. I
wanted to give you that update.”
In the 2015 Session, the State Legislature cancelled about $30 million that had
been appropriated for Southwest Light Rail, leaving the total appropriated for
the project at about $15 million. The financial plan for the project has
always been based on the assumption that the State would contribute a total of
ten percent of the project’s cost – this would be $165 million, based on the
$1.65 billion baseline the Met Council recently tried to cut back to. Using
that $1.65 billion baseline, the State is currently $150 million short of
providing ten percent for the project. At the recent Special Session, House
Speaker Kurt Daubt confirmed to this journalist the Legislature would not
provide any more money for Southwest Light Rail in 2016.
State House Transportation Chair Tim Kelly (R-Redwing) recently wrote the Met
Council, stating his concerns about their recent consideration of a plan to
finance $150 million that will apparently not be provided by the State, using
“certificates of participation” – a kind of tax anticipation bond. Kelly
questions whether that financing plan would be legal.
Based on this background, bobagain took Duininck’s statement, above, as
indicating that Federal support, and funding, for the Southwest LRT project is
contingent on the Legislature’s willingness to provide the additional $150
million. Although bobagain repeatedly attempted to verify this with Duininck,
Duininck was unwilling to say anything to bobagain about it.
Clarification of this issue appears to be essential. If the Federal funding
will not be available, the current plan is obviously dead. And if Federal
funding is contingent on more State money, it therefore appears clearly to
follow that the project is dead.
SDEIS Public Comment Period ends
The Southwest LRT Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement Public
Comment period ended Tuesday, July 21st, with extensive comments submitted by
LRT Done Right, bobagain, Susu Jeffrey, and presumably others. A graphic
illustration of a modified “3C” Alignment, the core content of bobagain’s
10,500 word Public Comment, is shown below.
<end>
Availability of Federal Funding appears unclear if Legislature does not provide
more money; bobagain and other submit extensive comments as SDEIS comment
period ends
Note: A .pdf version of this News Release is attached.
Disclosure: bobagain is a registered Lobbyist, representing “We the People”, an
informal association, and has announced a campaign to win a Pulitzer Prize for
investigative reporting, covering the unfolding “SWLRT disaster”.
Contact: Bob “Again” Carney Jr: <email obscured>; cell phone: (612)
812-4867
Visit: www.bobagain.com
Minneapolis 7/24/15 – At last Wednesday’s Met Council meeting, Chair Adam
Duininck recounted to the Council a “successful” meeting with a top Federal
administrator regarding the problem-plagued Southwest Light Rail project. But
Duininck repeatedly avoided a clarifying question from registered lobbyist and
“candidate-journalist” Bob “Again” Carney Jr. (bobagain): “is Federal funding
contingent on more money from the State Legislature for the project?”
Although “conventional media wisdom” appears to be the lead story from the
Council’s meeting was their decision to launch another round of Municipal
Consent, uncertainty over the prospect for Federal funding appears to be at
least an equally important news element of the meeting -- but one that other
news reporters present have yet to report on.
Whatever the reason for that might be, it is not Duninick’s unwillingness to
talk to other reporters – Duininck was videotaped by bobagain talking with
MinnPost’s Peter Callaghan; bobagain also accommodated the Star Tribune’s Janet
Moore, who wanted to have a “private” conversation with Duininck. Before
walking away from Moore and Duininck, bobagain pointed out “this is a public
building”, and said his news coverage included how other news media is covering
the story; bobagain made the same point to Callaghan.
A “raw” youtube.com video of bobagain’s efforts to obtain more information
about the apparent contingency for Federal funding, titled “Met Council 7 22 15
meeting, question, is Federal SWLRT Funding contingent on more State money”, is
online at the youtube “bobagain channel”.
Here is the link:
Late in the Council’s unusually short 7/22/15 meeting, Duininck made this
statement, (underline emphasis is added):
“A couple weeks ago, I think this is since I’ve given a report, but I met with
the FTA Administrator, to talk to her and her senior staff about Southwest LRT
and the tight time line we’re under within the next 18 months. I was joined by
Mr. Fuhrmann and Mr. Lamb, who helped set up the meeting, and I can safely
report to everyone here it was about as successful as we would hope that it
would have been in terms of an outcome. We started by talking about the
success of the Green Line, how that’s been open a little over a year now,
showed the Administrator a video about the business growth and the vibrancy
along the line, and talked to her about the ridership. She was enormously
thrilled and impressed with how that’s been working, and then talked about the
last few months, that we’ve been working through the challenges of Southwest,
and what we foresee the next 18 months to look like. The real challenge for us
and our staff and the project office is ‘how do we work through the
environmental process very quickly, and then move from where we are in the
Federal process into the engineering, be accepted into engineering and be
awarded a full funding grant agreement in a very compressed timeline?’ And
what I can again report back to everybody is the FTA is very supportive of this
project, really understands the value of it, wants to do everything they can to
work with us, to make sure we stay on that timeline. They understand the
sensitivities of it, they know that we have a Legislative Session that we have
to work through, and secure the remaining funds, but they basically said ‘if
you’re able to get those funds, we’ll definitely on our end be able to help
deliver at the technical staff level the environmental and engineering pieces
of the process, to put the project in a position to succeed.’ So that was, I
think and I think Mark would agree with me, about as successful of a meeting as
we could hope for with the Administrator, and she was very happy to spend just
about an hour with us, talking about Southwest. So it was a great meeting. I
wanted to give you that update.”
In the 2015 Session, the State Legislature cancelled about $30 million that had
been appropriated for Southwest Light Rail, leaving the total appropriated for
the project at about $15 million. The financial plan for the project has
always been based on the assumption that the State would contribute a total of
ten percent of the project’s cost – this would be $165 million, based on the
$1.65 billion baseline the Met Council recently tried to cut back to. Using
that $1.65 billion baseline, the State is currently $150 million short of
providing ten percent for the project. At the recent Special Session, House
Speaker Kurt Daubt confirmed to this journalist the Legislature would not
provide any more money for Southwest Light Rail in 2016.
State House Transportation Chair Tim Kelly (R-Redwing) recently wrote the Met
Council, stating his concerns about their recent consideration of a plan to
finance $150 million that will apparently not be provided by the State, using
“certificates of participation” – a kind of tax anticipation bond. Kelly
questions whether that financing plan would be legal.
Based on this background, bobagain took Duininck’s statement, above, as
indicating that Federal support, and funding, for the Southwest LRT project is
contingent on the Legislature’s willingness to provide the additional $150
million. Although bobagain repeatedly attempted to verify this with Duininck,
Duininck was unwilling to say anything to bobagain about it.
Clarification of this issue appears to be essential. If the Federal funding
will not be available, the current plan is obviously dead. And if Federal
funding is contingent on more State money, it therefore appears clearly to
follow that the project is dead.
SDEIS Public Comment Period ends
The Southwest LRT Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement Public
Comment period ended Tuesday, July 21st, with extensive comments submitted by
LRT Done Right, bobagain, Susu Jeffrey, and presumably others. A graphic
illustration of a modified “3C” Alignment, the core content of bobagain’s
10,500 word Public Comment, is shown below.
<end>
