Post in Mayor Rybak Statement on NRP/Community Engagement

Nov 02 18:10 UTC

I too would like to thank Jeremy Hanson for posting the Mayor's handout.
Even though I was at the Oct 26 Roundtable, I did not receive a copy.  I
only wish there was a transcript of what he personally said.

Now, I want to ask the Mayor or anyone else in his administration to respond
specifically to the following question.

Just exactly how does Mayor Rybak feel NRP has prevented him or the City
from having a direct relationship with Minneapolis residents or
neighborhoods during the past 17 years the NRP program has been in place?

I don't recall hearing this concern from former Mayors Sharon Sayles Belton
or Don Fraser. I've never heard a City employee note this concern.

I think further explanation is required here. Examples of how barriers have
been placed would be helpful in us bettering ourselves as neighborhood staff
and volunteers.

I will venture that because of the work various departments have done to add
specific plans for community engagement to their individual "business
plans," over the last few years, the City's ability to communicate with its
residents has improved at many levels--the snow emergency automated
notifications and Small Area public planning sessions are but a few examples
that come to mind. Lacking further explanation, I see this as creating a
problem to justify the solution [a new system of centralized control].

The Mayor wrote regarding "direct communications":
> The current system makes that difficult by
> having the NRP central administration sitting between these
> groups and the City. Whether the NRP continues to have a
> central administration, we need to have a more direct link
> between the City and the citizens it serves. This includes
> having the City build and support financially community
> engagement staff at the City, and a more formal in put from
> neighborhoods into City spending, i.e. a neighborhood role in
> the Capital Long Range Improvement (CLIC) Process."

The third sentence pretty well spells it out. This is about control. Not
funding. Not residents. Not communications. Not even the systems like CLIC
that are already in place. Power through consolidation of control.