NEWS RELEASE: Transit Alternatives advocate bobagain will protest at Met
Council’s Committee meeting today the “lack of any public hearing” before a
scheduled vote next week on the “slashed back” plan to be presented today for
Southwest Light Rail
Note: A .pdf version of this News Release is attached, with a photo and
graphics.
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 7/1/15 – Transit Alternatives advocate, registered lobbyist and
“candidate-journalist” Bob “Again” Carney Jr. (bobagain), will protest today at
the Metropolitan Council’s Committee of the Whole (COTW) meeting the lack of
any scheduled public hearing prior to the Council’s vote next week on a
“slashed back” plan for the Southwest Light Rail project. Today’s COTW meeting
is at 4 PM, at the Council’s headquarters, 390 Robert Street North, in Saint
Paul.
The COTW is scheduled to hear a presentation of a plan to cut $341 million from
the current budget, which (most) recently exploded (again) to about $2 billion.
The Metropolitan Council is scheduled to vote on the plan July 8th. Although
the Council did recently conduct required public hearings for the Supplemental
Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS), people at those hearings were
told to restrict their comments to the SDEIS -- which was prepared before the
most recent SWLRT budget blow-up.
“It is outrageous that the Met Council is planning to vote on this new plan,
only a week after it is presented, and without any opportunity for the public
to testify to the Council about the plan,” bobagain said.
As a registered lobbyist, bobagain promoted the Legislature’s decision May 18th
to cancel about $30 million of an earlier appropriation for Southwest Light
Rail, and to make that money available for transit operating purposes. The
Senate unanimously passed the “lights on” bill including that provision, and
Gov. Mark Dayton signed it.
At the Minneapolis SDEIS public hearing, bobagain asked the Metro Council’s New
Starts Director Mark Fuhrmann what the current rate of spending is for SWLRT.
After an exchange of e-mails, Fuhrmann confirmed for attribution this
statement: “The current rate of spending for the Southwest LRT project is $3 to
$4 million per month, including both consulting costs and the cost of in-house
staff time. This rate of spending is anticipated to continue for the next two
or three months.”
Recently, it has emerged that the Metro Council is playing a kind of shell game