OurBrooklynPark.com

Stay Clear of Clear

2012-01-27T13:52:00.001-06:00

I'm writing this as I sit on hold with an Internet Service Provider who's done a lot of local advertising, Clear (or sometimes known as Clearwire). This blog post is intended to help anyone who might be tempted to use this service by letting you know my experience with them.

In short: Nightmare.

We were at the Mall of America on Friday, December 30th. I had been looking at Clear as a way to perhaps save a few bucks, you know, a daughter in college and all. So we visited the Kiosk and checked it out. The speed looked pretty good there but the only way to really know was to buy and and try it at home. The hook was set and they yanked in the fish.

The sales con told me he was selling me a refurbished unit, $30 less than the same one new. Well, refurbished units are generally just ones where someone canceled so I figured it wasn't going to be a problem. $50 for the modem. I did ask for the $50/plan and not the $35 plan because it was unlimited.

When I got home and read the emailed receipt (they don't give you a paper receipt, "paperless" dontcha know) and there it was - he'd charged me for a new one and signed me up for the $35/limited plan. I called their 800 number which began the road to nightmaredom. After over an hour on the phone with them, after them telling me over and over it was a "new" unit, I found a way to prove to them it wasn't. A partial refund was made.

Got it home, installed it Saturday, and it was awful. Connection was slow (and I have an almost clear, obstruction line of sight to the tower just a couple blocks away. Sunday morning got up and couldn't connect. Had to spend 20 minutes fixing that.

Just so you know, my son is a network administration professional and he did the installation to make sure this was going to be a complete and fair test.

Sunday after church I called to cancel. They told me they'd send a box out to return the device and I'd get a refund when it was returned. We received the box on January 4th and sent it back on the 5th (having the UPSP documentation to prove it).

Ten days ago I did a chat and was told I'd been refunded for the service, $50. Two days ago I was told it had been received back and would be refunded that night. Today, no refund.

Chat #1 today I was told that I hadn't paid for a device and wouldn't be receiving a refund. Now, I have that emailed receipt and bank records to prove he was wrong but he was insisting, after ten mintes of waiting for him to "review the account", I hadn't.

Phone Call #1 today I was told they hadn't yet received it and I had been misinformed all along the way.

Phone Call #2 (I'm still sitting on hold at this moment having writtten all of this during the hold waiting for supervisor - fifteen minutes). She finally came back and said they'd be refunding my money. I've heard that before and have my doubts.

I really wanted this to work. The good looking website, the convincing ads. But it wasn't to be.

I stuck with Comcast. I don't like Comcast but at least the service has been reliable enough for Internet that I haven't had to call them in a long time.

Brooklyn Park Redistricting: A Solution Searching for a Problem

2012-01-19T07:23:00.001-06:00

I walked into last night's Community Cafe without any preconceived notions regarding the topic of discussion; redistricting. Having purposely not looked at anything on the subject before this meeting, I wanted to go to the meeting, see the maps, hear the arguments and listen to what other residents had to say on the subject before coming to any conclusions.

There weren't many people at the first Cafe, maybe twenty or so. Most were from the Central District, most didn't know the current district lines, but all were interested in learning the proposals.

There are several proposals ranging from four districts and a mayor to six districts and a mayor. I think two proposals call for an at-large council member in addition to a mayor along with discussion of two year terms instead of four.

At the end people were given a small Post-it Note to place on the plan of their choice (they had sample maps on the wall). When I left it appeared that the current map, the current three-district plan had the most votes. As I went to the wall to put my sticker on the map of my choice there was one on the current plan with a note stating "Leave things alone, this is a solution looking for a problem" (or similar words). The note made me re-think my opinion, placing my sticker on the current three district plan.

What's the problem we're trying to solve? We've had this plan for years and other than the couple years when we had two council members from the same household we've never had an issue.

Our city isn't that large where a council member from one end of a district can't understand the issues residents from the other end. Council members in our city understand city issues no matter what district, or what part of a district, they're from.

Are we tinkering for the sake of tinkering?

Two year terms would be very wrong, in my opinion. What we would see is one year of legislating and one year of campaigning. Do we really want council members to be in campaign mode every other year? Not only is that bad policy, it's hard on candidates. For pure educational purposes it takes a council member a good year just to start to learn the position.

There were a couple sample maps and plans I liked, if a problem existed. I understand the argument of having representation "closer to the people", especially in the six council district plan. But what does Jeanette Meyer not understand about my 71st and Douglas Dr. area because she lives behind Home Depot? I don't think she would not understand the issues of my neighborhood due to our differing locations. I just don't think it's an issue.

I think everyone should attend the last two remaining Community Cafe's to see the ideas and offer their opinions. Mine is the same as that Post it Note comment, there's just no problem here to be solved.

One additional thought: I think the charter commission is doing a great job on this. Many members of the group where there and joined discussions to be helpful. They didn't try to push any of the plans or even a change, they were just answering questions in a very thoughtful way. With the couple I interacted with, I was impressed.

2011 Wrap Up: What a Strange Year

2011-12-30T08:54:00.000-06:00

Have you ever looked back on a year that was with a feeling of sadness and happiness at the same time? That's how I view 2011.

A day doesn't go by that I don't look back at my friendship with Steve Lampi. His name constantly comes up in my email, on my computer, in pictures I stumble across or in conversation. Like my friend Dean Leininger, who passed away a few years ago, I struggle with deleting Steve's contact information from my phone or contacts. It took me two years to be able to do that with Dean's information and am not sure I'll ever be able to do that with Steve's. While I know it's irrational, there's the feeling that I'd be someone "terminating" him.

I miss being able to call him just to talk.

Our city lost a hero when we lost Steve. In his quiet, determined way, he was the best cheerleader our city has ever had. Even when you disagreed with how he felt on an issue, which I did myself on occasion, you never doubted his sincerity of making our city a better place for all of us.

Following his passing, 2011 brought us the most unusual special election in modern history. What other election can you name that has had twelve candidates? What a completely weird election. A guy who's kid ended up (allegedly) robbing a bank, the son of a state senator, a former mayor, three current or former council members, a St. Paul Vulcan, a tech head, an immigrant and a comedian/mailman - a cast of characters no one would buy if this were a sitcom.

From the unusual mayoral election to garbage hauling - who saw that coming? Some in our city decided, against the overwhelming opposition of the people, that our government should take over who hauls your garbage and give it all to one company. Three "Community Cafe's" full of angry residents, hundreds (thousands?) of calls and emails, one very angry council meeting with council members chastising residents for being angry about the proposed government overstep, and then ..... nothing. It died without a vote. Council members refused to go on the record leaving the issue open for another day.

And lastly, urban chickens. Yes, urban chickens. Apparently there are some who want to have "sustainable" foods grown in their yard, clucking chickens. This is what passes for a serious issue to go before our city council.

While all of this was going on our city continued to have higher rates of crime than virtually everyone around us. Those who bring up real statitics are looked at like they're aliens while those in charge bury their heads.

Along with the crime that shapes the vision others have of our city, businesses still struggle in Brooklyn Park. Sure, Target's going to expand - and that's good - but we still sit with hundreds of open acres of land, along a new major highway, and our council refuses to take up reform issues. Our city needs massive reform in the area of business fees, regulations and attitudes, needing to look at an issue each meeting to get things going. Look back at the last several months of council agendas and it's not there.

They did create the business committee I starting discussing over a year ago but, of course, didn't appoint the biggest champion of reform to it. They loaded it with people who have no history of the city or haven't had actual feet on the ground experience here. Unfortunately this hand-selected committee by people who have a vested interest in protecting what they've built here doesn't look like it will be able to have success we hope for.

On a personal level, I left the company I'd built from $0 to over $5 million in revenue in just three and a half years. That online company is ranked by Inc. Magazine as being in the Top 500 of America's Fastest Growing companies. A Brooklyn Center company, one of Minnesota's largest companies in their category, came calling and asked me to do it again, create a new online entity and grow it even faster than the last one. Four months after launch we're already a $1.5m company and growing at rocket speed. This was a great move for myself and my family and has opened up so many opportunities for us.

My son continued in his great computer job and got his first apartment. He's grown into a wonderful, responsible, very knowledgeable young man in whom I have more pride than words can describe. My daughter became a senior in college a few weeks ago, a 4.0 student, and is looking at a couple of the top universities in the country for her masters. This young lady, the one who turned down an almost-full ride scholarship at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) because she's a major brain when it comes to math and chemistry, wants to work with children and has followed her heart into this field. She is a natural at it and when she's got her masters in school psychology she'll touch the lives of young children every day - her dream.

So as I said, 2011 has been a sad and happy year both at the same time. The city I love still has a long way to go. We MUST face crime head on, taking our heads out of the sand and going after criminals in such a way that no one will ever want to get caught here. Replacing our current city prosecutor is a must as he's been in that position for years and nothing has improved. We need someone who enjoys putting people away, someone who doesn't want to negotiate with them but goes home every day celebrating that he put another one away (taking them off the street and making us safer).

We must also take business reform seriously. Our national economy will recover and when it does we need to be ready for it. We need businesses to stop looking at us as drive through territory and more as a place they could move or expand to. Before that happens, though, we need changes. Changes in our ordinances, changes that encourage rather than discourage their expansion here, and changes in our attitudes. We need to face reality. When we do these things we'll see an explosion in job growth, and then we'll see the restaurants we want.

Until these things are seriously addressed we'll continue to crawl along and every campaign for office will have the standard "I want to bring more restaurants" and "I want to fight crime" planks. People have been saying that for years and nothing ever changes.

2012 can bring those changes. I know we can do it if we will only stop playing politics with stuff and if we take our collective heads out of someplace deep. While 2011 was a strange year, 2012 has the potential to bring some exciting new opportunities for Brooklyn Park.

Business Forward committee appointed, history and experience needed not apply

2011-12-27T15:34:00.000-06:00

While I am hopeful something good can come of the Brooklyn Park "Business Forward" initiative, looking at the list of those appointed doesn't offer me much encouragement. With only a few exceptions there's very little Brooklyn Park history on this committee. Knowing the history of our city and how businesses have fared for the past twenty five years is incredibly important to when it comes to knowing where we need to go. Few of these appointees have any amount of history to offer.

Many come from non-retail environments where they're not having to compete head to head with other local similar businesses. A good mix is important, but this group seems to be weighted heavily toward manufacturing or finance (insurance, etc.)

Of course, all the politicians are on the list. Can't do something like this without the politicians.

It was my hope, as this was an idea this writer started discussing with Mayor Lampi well over a year ago, that it would be a non-city committee. I've been on committees and know that information they want you to hear is fed to you. This kind of committee, as originally envisioned, would have been designed to change how our city operates. To make such major changes it needs to be operated independently. This group was hand-selected by the planning department of our city and left out history and experience in Brooklyn Park (including the originator of the idea for this committee. I must have ticked off too many people inside City Hall. Oh well.) Yep, disapponted. But only because I have a passion to change how we do business and am wanting to find ways to do things better. For the good of our community, it MUST do well and it really needs to, as a committee, find a way to separate itself from the city running it. If it doesn't I'm afraid it might end up as many other such committees has over the years, recommendations get made but are ignored.

So I am wishing this new commission the best of wishes in that they can - quickly - assess the situation, listen to restaurants and retail, as well as manufacturing companies, and then present a comprehensive, detailed, extensive list of recommendations that the city can run with. "Run" is the operative word because our city needs to make those changes as quickly as possible to be ready for economic recovery. Getting caught with our pants down yet again - something we've seemed to do for the past 15 years - would be devastating for our city's business and job growth.

Our city needs to make these business changes, especially in attitude. It also needs to make major changes in how we view and approach crime. Lots of stuff going on, not much innovation. Worse, we tend to bury our heads when it comes to comparing ourselves to neighboring, like cities. We're happy in our little world where a quarter percentage point reduction in a category is called success. That's not good enough, and neither is the way we prosecute crime in our city.

Once we start to take this issue seriously and start to show successes we'll start to see the business climate change. Make the changes I hope this committee will come up with, we'll see our city skyrocket in business growth and job opportunities.

My Wal-Mart Experience: The "Dronification" of the Worker

2011-12-27T08:11:00.000-06:00

My first job started as busing tables and mopping floors for the long-defunct Viking Restaurant in North St. Paul. I was 14 years old and made a buck and a quarter an hour, cash. Happy to have my first job, this was something that supplemented my caddying at the Indian Hills Golf Club half way to Stillwater. Getting up at 5:30 am, riding my bike five miles and walking two rounds of golf with heavy golf bags was lucrative but it was exhausting. Instead I could work 8-10 days all summer and make some steady cash.

Within a month I had taken on a number of additional, though, unofficial roles. For instance, the St. Paul Pioneer Press had written about the "best strawberry pie in town". I made those. From a can. This restaurant also had a drive-in business, ala A&W. When I was working I took the orders and cooked the food for them. All the while I still mopped the floors in the bathrooms and washed dishes.

I did all this because I was empowered to do it by the manager. Just get it done, whatever it was. Everyone did everything, no one sat back and said "it's not my job". Also, at 14 I was motivated to learn and advance.

Those were the days.

Today we live in a world where companies have encouraged the "dronification" of workers. We've turned most of our McDonalds or Wal-Mart workers into drones.

For instance, this morning I visited the Brooklyn center McDonald's to get a cup of coffee. Ordering at the register the worker took my money and put the receipt down on the counter, on the other side of the register. To get the picture, I was the only customer at the counter. She turned around to get the coffee, came back and instead of handing it to me or putting it down in front of me, she - like the trained drone she probably is - put the coffee on the counter on the other side of the register, on the back half away from me. I had nothing else coming to me, just the coffee.

She's probably a very nice person, but McDonald's has trained her to do things one way and never go outside of that unempowered box.

Mid-December I bought an Acer Tablet for my wife for Christmas. Yesterday, December 26th, we were at the Maple Grove Wal-Mart to buy a few groceries. While we were there we were going to see if they had any Acer cases for her new tab. To our surprice, there in the display was her tablet - for $79 less than I'd paid for it. I just happened to have the receipt in my wallet and asked the Electronics worker if 1) this was the same exact tablet (it was but needed to confirm it) and 2) if she could do an adjustment.

She agreed that an adjustment should be made but it had to be done at the "Customer Service" desk. So on the day after Christmas I went up and stood in line. Once at the counter I found out the reason I will never shop at Wal-Mart ever again; the company has written rules meant to frustrate customers and they've hired drones who follow these rules no matter how little sense it makes.

I explained that I'd bought this on December 10th, that they'd lowered the price significantly, and instead of going through the return process they might consider just doing an adjustment. I've done this several times at Target over the years, never a problem. At Wal-Mart, though, their people can't process good business decisions.

The worker told me "no, I'm sorry, we can't do that after ten days". I asked if I could return it and they said "yes". So I could go home, package it back up, bring it to the Brooklyn Park store (because that's where I got it and Maple Grove "couldn't take it back"), get a refund and then buy it again. I asked if that made sense to her and she stood silent.

I asked her to get a store manager. As I waited another "customer service" person was mocking me to another customer - "different stores have different prices....", staring at me as she gave me a nasty look and chewing on me to a customer. (This woman I would fire in a heart beat if she worked for me.)

When the manager arrived I knew that this wasn't going to go well. She had a scowl on her face that said in clear terms "I don't care what you want, I ain't giv'in it to ya." I asked again - "could I return this and buy it again?" and she said "that would be your option." But just doing an adjustment, I asked, was out of the question? "That's right".

I then asked "are you empowered to do the right thing by a customer even if it's outside the normal procedures?" and she said - get this - "yes, but I'm not going to." That is an exact quote.

I asked how much sense it made to force me to go home, repackage the item, bring it to the Brooklyn Park store where they'd refund my money and then have an opened product they can't sell as "new", and then sell me the same limited quantity, popular item. She said "we're done" and walked away.

The dronification of workers.

We we went home, restored the tablet to factory defaults, repackaged it up and returned it to the Brooklyn Park store. Then we bought a new one for $79 less. Same product.

In the business I run I've empowered my employees to take care of customers even if we end up losing a little because it's just the right thing to do. We took great care in hiring the right people, happy people who actually want to be here.

It's sad to watch people become drones because it sucks the joy from them. Every person behind that "customer service" counter at the Maple Grove Wal-Mart was beat up, tired and unhappy. I get the idea it was the day after Christmas and they were working, but these people just showed a lack of concern about their employer or the customers they were there to supposedly serve. In reality I can't give them all the blame, that is shared with Wal-Mart for the system they've developed. Every policy is designed to screw the customer, and every employee is brainwashed to go along with them no matter if it's right, whether it makes good business sense, or if it's ethical.

I also understand that a business is not legally bound to take a return or issue an adjustment. But they do and they must compete with Target whose policies are largely created by humans who treat people with actual respect instead of like cattle.

There's no one more free market than I. If Wal-Mart wants to train people to be drones and people want to apply for those jobs, who am I to get in the way of that? But as a customer I don't have to like their lousy business practices and can choose to never do business with them again, a choice my family has now made. Low prices aren't worth the experience we went through yesterday.

For our Brooklyn Park business who are just trying to survive, re-evaluate how you empower your employees. Re-evaluate how you treat your customers and what you can do better than your competitors. It's hard enough to do business here in our city, rising above the obstacles and offering service that knocks it out of the park can differentiate you from those businesses that are run by drones. We can do better.

City of Brooklyn Park: Dick Gunderson has passed away

2011-12-20T08:36:00.001-06:00

This writer is so sad this morning after reading that Dick Gunderson, long time Brooklyn Park resident and owners of Blondies, has passed away.

According to the Star Tribune this morning, Dick, "...70, died Dec. 7 of a self-inflicted gunshot injury. Friends say he was heartbroken over the July 2008 death of his son, Thor, 42, who was in line to take over the bar."

I had known Dick since perhaps 1999 or so. Gruff on the outside, but a tender, soft heart on the inside. Most people were intimidated by him when they'd first meet him or see him in action. Once someone got to know him they would see the man I got to know - a good guy who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed help.

He loved our community and showed it over the years. During the 2000's you'd see him sitting in the front row of council meetings, inevitably talking (often at length) on various issues. He served on a number of committees including the Citizen Long-range Improvement Committee where we first met. He was also part of the Village Master Plan committee that helped form what is currently the Village Creek area at Zane and Brooklyn Blvd. Dick was passionate about re-creating that area in the best way possible.

Later he and I ended up on opposite sides of the apartment referendum issue, something he jokingly reminded me of a month ago when we last saw each other. It was never personal for Dick, though, because we both knew the other simply wanted the best for our community.

I guarantee he led a difficult life. His son, Thor, passed away in 2008 of a heart attack. Since Dick's wife, Carol, had passed away years earlier, Thor was all he had left. Since his passing Dick had a hard time dealing with it and it showed, especially now looking back at the signs.

Running a bar in the highest crime area of the city was not easy. He hated crime and continued to press the city to find ways to fight it. Some in our city attempted to blame him for the shooting death of a young man a few years ago, even trying to get the city to shut him down. But they didn't know Dick like I and others did, he hated that this had happened and hated the crime that came from the area where Blondies is. Despite what those politically-motivated people thought, this killing broke his heart.

Dick Gunderson will be missed in Brooklyn Park.

City of Brooklyn Park: Thankful for a council who listened to the people

2011-11-29T07:54:00.000-06:00

This morning I am thankful for the Brooklyn Park City Council who listened to the people who elected them. The good people of Maplewood are not as fortunate to have a council who cares what the people think.

Last evening the city of Maplewood elected to ignore the overwhelming opposition of the people to force a one-hauler garbage plan. Despite opposition similar to that of us here in Brooklyn Park, roughly 80% opposition, their mayor stated "...a majority of people in this city don't want us to do (this)...we already know that..."

In short, the city council of Maplewood decided they knew better than the people who elected them. The arrogance of such a council demands action that will remove the four from office at their next election. Elected officials who refuse to do what is best according to the overwhelming voice of the people have no business taking their taxpayer supported paychecks.

It's sad to know that so many good, hardworking people will lose both their jobs and their investments. The drivers and staff that support garbage hauling for the companies whose investments are now being confiscated by the city, at Christmas no less, are going to be hardest hit. The city council and Mayor of Maplewood doesn't care about their jobs or families, only their "green" agenda that will "save the planet" (or more factually, do absolutely nothing of the kind).

Thankfully our Mayor and city council listened to the people of our city instead of forcing an agenda on us. For that they deserve our gratitude.

Read the Pioneer Press story on the issue.

City of Brooklyn Park: Business Initiative meeting very encouraging

2011-11-04T08:06:00.000-05:00

After attending one of the three "Businss Forward" initiative meetings this week I am encouraged that our city may finally be ready to make the changes necessary to move us in the right direction. That direction would be to make our city more business friendly, ready for job growth when the economy recovers.

The three issues that kept coming up were exactly the issues I've been discussing in this space for a year or more:

1) Over regulation. Get city government out of the way and let business do what they do. Part of that is changing the attitude from the city council down to the lowest city worker to be more friendly and understanding to what makes our city do well. That is successful businesses, job growth, and a vibrant local economy.

2) Crime. Crime is real, it's not a perception. And part of fixing that is taking the issue seriously and prosecuting criminals instead of plea bargaining everything away.

Did you know that Brooklyn Park will not prosecute a gas theft? Yep, you don't have to pay for gas if you don't want to because our city prosecutor won't "waste his time" on "civil" thefts. In Anoka County the sheriff shows up at your door within 20 minutes to demand payment, in Brooklyn Park it goes in a file. That from the owner of a number of gas stations through out the northern metro who was at the Wednesday meeting.

In my opinion, our city prosecutor has harmed our city by not taking our crime problem seriously. He's soft on crime. For a city prosecutor in a city like ours, we can't afford a person in that position that doesn't have the wisdom to know when to prosecute real crimes. His contract is up at the end of this year and he needs to be replaced. You will know which council members are actually serious about crime by how they vote when the contract comes up for renewal. I'm getting "radio silence" from some elected officials on the issue and that concerns me. These same people campaigned on crime being a serious and supporting this person for contract renewal would be a violation of their campaign promises. Change needs to happen in this area and finding someone new would be a major step in the right direction.

3) Image. The fact is, our image is based in reality. We can no longer bury our heads and say "the image people have about us is wrong" because it's not, we have crime, high foreclosures, an unfriendly business environment and more. That's not to say our city isn't a great place to live because it is. I've lived here for 27 years and that's on purpose. But we don't need happy talk, we need a frank family discussion about the reality. And the reality is, we need to fix these issues before our image will change.

We need an Image Rapid Response team to counter negative media stories. We need residents to contact media outlets en masse when there are negative stories about us to let them know what we're all about. As we fix our problems, because they can be fixed, that image will start to change. What I want to see is a front page story in the Star Tribune with the headline: "Brooklyn Park throws off old image, now the "in" place to live and work".

We need to stop worrying about being politically correct and get to the bottom of the issues facing our city. Crime isn't rich or poor, black or white, or any other us vs. them thing. Crime is about people thinking they can get by with it and only getting a slap on the wrist. Seriously prosecute crimes and send a message to others that we're not going to take it anymore.

What was encouraging from the BI meeting I attended was that people shared these same frustrations and weren't afraid to say so. These people weren't the usual city suspects that show up at every meeting, these were business people from around our city. Most of them were people I'd never seen in the years of attending city meetings of all kinds. As average people just trying to make their businesses work here, it was encouraging to see that we all shared the same frustrations along with many of the same solutions. If they city really wants to make changes they will take these areas very, very seriously.

More information about Boyd Morson

2011-10-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

This is the reason to never name your children after yourself.

From what I'm seeing and hearing, the arrest was of Boyd Morson JUNIOR, not the Boyd Morson (the father) who ran for city council and mayor.

Morson arrested in connection with armed robbery

2011-10-27T12:15:00.001-05:00

WCCO-TV has confirmed the arrest of a "Boyd Jerome Morson" of Brooklyn Park. Here's the story:

CHAMPLIN, Minn. (WCCO) — Authorities have arrested three people in connection with an armed robbery Thursday morning at a Champlin bank.

According to the FBI, two masked men robbed the First Minnesota Bank around 10 a.m. The men conducted a “takeover style” robbery where they ordered everyone to get on the floor.
The FBI said one of the men displayed a handgun and jumped over the teller counter while the other man ordered two bank employees to help him get cash.

The men fled from the bank in a blue SUV.

A short time later, Brooklyn Park Police responded to a report of a burning vehicle at the intersection of 107th Avenue and Unity Avenue. Investigators believe that was the vehicle used in the bank robbery.

Later, Champlin Police arrested three people, two men and one woman, in connection with the robbery. The FBI identifies the three people arrested as Boyd Jerome Morson, Lawrence Deangelo Williamson and Tiffani Alisha Morson, all of Brooklyn Park.

They are currently being held at the Hennepin County Jail.

Full story here.

SWAT Team invasion at the home of Boyd Morson

2011-10-27T11:03:00.002-05:00

Since last night we've received a flurry of emails regarding an incident that occurred at the home of former city council (Brooklyn Park and Detroit) and mayoral candidate Boyd Morson. Rumors are rampant about a SWAT team invasion of his house and various reasons for this invasion. After the first couple of emails last night we drove by to find no police but a house that was clearly in sudden disrepair. There was a lot of activity around the house but think there may have been a party in the neighborhood.

I am told that police would only say a warrant was served at his home by BP police. The investigation was conducted at the home by BP, Champlin PD and the FBI. Several suspects are in custody for a bank robbery that occurred in Champlin yesterday morning and this is related. I do not know if Morson or any of his family were the suspects or were taken into custody.

Given the seriousness of this incident I'm not going to comment any further until police make official announcements. I'm sure you can understand the reasons.

Special Election for State Senate District 46: Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center

2011-10-17T17:27:00.000-05:00

This election is pretty easy:

Do you want a person with no experience, who will do the bidding of their DFL and union bosses, and vote 100% with the tax, tax, tax, spend like there's no tomorrow gang?

Or do you want someone who believes our state takes in enough revenue and should live within their means?

Pretty easy choice, in my opinion.

There's only one candidate even remotely qualified: Cory Jensen.

Chris Eaton is the wife of the Brooklyn Center mayor. That's nice but it doesn't make her qualified for office. We have seen what happens in Brooklyn Park when we have two elected people from the same household and it's just not good.

Elect the one qualified candidate.

Poverty in Brooklyn Park: Our city can take immediate action to help

2011-09-29T07:10:00.001-05:00

Statistics recently released from the 2010 Census reveal shocking information about many of our neighbors here in Brooklyn Park. According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, one in every three Brooklyn Park children lives in poverty, three times the rate of five years ago.

That is stunning. It's disappointing. It's incredibly sad. But there are things we can do right now to help, things we can do for the long term that will help these and future Brooklyn Park families.

A quote from the MPR story regarding this information states "Even when I was 17, it wasn't hard for me to get a job without a high school diploma or GED. As long as I could do the performance, keep up with it, you could get a job. Now it's not like that."

From good paying jobs to the peripheral jobs that support them, our city faces a crisis. A couple years ago my then-high school daughter, looking for summer work before college, could not find a job in our city. A school leader, one who'd traveled to several places around the world helping small children, a leader in her church youth group, a straight "A" private-school student, could not find work in Brooklyn Park. I know because I drove with her around town as she searched. Jobs two years ago were scarce. Today it's worse.

We are losing companies in our city that produce good paying jobs that support families. While a large part of the blame is the overall national economy, companies have chosen to not come to our city or expand here because we've not been friendly to them. Doing business in Brooklyn Park is incredibly hard.

Last week I spoke with a Brooklyn Park business owner who produces signs for other companies. He said that small businesses in Brooklyn Park have a hard time making it here because our city restricts their ability - severely - to let people know they're here. He produces signs for companies all over the Twin Cities and based on his years of experience we're one of the most restrictive.

Why? Why do we want to take the higher taxes we charge for businesses but not allow them to actually do business? Because we've viewed businesses poorly, as something to regulate into their small corner. In fact, businesses of any size need to let others know they exist so they can compete with others outside our city. We shouldn't be looking for ways to stop them from doing so, we should be looking for ways to help them. The more help we can provide by just getting out of the way the more success they can have. As they have success they are stable, pay their taxes, become good corporate citizens in our community and the more jobs they create.

How does this relate to the poverty statistics and helping to solve that problem in Brooklyn Park? It is directly related to creating jobs in our city. Making our city more business-friendly means more good paying, family supporting jobs. When we bring more of those kinds of jobs to our city other businesses pop up to support them. It means more daytime customers for restaurants, dry cleaners, hotels, gas stations and other more entry-level jobs that provide training and growth opportunities for those without experience or higher education. It helps that person who used to be able to find jobs when she was 17 but can't now.

This is one of the reasons I am running for Brooklyn Park City Council in 2012. We need change and we need it now. We need to open up our city - our rules, regulations, fee structure, our inspections, our sign ordinances and most importantly our attitude toward businesses. Then, and only then will be see real, long-lasting change. Throwing money at poverty has never worked. More food stamps, welfare, city programs or subsidized housing will never solve these problems. What will be part of the solution to these problems is when we make those changes in the way we treat businesses because they are the only ones who can create lasting, real jobs for people who need them.

I'm happy to see that our city has begun a business initiative to look at the issues facing Brooklyn Park businesses. But it's not enough. We need immediate action on those issues we know are problems and shouldn't wait for a six month study. Every council meeting should have at least one ordinance, regulation or fee on the agenda, looking for ways to immediately improve our business climate. Follow up immediate action with the results of that study to finish the job. There is no reason we can't be the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities" within one year from now. I pledge to make this issue one of my two ongoing themes because it's important to everyone in our city, especially Brooklyn Park children and and parents now living in poverty.

Garbage Issue dies with a whimper and a lack of political courage

2011-09-27T07:32:00.000-05:00

Last night the people spoke, and they didn't like it. They really didn't like it.

It started with a resident being cut off by Mike Trepanier when he was asking how much time our Citizen Long-range Improvement Committee had spent on studying crime verses the garbage issue. It was a valid question that apparently will go without an answer.

Following the fairly balanced presentation by our city manager about the garbage issue, each council member was given the opportunity to speak their mind. Then it began, council member after council member, in various levels of angst, frustration and a touch of contempt, scolded residents for showing their anger over this issue.

Granted, some went overboard with their frustration. In this space we told people to be firm but respectful. But the way some on our council reacted, the way they admonished residents for telling their taxpayer-compensated, elected officials how they felt, was in a word: petty.

The first to go was Rich Gates and he was ready to rumble. From everything I'd heard, and from listening to him talk about this issue, it was pretty clear he would have been in favor of "organized" garbage hauling. It was also clear he'd gotten a boat load of resident comments and they were not having anything to do with this thing. They were against it and they were going to make sure he knew where he'd better come down.

He was angry. He was angry that residents were angry. The comment I wrote down in my notes last night was "tough!" Residents were angry because this was an issue that never needed to happen and they were going to make sure their elected officials got that message. Residents - Americans - have every right to speak their peace even when the council member on the receiving end doesn't like it.

Elizabeth Knight was next in line and she started down the same road. Granted, not with the fire in her eyes that Gates had but in her own way she spent some time scolding residents as well.

Not surprisingly, Jeanette Meyer was for this thing. She said it was a "good idea" and "personally I think it's great". She said she was "disappointed" in the emails she got who felt they could comment to her "anonymously".

Mike Trepanier spent a great deal of time talking about how we had to "honor" the work of CLIC. This work, a unanimous recommendation by this commission, was opposed overwhelmingly by the residents of our city. In fact, it was almost unanimously opposed by residents (in the world of public opinion, 86% support or opposition is statistically unanimous). I'm sorry, I'm sure they're fine people but they got it wrong. They didn't talk to residents to get their feelings before trying to foist this thing on us. While I appreciate their volunteerism, in this case they got it very, very wrong.

And this was followed by our new mayor who continued down this path, criticizing those who had called out specific members of CLIC for their recommendation (presumably this writer being included).

In the end they all stated they would have voted no, had their been a vote. But both Trepanier and Lunde stated there shouldn't be a vote and there wasn't one. It was an odd ending to several months of intense city lobbying for resident opinion. To not have a vote was anti-climactic, ending this issue - for now - with a whimper. Council member Crema wanted to "kill it tonight" but the issue was left hanging. Without an on-the-record vote there is no conclusion to the issue and none of them can be held accountable for their actions.

While I'm happy the issue will go away - for a while - I was disappointed that our elected city council didn't much appreciate the input they themselves asked for on an issue they themselves created. Had they shown some principled backbone in the beginning instead of feigning "I want to listen and decide" (and then not decide) I would have spent my birthday evening with my family instead of watching this disappointing lack of political courage. Last night did not need to happen, and if it did it needed to have it's head cut off and killed dead once and for all.

Late Debate with Jack and Ben: Listen tonight at 10 pm

2011-09-25T14:53:00.001-05:00

Listen tonight to the Late Debate with Jack and Ben. I'll be joining a round table discussion about the Presidential race along with any number of other political tangents. It's a free-wheeling, fun two hour gab session with 3-4 other political junkies such as myself. I really enjoy doing this show even though I know I'll be dead tired in the morning.

It's from 10 pm to Midnight tonight on 95.9 FM (north metro, a bit hard to pick up in Brooklyn Park) or online. I'm embedding a live link here that will be active tonight at 10 pm.

Live streaming by Ustream

City of Brooklyn Park: "Organized Garbage" comes to a vote Monday night

2011-09-25T14:02:00.001-05:00

Monday night, September 26th, will hopefully see the end of our unneeded, divisive, city-manufactured "organized garbage" debate. Item 8.1 on the agenda, we'll hopefully have a quick discussion and a vote ending this debate for all time.

In the full council agenda - seen here - there are pages upon pages of citizen opposition for this ill-conceived, anti-free market, job-losing, business-confiscating, personal-rights losing idea. Of all the comments made by Brooklyn Park residents, I thought this was the best:

CLIC committee's time would be better spent actually picking up garbage rather than looking atways for government to take control of it.

Completely true.

I encourage every resident who cares about this issue to come to their city council chambers Monday night. It's late in the agenda so you can probably show up at 8 pm and be on time. Come prepared to say a few words to your city council and let them know they need to end this thing once and for all, voting no.

Steve Lampi Memorial Bike & Stroll: A Sundae in the Park

2011-09-19T07:20:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn Park residents have an opportunity to support the youth of our community on Sunday, October 2nd with the first Steve Lampi Memorial Bike & Stroll: A Sundae in the Park.

If you haven't registered for this event you can do so here.

City of Brooklyn Park: Business Forward Initiative dates

2011-09-14T08:47:00.000-05:00

Today's Star Tribune discusses the coming Business Forward initiative with information about the "cafe's" they'll be holding in October and November.

I want to encourage every business owner or person with a stake in business and job growth in Brooklyn Park to attend. Prepare your stories in advance, bringing with you as much information as possible regarding the issues you've had doing business in our city. If you've done business elsewhere and have seen better ways to do things, bring those examples as well.

It's time for our city leaders to see the issues we've been talking about here for years. Stories are legend on how difficult it's been for businesses to work with our city.

The article references Mayor Lunde receiving a "clear message" during his campaign, that business owners hate dealing with the bureaucracy our city has created for job growth and business expansion. Part of that clear message is this writer pushing this issue for at least a year, and forcing our mayor to promise to deliver this kind of business task force. I'm glad they are finally taking this idea and running with it. I'm hopeful they'll receive an earful from our business community. But more than hearing from our business community, they need to study what other successful communities are doing.

The Business Cafe's are being held at Edinburgh on these dates:

October 25: 7:30am -9:30am
October 27: 11:00am to 1:00pm
November 2: 4:00pm to 6:00pm

No reservations are required.

State Senate Primary Day: My recommendation

2011-09-13T07:54:00.001-05:00

Today is Primary Day for Brooklyn Park residents living in Senate District 46. This is the primary to help choose our next State Senater after the passing of Sen. Linda Scheid.

There are two DFL candidates, one Independence Party candidate and two from the GOP.

In the DFL this will be an easy election, the endorsed candidate is Brooklyn Center Mayor's wife Chris Eaton. She has the DFL endorsement as well as the unions. While completely unqualified to hold office, other than being a registered voter, those who receive the party endorsement always win the primary.

In the GOP we have two candidates, Cory Jensen and Ryan Sibinski. I know them both.

Sibinisk was the endorsed GOP candidate last year and lost to Scheid handily. While a nice guy, his endorsement last summer by the GOP was a mistake that should not have happened. It made the local party establishment look badly and completely out of step with conventional conservative values and principles, as well as out of step with Brooklyn Park as a whole.

Sibinski seems to be of the opinion that he's running for a Federal office instead of State Senate. His political philosophy could be be described as Libertarian Left. As a volunteer for Ralph Nader (hardly someone who'd sympathize with anything Republican), and a campaigner against the Fed, an anti-war campaigner, and Ron Paul supporter. In short, his belief system is nothing near what most rank and file Republicans support.

Cory Jensen is brings experience, a conventional conservative philosophy of streamlining government, lowering the tax burden on families and businesses, and stopping the massive government spending we've seen for the past decade. He understands his role and doesn't see it as a campaign to impose an agenda on the office.

Click on either of their website links and make us your own mind. I'm voting for Cory Jensen.

Election Day information.

City of Brooklyn Park: Finally is creating the business study group I've been calling for

2011-09-12T10:40:00.000-05:00

FINALLY the City of Brooklyn Park is taking the issue of business recruitment, regulation and retention seriously. If you've been a reader of this blog for any amount of time you know I've been pushing the idea of a a business task for since at least last Fall. I laid out this plan when I first met with Steve Lampi about running for City Council next year as well as forcing the issue with the two major mayoral candidates this past Spring, making them promise me they'd do this if they were elected (both did). This is an idea that is ten years in coming, given the climate businesses face when trying to expand or move here.

Tonight our EDA will announce the "Business Forward Initiative", a task force that will review the business climate in Brooklyn Park and hopefully make major recommendations to help fix it.

While I know they can't give credit to anyone but themselves - "staff identified a desire to evaluate the business climate in Brooklyn Park" - but we all know the truth of the matter. It doesn't matter who gets credit, though, what matters is that we figure out how to become the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities" and make it happen.

I am a bit disappointed in the use of the "Community Cafe" method for this. That's fine when wanting to gather some basic information. This requires people of specific background to feed off each other, not just off seven other people around a table. I think it will actually limit ideas from other ideas. Hopefully they'll figure that out quickly and open it up to a wider discussion.

Thank you Mayor Lunde for keeping this promise and pulling our city forward.

You can see more information in tonight's EDA Agenda. It's item 7.1.

Steve Lampi Memorial Bike and Stroll - October 2nd 2011

2011-09-11T20:28:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn Park has an important event that I hope everyone who reads this will attend. If you're unable to, please let me know that you're able to pledge some amount (my bride and I will be participating). Also below is the PDF for the event. Download it and share it with your friends and family. Let's help raise some money for this very special scholarship fund.

The Steve Lampi family would like to invite you to a meaningful event to honor Steve and continue the work he set out to do for the community of Brooklyn Park. Two of Steve’s passions were giving back to the community and supporting youth in the City of Brooklyn Park. Therefore, the Steve Lampi Memorial Scholarship Fund and Brooklyn Park Community Foundation have joined forces to create a signature experience! We will be holding the inaugural Steve Lampi Memorial Bike & Stroll - A Sundae in the Park on Sunday, October 2nd from 1-4 p.m., at the Eidem Homestead – Historical Farm on 101st Avenue North and Noble Avenue North. This energy packed event will include a bicycle ride or stroll to the Coon Rapids Dam, live music, a special program, a visit to the Eidem Homestead - Historical Farm and of course, a Bridgeman’s ice cream social.

It is our hope that you can be a part of the festivities by joining my family and the Brooklyn Park Community Foundation at this fundraising event. Registration fees are $15 for an individual and $30 for a family. You will find registration information at www.brooklynparkcf.org. We encourage you to raise pledges for your ride or stroll. Each participant will receive a t-shirt and there will be prizes for the top fundraisers. Proceeds from the event will be split equally between the Brooklyn Park Community Foundation and the Steve Lampi Scholarship Fund to be given out to community groups or individuals.

We also ask for your help in getting the word out. Please spread the word through your family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, community groups, business associates, Facebook friends or community leaders. We have attached a copy of this letter, a flyer and a mail in registration form for you to use as needed. If you need any more information or have questions about the event, please call me at 763-561-3607 or email me at lampik@comcast.net. or visit the Brooklyn Park Community Foundation website at brooklynparkcf.org and click on the events page.

We truly hope to continue the work Steve began to make Brooklyn Park a thriving community inspiring pride where opportunities exist for all.

Bike and Stroll Flyer for Email

City of Brooklyn Park: Time to clarify, CLIC recommended more than study, they recommended implementation

2011-09-09T14:14:00.000-05:00

I think it's time for some clarification.

I have heard too many times now that Brooklyn Park's Citizen Long-range Improvement Committee (CLIC) simply asked our City Council to look at the garbage issue, not actually recommending they do it. I actually heard from someone at their meeting last night that one of the members was attempting to sell this story line.

Here's the fact - CLIC passed the "Recommendation" (their word) and sent to our City Council as it reads in the council agenda of June 6th:

"City Council hold a public hearing and pass a resolution of intent to organize the garbage collection system consistent with the goals outlined in the solid waste collection system study to be a city, proactive and committed to being economically green, improving the cities environment, while promoting a possible lower cost of service with high efficiency, and adding more safety in our neighborhoods and conserving our streets."

Source

It is clear, this citizen group not only wanted our City to look at this, they were fully behind its implementation. From the way last nights meeting went it seems as though they're circling the wagons after having the overwhelming majority of Brooklyn Park residents reject this idea.

I think it's okay when a citizen group makes recommendations, even when controversial. It's okay to take a stand for what they believe. But when the residents show up by the hundreds and say "thanks but no thanks" it's time to accept that and move on, not to call them "crazy" and "uneducated". I've got a real problem with that kind of attitude. And that's the reason we needed today to clarify exactly what they did so everyone knows it was a recommendation to implement, not to just study.

If you are interested in emailing the entire CLIC committee, you can do so at this address: bpcommunic@brooklynpark.org

City of Brooklyn Park: Did you know you're a "crazy" and "uneducated" rube?

2011-09-09T09:51:00.002-05:00

Citizen groups are sometimes the best place to get a feel of the community. Without regard to politics (usually) or background, average citizens apply and are appointed to various city committees to offer their opinions on subjects important to our city. These thankless jobs often take up several hours of time from these citizen volunteers, often toiling without much recognition. Most of the time they represent a cross-section of our community and provide reasonably good advice to a city council.

Sometimes, however, the danger for these groups is that they become self-propagandizing. They can get so wrapped up in their opinion that they fail to remember that they are volunteers, not elected by the people, and their opinions are just theirs. Sometimes they are too easily pursuaded by city staff who might, knowingly or not, have an agenda and the information provided to such groups are filtered with that agenda in mind. I'm not sure which is it, but it does seem to have happened with our current group of Citizen Long Range Improvement Committee (CLIC) members.

It is this group who has recommended to our city council that your right to choose (and fire) your own garbage hauler should be taken away from you. It is this group that is recommending that those small businesses that operate these waste hauling companies should have their investments confiscated and handed over to one, single, large garbage conglomerate (without compensation). And it's this group that believes it's the right thing to do in taking away the jobs of those people who work for these garbage hauling companies, many of whom are your neighbors.

In discussing the August Community Cafe's, where hundreds of taxpaying Brooklyn Park residents showed up to voice their almost-unanimous opposition to this idea, this group decided that these people just don't "get it". They're not smart enough to agree with them. Calling the residents of Brooklyn Park "crazy" and "uneducated" these folks showed a distain for you I've not seen before in a volunteer, appointed committee. One member, Chuck Stuphen, someone who ran as a "conservative Republican", someone I hear is considering another run, defended this most-unconservative of ideas. (I don't usually call someone out by name like this but I needed to avoid confusion with another who has run before, Andrew Reinhardt, who is 100% opposed to this government intrusion.)

From what I'm told, residents were berated for being so "uneducated" about the issue that, if they'd just listen to the "facts" they'd change their minds. It leaves me wonder what sort of fact it would take for me to be willing to allow my city government to confiscate someone's business, fire their workers and take away the right to choose from my fellow residents.

As a former Vice Chair of this group, under the Chairmanship of Steve Lampi, I cannot imagine having such a discussion during our time on this committee. Our chairman would have asked the members to be respectful of residents and would have begun a discussion about how their group could have so-misread community feelings on the topic.

Instead, this current group seems to have decided they know best. They know better than you and the hundreds of residents who came, from all different political stripes, to voice their opposition to this badly conceived idea.

The only people who "don't get it" are this group of people who have forgotten who they represent.

I can tell you that no matter how much "education" I might have or could gain I would not change my opinion on this topic. Free markets work, taking away businesses and choice never does. No amount of "education" can change that fact.

We're also told that Council member Mike Trepanier, who has been strangely silent on this subject, is still asking questions about "cost saving data". That is really sad to see since I had believed he would be one who'd listen to the people. This very question leads me to believe, and I hope it's not true, that he's supporting the idea of confiscating your right to choose and fire your own company.

Government never saves you money. They will dangle it out in front of you and you may be even save a few dollars for the first year or two. But just watch when times get tough, policitians will see this "savings" as a place to make up their deficit. They'll chip away at that "savings", tacking on a few cents this year, a few more next year, and pretty soon that "savings" is gone and you're paying more. Worse, you won't be able to fire them and you'll be forced into a "one size fits all". Anyone who has ever studied history knows that this is exactly how it always works and it won't be any different here. The entire "cost savings" is a false argument and I have to believe Trepanier knows this. If not, then I don't know him as well as I thought I did.

This issue is set to hit the City Council on September 26th. I am still hopeful that a majority of them will listen to residents instead of the "save the planet" advocates who view their agenda as more important than basic American values of freedom and free markets. If our city staff is pushing them on them we may have other issues we'll need to deal with. Listening to the residents is always a good thing and they've spoken in one major, virtually unanimous voice: We Don't Want This!

CLIC meetings used to be recorded. I'm not sure if they still are. I've put in a data request this morning to find out and get a copy if they are. If I can get my hands on a recording I will post it here for you to listen to.

City of Brooklyn Park: Cafe's didn't give them the results they desired, now they're spending more of your money to shape the results they're looking for

2011-08-31T08:12:00.000-05:00

It is becoming more apparent that the City of Brooklyn Park is determined to shove the "organized" garbage hauling down the throats of residents who overwhelmingly oppose it. At least if city staff gets their way on the issue.

On June 6th our City Council instructed staff to conduct three "Community Cafe's" from which they would draw their input and base their conclucions. Three meetings were held, hundreds of people gave up their summer evenings to show up, and 85% of them opposed the plan. It wasn't even close.

From conversations I and others have concluded that city staff who are pushing this didn't see the demographic mix they'd expected nor the results they thought they'd see. So instead of just accepting the will of the people they decided to spend more of your tax dollars on a telephone survey. From what I'm told, because I didn't see that meeting, this is in contradiction to what the Council said they'd do in making a decision on the subject. While the city was already spending money on a general survey, there is always a cost associate with adding more questions.

So our city staff, who had already spent a great deal on the Cafe's is now spending even more to try and get opinions from people who didn't care enough to show up at three meetings. The person at home who didn't care gets the same vote as the person who invested two hours of their summer to show up and offer their input.

Disturbingly I've been learning things that really ought to raise the ire of Brooklyn Park residents. At the Cafe's we're told in an email from the staff person who seems to be pushing this idea that they had no intention of having votes, a raise of hands, at the Cafe's. As I saw people at all three meetings enter the rooms they were disturbed that there wouldn't be a time to speak before a microphone to the entire crowd. They were angry they had to sit around tables and have their opinions limited to just eight people. So now it's unsettling to learn that when residents forced a vote at each event that taxpayer-paid city staff didn't come with an intention of allowing such a vote.

At what point do we decide to listen to the people and just put a stop to this? The longer this goes on, the more ways staff attempts to find ways to elicit the response they want, the less credible the information (and staff) gets. Why are these people pushing this so hard?

Our city council has received a ton of emails and calls - many very, very angry - opposed to this issue. Despite the clear and unambiguous opposition from all quarters of our city, these people continue to push this agenda. Why?

I wasn't a big fan of Jesse Ventura but he did have one line he used a lot that is often true; Follow the money. This is clearly being pushed as a way to increase city revenue (that's what it's called when they're taking more money from your pocket, your family). They'll claim they're "saving you money" but the reality is this will be a way to take more money from you down the road. Every year there's a shortfall they'll just increase the garbage fee $.50 or $1.00. You'll never notice, they'll think, and pretty soon your "savings" is costing you money. Think I'm dreaming? Remember the "temporary sales tax increase" when our state sales tax was 4.5%? Yeah, temporary. Government always, always, always wants more and they never know when to quit taking it.

It's time to stop this thing in its tracks. Continue to contact your city council and let them know you're having none of this. Tell them you will work against any of them that votes in favor of confiscating your rights to choose your own garbage hauler. And then tell them we have more important things to do and to get back to work doing them.

City of Brooklyn Park: City Council announcement

2011-08-26T15:12:00.005-05:00

This morning I announced the launch of my 2012 campaign for Brooklyn Park's City Council. Over the years my friend and our former mayor Steve Lampi would ask me to run and every two years I would tell him no.

As we occassionally did, we were having lunch last November and we started to talk about the subject again. In 2002 I promised my family, and specifically my bride, that I'd never run again unless I had their permission. During this lunch we talked more seriously about the subject, discussing the pro's and con's, the field, the issues and what I'd bring to the table that could help solve some of those issues. He felt strongly that I should run in 2012 and I promised to give it more serious consideration.

Early last December I called a family meeting and laid out the question along with the ramifications for our family. Every one of them gave me their blessing, something that actually surprised me after all the hard work we'd been through in 2002.

I called Steve that night and gave him the news. He said it "made his day" and was elated by the news. Within days we had a campaign checking account with Steve and Kathy being my first contributors.

I love Brooklyn Park. Except for a two and a half year stint outside the city, we've lived here since 1981. I've seen 85th Avenue go from a two lane country highway to what it is today. I hit range balls on the driving range that is now Rainbow. I played video games and had birthday parties at Circus Pizza. Over the years I've seen the good in people and some of the mistakes. I have a base of history that can help lead to a better future.

Over the past ten years we've seen a number of successes, most of them led by Mayor Lampi. I worked on some of them with him, some as a volunteer or committee member, some as a legislator.

While we've seen successes, we have a long way to go. Our business climate - something that's very important to every resident of our city - is not what it should or can be. Our reputation in the commercial development community needs improvement, our rules and regulations are too severe and restrictive, and our overall attitude toward new businesses has not been as friendly as it needs to be.

Why is that important to the average resident?

It's important because our commercial/industrial tax base is not what it should be. As such homeowners are left making up the gap through higher property taxes.

It's also important because it harms our ability to recruit some of the nicer places we'd all like such as restaurants. Restaurants require more than just evening business, they need a good lunch following. Without good daytime jobs in our city restaurants can't earn enough during the day to make their investment here worthwhile.

The solutions?

- Immediately form a business study group to look at the successes of similar Twin Cities suburbs. Find out what they're doing to make themselves friendly to business growth and then do it here.

- Determine at the City Council level that we're going to stop micro-managing new developments. If KFC wants to have their red and white strip peak on top of their building, that's their decision (yes, we actually had them change their worldwide look to a blue top some years back because someone on the council just wanted it that way). We can't afford to lose major developments with hundreds of jobs as we've done in the past few years all because we wanted a Taj Mahal building. We don't want lesser developments, we just need reason and moderation in our expectations.

- Change our sign ordinances to be more in line with reason instead of the restrictive, anti-business ordinances we have now. We expect businesses to pay high property taxes and then we expect them to be profitable without anyone knowing they're there.

- Lead an effort to do more business locally. Imagine if every person who lives in Brooklyn Park did 10% more business in our own city. We'd see businesses hiring more people every week because they wouldn't be able to keep up. Clearly this wouldn't be a mandate, but a lead-by-example suggestion to our residents.

- Update the city website to include information about our local businesses. Maple Grove does a great job in promoting the shopping and dining opportunities that exist there. Other than some staff time this costs us absolutely nothing to do and can have a huge impact.

- Seek new methods of lowering crime. Part of the solution to crime in Brooklyn Park is more job opportunities for youth. Grow and expand business opportunities and we'll see peripheral businesses spring up. The jobs created by those businesses are more entry level and filled by youth. Another thing we need to do is seek out most ideas from nationally recognized professionals such as our Hennepin County Sheriff, Rich Stanek. We also need to change our attitude toward crime and those who commit them. We've been too soft on criminals. We need to take the position of "no more Mr. Niceguy". No more plea bargains, no more messing around. It's time for our City Prosecutor to project an image on crime that deters potential criminals from even thinking about doing their work here.

With my Experienced Leadership we can begin to make the changes that need to occur. We as a city need to decide that we not only want new business but we need it for our future success. Success as a business community means more jobs, more good jobs as well as more entry level jobs. Together that means financially successful families, financially stable households, youth who are employed and off the streets, all of which turns into less crime.

I'd love to have your support. Below is a Paypal link to make a much-needed donation. Thank you for your consideration.

City of Brooklyn Park: Less garbage, more business and job growth

2011-08-22T08:05:00.000-05:00

It's another agenda, pretty much another week of not taking our need to jump - fast - into preparing our city to be ready for an economic recovery.

Looking over todays Brooklyn Park city council agenda we do have one good business growth item - a new Hardee's is coming to town. You will recall that we used to have a Hardee's at Brooklyn Blvd and West Broadway where the current Arby's is now. This building was constructed years ago as a Hardee's but closed when tne entire Hardee's chain fell on bad times. For a while it was Fazoli's (I kind of miss this place) and then became an Arby's.

Fast-forward to 2011 and Hardee's is a stronger chain with different management, now owned by the same folks who own Carl's Jr. (mostly SW United States). They'll be replacing the abandoned BP (Amoco) station on 85th and Xylon, across from the Fleet Farm gas station. While in and out traffic could be an issue, it's a good use of the property. It also will bring several jobs for our youth, something our city is desperate for.

So this is good. We need all the jobs we can get for our community, whether entry level or higher paying. At the same time, we need to start seeing things on our city council agendaa about business growth, how to change city regulations, fees and attitudes in order to incent new or existing businesses with family-supporting wages to build, move or expand here.

I've been talking about this since last year, I've spoken to some in our leadership about this (many times, in some cases), and we're still not seeing any progress, or even the sense that they're taking this major issue seriously.

We have empty fields, empty buildings, and one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state. The way to help solve these issues is for our city council to begin to take this issue as seriously as they treated the manufacturered garbage hauling issue. Business growth and jobs is a REAL issue and touches every resident of our city, young and old.

Ask your city council members and mayor what their plan is for job growth and business expansion. If they respond and you've heard it before, or it's the typical "our staff is studying it" non-sense, tell them it's time to do something different because what they're doing has not worked.

Brooklyn Park can be the leader in business growth and jobs but only if they start preparing for it. Now. Today. Tonight's agenda. We can be the next "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities" if we just decide to do so. And when we do, as the economy starts to recover - and it will - we will be ready, primed, to bring in those new businesses, to locate new business expansions, or to help our current businesses to grow.

But it takes immediate action and we can't wait much longer. Why do our city leaders refuse to take this issue seriously?

Google Monopoly: FairSearch.org works to create competition

2011-08-19T09:26:00.002-05:00

A bit off the subject of Brooklyn Park issues but very important to all Internet users who depend on Google to find what they're looking for. Google has an essential monopoly and uses it to determine what they want you to see. As one whose been involved with internet marketing for years I've seen their power first hand. With the "flip of a switch" they're able to essentially put a company out of business, or put someone into business.

I've come across a site that is trying to bring this to the attention of law makers in Washington. It's called FairSearch.org.

From FairSearch.org:

“The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?”

It was recently announced that the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights will hold a hearing ("The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?") on September 21. Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, will testify at the hearing.

A national coalition, FairSearch.org, has formed to encourage transparency and competition in online search and advertising. FairSearch.org commended the Judiciary subcommittee for holding the hearing and called for “Congressional scrutiny of Google’s dominance of online search and allegations that Google has abused that dominance to advantage its own services and harm innovation, consumers and competition.”

During last week’s Presidential debate in Iowa, FairSearch.org ran this ad:
http://vimeo.com/27586509

Minnesotans are in a unique position on this topic, as Minnesota is the only state with both U.S. senators serving on the Judiciary Subcommitee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights.

Take a look at FairSearch.org (www.fairsearch.org) for more information.

Job Opening: Looking for an experienced, passionate customer service person

2011-08-16T13:53:00.000-05:00

Here's the listing as it reads on Monster:

Exciting new online business supply venture, of a well established company, has an opening for a professional, fun-loving Customer Service professional.

We are seeking someone who has extensive office products knowledge, is very Internet literate, has excellent customer service skills, has strong verbal skills and a "yes" attitude. Must also have good common sense skills on how to make money.

Responsibilities include answering customer questions, helping customers find the right solutions to their needs, helping customers enjoy their shopping exerience with us and even sometimes making them laugh, resolving issues that may occur, working with vendors, and taking care of customers in the same manner you'd want to be treated. We're looking for a fun, smiling person - no sad sacks - because we love our customers and it's our mission in life to make them happy.

For the right person we offer a great work environment where you will leave every night knowing you've worked hard, had fun, and make people happy. We also offer great pay and a full range of incredible benefits that include vacation, health benefits, 401K plan and more.

Must have direct office products customer service experience to be considered.

If this is you please visit the ad and apply online. If you have questions please email me.

Link to Monster Ad

City of Brooklyn Park: Third meeting, same result - overwhelming opposition to a bad idea

2011-08-16T08:49:00.003-05:00

Another garbage meeting, another large group of Brooklyn Park overwhelmingly opposed to the takeover of their rights to select their own waste hauling company.

Have we had enough of this yet?

Some weeks ago our city council had the opportunity to tell the Citizen Long Range Improvement Committee "thanks, but no thanks" and move on to more important issues. Instead they interrupted the lives of hundreds and hundreds of Brooklyn Park residents, forcing them to give up beautiful summer evenings to pack large rooms at area churches. Each meeting gave clear feedback to our council:

1) Stop wasting your time and get back to work solving real problems.
2) Hands off our garbage and other household vendors, we do perfectly well making our own decisions, thank you.

Last nights meeting rendered the same results as the previous two, 84% opposed (122 opposed, 9 for, 14 "study more").

Handicapping how this will now proceed, I believe we have at least four votes opposed, possibly five. I could construct a political scenerio where we may even have six votes to oppose but wouldn't place a bet on it. Unless our council decides to ask our city residents to give their opinions and then vote against the overwhelming will of those voters and support this idea, I cannot see how any of them could support this and see re-election. The anger of Brooklyn Park residents over this issue is as clear as I've seen.

Those I am certain will not support this are Lunde, Heng, Knight and Crema. While he might have tended to support such a thing, I now believe Trepanier will oppose it. Gates is a virtual lock to support this thing given his political background (he went to the Wellstone campaign school, organizing central). The one wild card is Jeanette Meyer. She would have started this as a clear supporter since she'd be the one to see this as the opportunity to enhance revenues (get more money from taxpayers). However, she's made some interesting, almost "pro-business" comments of late, so I could see a storyline where she opposes it. But historically she'd favor it and I have to go with the long time record over a few recent comments.

A side note from the gathering is my introduction to the person many consider the originator of the garbage idea, CLIC chair Tonja West-Hafner. Standing at the south end of the room last night she was just feet from me. She turns to me, puts her hand out (but very much retracted arm - a study in body language) and says "Hi. I'm Tanya. And my kids DON'T play in the streets."

A bit surprised by the "terseness" of the introduction (is that a word?), I said "well, that's too bad".

A bit taken back she said "did you just say "that's too bad?""

I forget what I said after that because I was doing everything I could to not break out laughing. Not at her, but at my response. I wasn't trying to suggest her kids go play in the streets, it was just a wise guy response to an uncomfortable situation.

So, to Tanya, I'm sorry - I'm sure your kids are fine kids and you're a fine parent. But I have to say, I still do look back and chuckle over how that might have sounded to anyone around us listening to the whole exchange.

It's now time for Brooklyn Park residents to call or email their council members and the mayor and reinforce just how they need to vote. Be firm, be fair, but be civil. I believe they have the message now but we need to firm that up just one more time.

City of Brooklyn Park: One last garbage meeting, please attend and let your voice be heard

2011-08-15T08:17:00.001-05:00

Brooklyn Park residents have one more opportunity to speak their mind and hopefully put a stop to the takeover of our garbage hauling. Over the weekend, after reading the comments to the Star Tribune story, it's become clear that there is a base of citizen that no longer hold their freedoms dear. People actually made comments regarding their desire to have government make their choices for them and think that you and I are "extremists" for not holding that same view.

Somewhere George Washington is rolling over in his grave. Worse, somewhere there are policians salivating at the idea that people are willing to give up their rights to these people.

Can anyone imagine the people of Boston, circa 1785, allowing the newly formed government to start making their household decisions for them? After what they had just gone through, after the Tea Party, after losing loved ones to fight King George and England, having the new Boston City Council saying "we know better than you so we're going to start making your decisions for you" would have brought on a new revolution.

Today Americans have become lazy and accepting of a big government who has the desire to control every aspect of your life. Today it's garbage, tomorrow it's making other decisions for you - who you use for telephone, television, etc. For the price of a promised few dollar "savings" - ultimately an illusion - some are willing to just say "it's just easier". It's no different than giving up a few rights for "security". In the end those who give up their rights for "savings" or "security" no longer have either. History is history and that is a factual statement.

So tonight you can send an overwhelming message that will leave no doubt; keep your hands off my garbage, off my family, off my household vendors and off my rights. We can also send the message that our city council does not have the right to take away jobs and businesses and hand them over to the one lucky, chosen garbage company (opening this entire thing up to corruption). Our council needs to be reminded that our City Charter has a recall section contained within it and that at least one of them will be the subject of such an event if this passes and they voted for it. I hope they're ready to raise a whole bunch of money from an angry citizenry who overwhelmingly disagrees with this thing.

The meeting is at the Discover Church, 1400 81st Ave N. It's at the corner of Highway 252 and Humboldt Ave N. 7:00 pm. Be respectful, but be firm.

City of Brooklyn Park: Star Tribune article runs this morning

2011-08-14T07:12:00.002-05:00

This morning's Star Tribune has the article we discussed earlier about the Brooklyn Park garbage issue. Not bad, if a little short.

The most interesting part of the article is the quote by Former CLIC Chairwoman Tonja West-Hafner who is generally recognized as the originator (or at least chief advocate) of the current recommendation to confiscate your right to choose your own vendor.

"We thought things could be improved for the whole city," she said, adding that she had hoped people in the city would look at the big picture. "I'm not trying to tell people what to do. We looked at the bigger picture and saw there could be something better."

Why is it that liberal big government types never admit the truth about their belief system? Stating that she's "not trying to tell people what to do" she's advocating doing just that, telling me who I have to use to collect my garbage, and telling eight of nine companies that she's for the city confiscating their businesses and handing it over to the ninth company - without compensation, no less. How is that not telling people what to do? Of course shes' trying to tell us what do to.

City Manager Jamie Verbrugge is exactly right when he states that it's "really is more of a philosophical issue..." It's the difference between a historical American philosophy of free choice, less government, and free market verses a more socialist, European, big government, "we know better" one. If we haven't learned anything from history we should learn this lesson, big government has never worked through the annals of history.

See the entire article here.

City of Brooklyn Park: Kickoff to begin Yellow Ribbon City campaign September 10th

2011-08-12T16:07:00.001-05:00

With the garbage hauling debate going on we sometimes forget there are other things happening in our city. One of those opportunities is the upcoming "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Kickoff". This is the process our city will go through to become a Yellow Ribbon City, showing our support for the military families in our community.

Brooklyn Park's Yellow Ribbon City Kickoff Event - OurBrooklynPark.com

For more information contact Amy Hanson at hansonamvsue@yahoo.com.

City of Brooklyn Park: Garbage issue to hit Star Tribune this Sunday

2011-08-12T11:18:00.000-05:00

Be sure to read Sunday's Star Tribune as there will be an article on the Brooklyn Park garbage issue. I just spent some time discussing the issue with the reporter who has experienced both a "closed" system (city monopoly, no competition, government controlled) as well as our current "open" system (free market, you choose your own garbage company, you get to switch if you don't like them, you know, the American system.)

My expectation is that we'll get to see all the eco-arguments from any supporters she's interviewed about how garbage trucks are ruining the planet and are responsible for everything from global warming to budget deficits to the rain forest (when George W. Bush or Tim Pawlenty isn't being blamed). I also fully expect to learn that garbage trucks are an ongoing imminent danger to children everywhere and are to blame for child obesity more than Happy Meals.)

City of Brooklyn Park: Meeting two, still overwhelming resident opposition

2011-08-12T08:12:00.001-05:00

Two meetings down and we continue to see overwhelming opposition to the City of Brooklyn Park-inspired taking of your right to choose your own garbage company. Forty nine people attended last evening and 42 oppose the concept. Only four of 49 favored the idea and five wanted to "continue to study" the idea.

One of the most disturbing things I heard last night was a way the council might attempt to justify voting for this confiscation of businesses, jobs and rights. Had I just heard it from the one person I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But because I heard it from two different people it's leading me to think they're actually talking about this within the walls of City Hall.

The concept that may be the justification some might want to use is, those in attendance do not represent the overall demographic make up of our city.

If you look at this picture I'm supposed to notice that most in attendance are older, white residents. This fact is, apparently, intended to suggest their views aren't important because they don't represent the "majority" of residents.

The council asked for public opinion and everyone was invited. I've been to both meetings and don't recall any kind of filter being applied to who could come in, everyone was welcomed.

The people in the room, last night and on Tuesday, represent property owning taxpayers in our city. No one selected who would attend, attendance was self-selected by residents who were affected. Anyone of any demographic stripe could have attended, even if you didn't have your own garbage service. Those who showed up are likely long-term residents of our city who care about it's future. To suggest that their opinions don't count, or count less because they're seniors or don't have the right skin color is, well, offensive to me and should be to you.

I'm really hoping that these were just observations and not what is going through the minds of our council people and staff as they consider the overwhelming public opposition.

A couple of side notes...

One council member says his recent numbers are running in favor of this. If you haven't contacted your council member it's time to do it - now. Be firm but be respectful. I've heard some stories about people screaming at them, leaving nasty voice mails or just generally being disrespectful. I can understand the anger and frustration, but that kind of disrespect hurts your cause and doesn't help it.

The other side note is that one council member, one I usually disagree with on most issues, asked our city manager to change up the next meeting in a way as to not have the MPCA and CLIC member present before the meeting. The reason was that it appeared to be biased toward the concept and didn't allow for an opposing presentation. It's a concept we've been talking about since before the first meeting but without success. Hopefully this change will be made for the last meeting because this council member is absolutely right.

City of Brooklyn Park: Elizabeth Knight comments on garbage issue

2011-08-11T08:22:00.000-05:00

In this space we've been calling for our council members to come out publicly and state where they stand on the Brooklyn Park-manufactured garbage hauling issue. As I've received numerious emails from residents, forwarding the responses they've been getting from council members, I'd yet to see one that took a stand. They've all been polite, wishy-washy and refusing to say where they are one way or another.

I don't feel elected officials should be wishy-washy. I believe they should be principled but open to listening to arguments. On this issue, the principled position would be that we don't even consider confiscating seven businesses and handing them over to the one business left standing. On this issue, the principled position is that we don't take away the right of our residents to make their own choices. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with listening to all sides of a debate, considering such confiscations of business, jobs and resident rights sure doesn't seem like something that takes a great deal of thought to arrive at a solid position.

In the last several days I've made it a point for residents to demand their council members start to come out and be more public with their feeling. I specifically named a few council members such as Rich Gates and Elizabeth Knight.

Overnight I received a very nice email from Knight letting me know where she stands. She seems to lean pretty heavily against "organized" garbage hauling. Below is an email she sent to a constituent whose name I have redacted:

(Constituents name) - thank you for your input.

As you know, the City is considering a recommendation from the Citizen Long-Range Improvement Committee, determining whether we should go to organized hauling (essentially meaning that we could potentially combine the purchasing power of all residential customers to get competitive pricing for trash hauling services).

The City Council chose not to act on CLIC’s recommendation specifically because public input is important. One of the Council's operating principles is that we will not initiate any new program or service without first getting the input of those who will be impacted. The City will be hosting several community cafes in August to have residents, haulers, or any other interested persons discuss the issue. The feedback from the café meetings will be presented to the City Council in late August or early September, at which time the Council will discuss whether to proceed.

To be honest with you, I don't feel strongly one way or the other and see both sides of the issue, so listening to the community's input is key for my decision-making. I do, however, feel government sometimes over-legislates and we can get carried away. I also feel residents should retain the freedom to choose their own service vendors, unless there's some compelling reason for government to get involved. I would need to be provided with overwhelming data to support that such a need is necessary and, with the recent homicide of a 17 year old young lady, this is not on my list of priority issues.

Thanks for your insight, and taking the time to contact me. Please let me know if you have any other concerns and/or ideas - and please do consider taking part in one of the Community Cafes in the next two weeks!

Best,
Elizabeth

From my count, and this is a count that is based firmly on shifting sand, there could be four votes opposed to this thing. To be clear, residents have to continue to keep up the pressure and need to continue showing up to the community meetings. Four votes isn't enough, we want to know - firmly and publicly - that we have at least five or six. I learned some years ago that council members can tell you one thing and vote another way (this is not an Elizabeeth Knight issue, this is a previous council). On an issue before the council I had the word and even email of one council member that they'd vote a certain way on an issue and when it came time to vote they went the exact opposite way. So until the actual vote is taken we can't take anything for granted.

City of Brooklyn Park: The "if they only knew the facts" argument is still being sold

2011-08-11T08:04:00.004-05:00

Tonight is the second of three community meetings where Brooklyn Park residents will have the opportunity to speak their minds on the proposed confiscation of garbage company businesses and your right to choose your own vendors.

After the first meeting I've heard comments from a variety of people, all encouraged that the people of our city get it, understand the issue and almost unanimously oppose it. Yet time and time again I have heard that there are still people saying "once people understand the issue...." we'll supposedly change our opinion.

I am at a loss when I hear that arrogant comment. What is it I and virtually all Brooklyn Park residents are too stupid to undertand, but these few people do?

Is it the argument that fewer garbage trucks will be safer to allow our children to play in the streets? Perhaps we should teach our children to play in the yards or in parks and not in the streets. Maybe it's just me.

Or perhaps is the argument that garbage trucks are the cause of road destruction in our city. Yet a study done for Arden Hills proved that the weather was largely responsible for road wear, not garbage trucks. I'm told that our city constructs some of the best streets in the state, and given we have a sand lot for a road base it makes our roads even more durable

Of course, there's the "we can negotiate a cheaper rate" argument. That's probably the best selling argument, until people get the full story. Cities that sell this confiscation of rights and businesses on the "we can do it cheaper" argument never tell you that they're going to use it as a revenue raising vehicle. They'll take your $12/mo bill to $8/mo, but then charge you $10/mo. That extra $2 goes to the city. Then next year when there's a bit of a revenue crunch they'll say "we can increase the garbage fee another $.50, no one will notice". A couple years later your former $12/mo garbage fee, for a company you can negotiate with, or switch to someone more competitive, is now $14 a month and you can't do anything about it. While they will deny it, this is how government has ALWAYS worked. Most don't recall the "temporary" sales tax increase that took our then-4.5% sales tax higher. It's, what, 6.5% now? Government doesn't do temporary, they don't save you money, and they always continue to take more - money and power. The garbage issue is no exception.

I love the "emissions" argument because it shows such devotion to the eco-nonsense. If this argument is something our city should be considering, it only strengthens my claim that they could expand their ability to choose for you into other areas like cable television, electricians and more. If taking a few garbage trucks off the streets is going to "save the planet", imagine taking all those DirecTV and Dish trucks off the streets. And if that's going to help us all breathe better, time to "organize" pizza delivery and get all those wild, unsafe, gas-burning pizza delivery cars off our streets and give all the business to Dominos. After all, it's all about those 10 year old, gas-burning, low-mileage cars and the "actual" cost to Mother Earth for your personal pleasure in eating an unhealthy pizza that's going to cost us all more in health insurance rates. How selfish can you be to not be in favor of this?

It's arguments like this, which I've clearly exaggerated to make a point, that are being used and taken seriously by the proponents of this issue. At Tuesday nights meeting the people of Brooklyn Park were having none of it. They didn't want to hear the whining about kids in the streets. Instead they were wondering what kind of mom lets their kids play in the streets.

I am hopeful that tonight we'll see another full house and a crowd ready with virtual pitch forks. We need to kill this idea once and for all.

Tonight's meeting is at Grace Fellowship church, 101st and Highway 169. 7 pm.

City of Brooklyn Park: Residents almost unanimous in opposition, why are council members still not coming out with positions?

2011-08-10T07:48:00.002-05:00

This morning I was thinking about the response I am hearing our Brooklyn Park council members are getting from residents regarding the proposed confiscation of garbage hauling businesses in our city. I've heard the number "85-15 against" more than once.

So I thought, I wonder what the percentage of those opposed were at the first "Community Cafe". There were 196 people counted at the tables as well as the standing room only folks. Of those 196 only three self-identified as "whatever, twenty identified as being in favor of the proposal, and 173 opposed it. If you calculate those numbers you come up with: 88% opposed, 10% in favor, 2% unsure. That's statistically the same result.

As a former elected office holder myself, I cannot remember a time when an issue was supported or opposed by a number one could statistically describe as "unanimous". This number held despite an MPCA presentation that was hardly unbiased, and the (silly) reasoning of the originator of the idea, the CLIC member whose children playing in the streets was the impetus to take away your right to select your own garbage company. The Apartment bonding issue of 7-8 years ago delivered a referendum vote of approximately 65-35 and that was viewed at the time as "overwhelming".

I've received copies of emails council members have sent in response to residents and every one of them, so far, have been extremely non-committal. After the emails they've received and this results of this meeting, it's time for them to start discussing their views, even if it's just leaning one way or another. If our council members can't make a decision on this yet, or don't have the principles to at least lean for or against this, you need to reply to their emails with a "why won't you tell us where you're at?" email. It's way past time for them to start putting their cards on the table. This is especially true for council members Rich Gates, Jeanette Meyer and Elizabeth Knight.

I and many others are starting to wonder why, with the virtual unanimous opposition, our council members are still hiding their views. We're wondering if they intend to push this through despite resident wishes. I can suggest that our council members and residents check out Chapter 5 of our City Charter. If this passes and we lose our freedoms, residents in this city will be angry and ripe for a recall election (which I will personally lead). As the Chinese lady next to me said, we don't need government telling us what to do and making our choices for us, we can do that ourselves just fine.

See the Channel 12 Story here.

City of Brooklyn Park: The morning after the first garbage meeting

2011-08-09T07:36:00.002-05:00

The morning after an event like last evenings first Brooklyn Park garbage meeting there's going to be frustration at how it is being portrayed. Today is no exception.

It was clear from the moment I walked in the door at the Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free church last night that the crowd in attendance was in no mood to be there. Both the man in front of me and the man behind me in the registration line were angry at having to give up a nice summer evening to show up and tell our city council to get back to work, fix real problems and leave their garbage alone.

As the meeting began it was clear that had Brooklyn Park still been a farm town that most would have been carrying pitch forks. These people were ready to rumble and weren't going to put up with any hint of propaganda, lefty politics or spin. They were there to speak their minds and let the city know that this was a bad idea.

Last evening I wrote that we could have ended the meeting much sooner than the 90 minutes planned. It was not meant as any disrespect for the moderator, Denise Rene Wollenburg, it was intended to suggest that a show of hands right at the beginning would have done the trick. I realize that they weren't going to do that but the effect would have been exactly the same. No amount of MPCA "information" (which, by the way, was clearly written by someone not a friend to business), nothing from the CLIC person whose entire idea this seems to be (all those garbage trucks driving down roads where apparently she allows her children to play in), was going to change anyone's mind. This idea was dead on arrival and 85 minutes of the meeting did nothing to change that fact.

As a side note, we found out later in the evening that the city had not posted the event to meet the open meeting requirements. This means that the council could not attend in numbers to meet a quorum. That was the reason why Mayor Lunde, and council members Gates and Knight were not in attendance. I'm told this issue will be resolved for the next two meetings.

I am still of the opinion that this meeting did not need to take place. Council leadership should have been demonstrated, telling our commission "thanks but our residents are doing just fine without our help". From what I'm hearing they're receiving a ton of emails and calls, and they're likely running 85-15 opposed to the takeover of your garbage hauling choice. One has to wonder how someone can justify voting for this with such overwhelming opposition.

City of Brooklyn Park: Surly crowd votes 173-20 against garbage take over, will council listen?

2011-08-08T21:02:00.005-05:00

The first Brooklyn Park garbage community meeting ended a few minutes ago, about 90 minutes past when it could have closed up shop. It was a standing room only crowd of about 200 people. Angry, surly, a bit irritated that they even needed to be there (I heard that from the moment I got in line to sign in), this crowd was decidedly on the side of personal freedom and they wanted to be heard.

They also didn't want anything to do with the one-sided presentations given at the outset. First up was the MPCA presentation whose slide show seemed to have been written by a government employee who wasn't a big fan of "business interests" (those would be the employers that employ everyone else).

Next up was the CLIC member who started this entire waste of time. As she gave her story people were making comments or trying to ask questions. The tone screamed frustration with both the process and the fact they had to give up a nice summer evening to instruct our city to stay out of their business.

At our table were six others who clearly wanted to get their message across. One, a lady named Joan who had immigrated from China. Passionately Joan told of how the government would make promises but always take more, tax more, or control more as time went by. She was here for freedom and was angry that our city was fixing to steal that freedom from her.

Another couple was a small business owner and his wife, both concerned and well-reasoned in their opposition to the proposed garbage takeover. Along with myself, we also had a man who was by himself and a senior couple, all three opposed.

At the end of the evening the moderator, Denise Rene Wollenburg, asked for a show of hands. The number was overwhelmingly opposed. In a tally taken at the tables, of the 196 votes counted, 173 opposed their freedoms being confiscated by our city council.

A comment made to me following the meeting by "PJ" was that, with numbers like this, if our city council passes this horrible idea we'll know that they intended to do it all along. I am more hopeful than that and hope our council actually does what they promise when they get elected, listen to the people. I have now heard from multiple council members who tell me their numbers are running 85-15, opposed. It would be very difficult to understand how they could support this given these kind of numbers (but would make it very easy to gather enough signatures immediately following such a vote to move toward a recall given the anger of the people tonight.)

Please continue to contact your council member. If you weren't there tonight please make it to one of the next two meetings and let your voice be heard. The dates are:

August 11th from 7:00-8:30pm at Grace Fellowship- 8601 101st Ave Brooklyn Park, MN 55445

August 15th from 7:00-8:30pm at Discover Church- 1400 81st Ave N Brooklyn Park, MN 55444

By the way, only four council members showed up - Meyer, Trepanier, Crema and Heng. Where was Gates and Knight? Have they decided they don't care what the people have to say? Do they know better than you in choosing what's best for you? If you live in the Central or East it's time to let them know you expect them to be at these meetings.

City of Brooklyn Park: First Garbage Meeting Tonight

2011-08-08T16:49:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the first of three community meetings on the subject of losing your right to select your own garbage hauling company. If you're like me and the dozens and dozen's of people I've heard from on this issue, you're thinking: Don't we have better things to do?

Yep. And that's why you need to show up tonight at 7 pm at the Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free Church, 7849 West Broadway (just north of Rainbow).

Unfortunately you will not have the ability to speak to the entire audience. Instead the city is going to limit your exposure to just seven other people around a table. You'll also have the pleasure of listening to two proponents of the takeover plan, someone from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (got to stop those nasty trucks from traveling down our streets, ya know) and the person on the Citizen Long Range Improvement Committee who is trying to push this on you. Apparently there will be no opportunity for an opposing view to be heard (they're not trying to shove this down your throat, though).

Show up. Be vocal. Be firm. Tell them you don't need their stinking help and to get to work on fixing our real problems.

City of Brooklyn Park: City to limit opposing voices to tables of eight instead of being able to speak to entire audience

2011-08-06T06:44:00.000-05:00

This morning I learned from an email sent to some in our city that the upcoming garbage "Community Cafe's" that you will not be able to speak to the entire audience. Instead your opposing voice will be limited and will be heard by only a table of eight people. This seems designed to be able to limit the exposure and impact of opposing views.

They will begin with an introduction, then a sales pitch by the MN Polution Control Agency - who favors the socialization of our garbage hauling - followed by another pitch by the current or former chair of the Citizen Long Range Improvement Committee (the group wanting to force this on you).

Where are the opposing voices? Where is the fairness? Why is the city not allowing an opposing voice to speak to those in attendance?

The city's website page on this issue has a place for "What others are saying" but has refused to allow a link to this website. They've used the taxpayer-funded city website, Park Pages and emails to push this issue and have done everything they can to stifle opposing views prior to these meetings. At the meetings they'll limit the impact of opposing voices by putting you into small tables of just eight people instead of allowing everyone to hear just how many people disagree.

In the email that was sent out they say that "some people are passionate about this issue". The fact is, residents are passionate about our city putting its nose in places it doesn't belong, not about garbage hauling. This issue is much larger than just who picks up my garbage on Monday morning. This is an issue about intrusive government overstepping it's authority. It's an issue of government confiscating the jobs, businesses and investments of private companies. And it's an issue of government taking away your right to choose and switch household vendors.

In a related note, the North Hennepin Chamber of Commerce has come out opposing this government intrusion and business confiscation place:

City of Brooklyn Park: North Hennepin Chamber of Commerce comes out against garbage hauling issue - OurBroo...

City of Brooklyn Park: Council relinquishing leadership to appointed committees

2011-08-05T08:03:00.001-05:00

This morning I read the Facebook comment of one of my two West District council member, the long term, been-in-office-way-too-long, out of touch with the residents Jeanette Meyer. Regarding the city-manufacturered proposal to confiscate several small businesses in the form of "organizing" garbage hauling, she said this:

I hate to think we are expected to discount the research and recommendation of a volunteer resident committee simply because some others may not agree. I have been asking everyone I communicate with to attend the Cafes to get maximum input from our residents.

It seems to me that we elect people in our representative government to make decisions. With her comments she admits that our city council has relinquished their leadership positions in favor of putting their authority in council-appointed resident committees.

Please understand, I am in favor of council-appointed resident commissions and them making recommendations. I was vice chair of the Citizen Long Range Improvement Committee, elected along with former mayor Steve Lampi as Chair, with Meyer being the former chair who lost her position. But their recommendations are simply that, recommendations. A city council does not have an obligation to do anything except say "thank you". There is no requirement that they take the recommendation, move forward with it, vote on it or especially create a city-wide issue with mass meetings on the topic.

The fact is, we elect council members to make decisions and this decision was easy; "thanks but no thanks".

On the issue of "organized" garbage hauling, twenty two (22) cities and counties in the past ten years have looked at this issue, and 22 of them have rejected it. If our resident committee had fully researched this issue they would know that. Those cities include:

Albertville, Apple Valley, Arden Hills, Coon Rapids, Carver, Falcon Heights, Grant Township, Greenwood, Hanover, Ida Township, Lauderdale, Oakdale, Olmstead County, Pine Island, Prior Lake, Ramsey County, Roseville, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Stillwater Township, St. Anthony and St. Michael.

Minnesotans reject socialized garbage hauling, overwhelmingly.

So in the case of Meyer, we are left to wonder where the other "Community Cafe's" have been over the years? CLIC has surely made other recommendations over the years and I've never seen her and so many other council members falling over themselves for political cover like this. They're afraid to step forward and tell us where they stand. Other than Dean Heng, I have yet to hear one council member, or our mayor, say "I'm for it" or "I oppose it". Instead they've all been running for cover, hiding behind "we want to hear what people say".

We didn't elect them to take a poll every time a hard issue comes up, we elected them to take a stand. Frankly, this entire thing is embarrassing for the lack of backbone it's showing by our elected people. I guarantee you that when CLIC recommended FOR the Minnesota Orchestra's Performing Arts Center Jeanette Meyer didn't take our recommendation and sure didn't want to hold "cafe's". No, she opposed it, she came out immediately against it, and she worked with the organization that was opposing it. She didn't wait for political cover.

If you'll recall, Jeanette Meyer was the person who advocated for the "Victims Tax". Never heard of it? Some years ago a proposal came forward to issue a bill to those who had an accident or fire, requiring the services of our police or fire department. Have a car accident? $300. Have a house fire? $500. "Your insurance company will cover it", was her thinking. And then the line I will never, ever forget:

"You pay for the availability of fire supression, not the use of it." - Jeanette Meyer

Sadly the council adopted the proposal.

My wife works for an insurance company so I had her do some investigating. She found that approximately half of insurance companies would NOT cover such a fee leaving the victims of accidents or fires to pay these fees out of their pockets.

I took that information to one of the council members who had supported the proposal, based on Meyer's claim that insurance comapnies would cover the fees. He did his own research which confirmed what we found. With that information he took it back to the council and changed his vote.

When that happened, Meyer still defended her vote.

I mention that to demonstrate how out of touch our council, and Meyer, can sometimes be. We pay property taxes for the use of police and fire, not just the availability of it.

With the current issue, we're talking about confiscating - stealing - the businesses and jobs of neighbors who've done nothing wrong but have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars creating their client base, her and virtually all the others are running for cover. Now that we're talking about "fixing" an issue that isn't broken, confiscating the right of the residents to simply choose (and be able to fire) our own garbage hauler, they're running for cover.

I dare say that our council is no longer reading my website because they know what they're going to find, the voice of the people. They know that I share this position with 80% of you, at least, and are angry about the emails and calls we've stirred up. But those emails and calls have to keep coming. You need to keep contacting them. Remember, Meyer's phone is 763-535-4870 (she puts that out during campaigns and then hides behind voice mail once the election is over).

City of Brooklyn Park: See how Prior Lake handled this issue

2011-08-04T14:58:00.002-05:00

Now this is the kind of leadership we need:

Deciding that “change for change’s purpose isn’t always good,” the Prior Lake City Council on Monday agreed to maintain the status quo for garbage hauling in the city.

After weeks of discussion with haulers serving the city, the council determined that switching to a “day zone” method of collection or dictating hauler contracts would not solve issues of fuel consumption, pollution or road impacts. In May, the council directed city staff to research ways to tackle those problems.

Six licensed haulers currently operate in Prior Lake, with trucks collecting on any given weekday.

Prior Lake would have a hard time moving to day zones – in which haulers could only collect in certain areas on certain days – because only half of the six haulers in town currently collect garbage three days per week.

The other three collect one day per week. If the city implemented day zones, some haulers would have to add drivers and equipment and change the pickup day for some residents, said Jane Kansier, building and transportation services director.

Day zones also would affect day of collection and prices for residents, she said. Zoning would reduce the number of days trucks are in a particular neighborhood, but it would not reduce the number of trucks on the streets, Kansier said.

Council members also opposed the “organized collection” method, in which the city would choose the hauler.
“The council doesn’t want to take away free enterprise,” Mayor Jack Haugen said.

Since first raising the possibility of garbage-collection changes in April, council members have received dozens of calls and e-mails from residents, most of them urging the city to keep the current open system.

See the entire article here.

City of Brooklyn Park: Facts about government takeovers of garbage hauling

2011-08-04T14:41:00.001-05:00

Interesting information....

In the last 10 years, 22 Minnesota cities and counties have studied government managed collection. In all cases, consumer choice has been preserved and the open competitive market built on innovation and quality service continues to provide the best value to citizens.

They include: Albertville, Apple Valley, Arden Hills, Coon Rapids, Carver, Falcon Heights, Grant Township, Greenwood, Hanover, Ida Township, Lauderdale, Oakdale, Olmstead County, Pine Island, Prior Lake, Ramsey County, Roseville, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Stillwater Township, St. Anthony and St. Michael.

Despite the claims of the MPCA report and other sources, Minnesotans have rejected a government takeover especially when educated on the history of innovation by private haulers and the value of choice in the current competitive system.

Source: MNGarbageFacts.com

City of Brooklyn Park: The essence of the garbage issue

2011-08-04T08:00:00.004-05:00

The essense of the city-manufactured garbage hauling issue is twofold:

1) Do four elected people have the right to confiscate someones business? Several small businesses invest years of dollars and time to build their clientele. They've invested thousands and thousands of dollars building their business in our city and do so legally and with no expectation of losing their investment. Then our city council comes long and, with a simple "aye" vote of four people, can confiscate that entire investment, their entire Brooklyn Park business, and put several companies out of business (in our city) and take away the jobs of good, hard working people, none of which is due to anything these companies did to deserve it.

If you're a council member you have to ask yourself, what gives you that right? What gives you the right to take away your neighbors job or neighbors business, literally just confiscating it because you can? Are you willing to look in the eye of the people who will lose their jobs and tell them you think you're doing the right thing? How about telling their kids that daddy's losing his job because of my vote? If you can do that, if you can make that vote and tell them face to face you think it's the right thing, then I have to question ones conscience. I sure couldn't do it.

2) Do four elected people believe they are so much smarter than the people who elected them to believe they can make a choice for me? Not only making a choice for me but taking away my ability to make the choice myself, something we've all done successfully and freely our entire adult lives?

Knowing most of our council members for a long time I just can't believe they've changed so much that they think they can do these things. I just can't get myself to believe they have it within themselves to literally steal businesses away from neighbors, or take jobs away from the hard working people that collect waste for these small businesses. It would require that either they've changed significantly or they aren't the people of character I've always thought. I choose to believe the best about them and am hopeful they'll come to see that this city-manufacturered issue is a waste of time and that they have better things to do.

In a related note, and I've heard that city staff are essentially poo-pooing the issue and those who believe it's important. It's this city staff that our council is listening to instead of an electorate who is clearly, overwhelmingly opposed to this. Over the years I have been one of the biggest outside advocates of city staff because I've gotten to know many of them. At the same time, it is almost impossible for them to not live in their own inside baseball government bubble, away from the day to day lives of average folks on AnyStreet, Brooklyn Park. It's probably natural for them to believe they can do a "better job", or that they sincerely believe that they can "organize" garbage hauling and "save" us money. What they don't take into account is that, besides the very confiscation of businesses and jobs, they're interfering into the personal lives of the residents who pay their salaries - and we don't like it. City employees need to understand they can't do it all, that everything they touch isn't necessarily something they should touch, and that even though they may be able to - temporarily - save us a few dollars, we don't want them to. We're perfectly able to negotiate our own deals, thank you.

It's the idea that a city government thinks they can take something from us and, well, arrogantly think they can do it better rubs people the wrong way. When we have real issues like crime and a horrible business reputation, residents are asking "how about taking care of real issues?"

We are not "blowing this out of proportion", as has been claimed. We are angry that it's even an issue. It's the city that blew this out of proportion by creating "community cafe's" on this manufactured issue when we have so many other real things that need to be fixed. We're simply reacting to them making this an issue. To suggest that residents don't have the right to speak their minds, and when they do that WE are the one's making an issue of something, is a demonstration of city staff being out of touch with those they serve.

I'm hopeful that hundreds of pitchfork-carrying residents show up at the cafe's next week and let them have a piece of their frustrated minds. While I'm watching how council members are reacting to opposition to this issue (non-commital instead of showing leadership, defriending on Facebook, etc.), I think it's going to take an overwhelming response from residents to stop this confiscation of businesses, jobs and your right to choose.

City of Brooklyn Park: Instead of wasting time on garbage, it's time for real leadership

2011-08-02T08:20:00.001-05:00

One of the key issues this website discussed during the recent special election for mayor was the idea of initiatives for business growth in our community. Over a period of several days in early May I wrote three pieces about the initiatives that are important for our city to tackle.

It's time for Brooklyn Park to become the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities"

Brooklyn Park Business Growth: Time to take crime seriously. Seriously.

Brooklyn Park Business Growth: Our Reponsibility, a new Our Brooklyn Park program

In these three pieces we discussed how our city could be poised to become a business destination as the economy recovers. To do so it would take our city council taking seriously the issues of regulations, fees, and attitudes toward new business growth and expansion. Over the years we've developed a reputation as a place that is hard to do business with, a reputation for making life difficult for developers. As the economy recovers we need to make significant changes in these areas along with studying how successful communities attract new businesses. Then we need to make those changes and attack business growth like never before.

Concurrently we need to start taking crime seriously. One of the biggest areas we have a problem with is in our city prosecutors office. It's time for a change. We have a city prosecutor who lacks any degree of discernment when it comes to prosecuting real crimes. He charges victims instead of perpetrators, and he is soft on major crimes like domestic abuse. We need someone who is going to have a zero tolerance policy on real crimes. No deals, if you do the crime you're going to jail. We need a prosecutor who is going to make it so tough on criminals that when they see our signs coming into town they'll turn around and do their mischief somewhere else.

And lastly, we need to do our best to shop locally ourselves. If you have the opportunity to eat out, consider a Brooklyn Park restaurant first. If you need to hire an electrician, find one from our city. If we all just did that 10% more we'd see an economic boom in our own city.

These three areas are what our city council needs to be working on. They need to become cheerleaders for our city, not looking for ways to take away our freedoms. They need to be leading in these areas by putting these things on council agendas every week. They need to put an item on every agenda to discuss ways to grow business, ways to deregulate and make it easier to bring new business here, ways to change attitudes in our city that can help encourage business growth.

They also need to have the discussion about a new city prosecutor. His contract expires on December 31 this year. It's time - now - to start the discussion about going a different direction. Without a long, hard discussion in this area - now - we will only be able to conclude that our city council is not concerned about the, as I see it, incompetence of our current contract holder, his inability to know the difference between lawbreakers and victims, and his being soft on crime in our community. City council, if you take crime seriously you need to start this discussion. If you don't you will be held responsible in this space for every crime that gets committed in this city.

And lastly, we need our council to start encouraging residents to do more of their own personal business here in our city. Whether it's a program or a weekly discussion item about new businesses in our community, or what current businesses are doing here, I don't know. We need our council to lead - they need to talk about local businesses, they need to show that they are doing their shopping here. They need to lead by creating a whole business section on the city website to help promote our businesses to our residents (like Maple Grove does).

None of these are rocket science. They're common sense. But our city council lately doesn't seem to have a whole bunch of stock in Common Sense. Instead they're creating issues out of non-issues, creating a battle over garbage hauling that didn't need to happen. They're wasting staff time creating videos and articles about the government takeover of garbage hauling. Real leadership on this non-issue would have been to say "thanks but our garbage hauling is just fine the way it is, let's talk about something truly important..." But no, we have to create angry residents who are frustrated with our city wanting to force this thing on us.

Real issues, city council, are those that affect our future. Issues like business growth, jobs, and the taxes we could collect when we improve those areas. Those are real issues. Those are important issues.

So who on our city council will have the guts to put these things on a city council agenda? Who really cares about the future of our city enough to step up and discuss these things during council meetings? I'm watching and will report to our readers which council member brings these issues up (and who doesn't).

My guess is that the courage may not exist. Or perhaps it's not a lack of courage but just an attitude of going along with whatever city staff puts on an agenda, you'll just go along with it. Or maybe these things just aren't important to our city council. If that's the case we have bigger problems than we ever thought and it would be time to take things to a whole new level.

Courage to improve our city, to rattle some cages, to do what is right for the growth of our city. Time to lead.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: Perhaps this is next for us?

2011-08-01T08:34:00.001-05:00

Since the Brooklyn Park City Council appears to be headed down the road of confiscating your rights and forcing their chosen behaviors on you, perhaps this is next:

Welcome to Malden, the city where you must pay $2.00 for every bag of trash you produce. We have a rather small family and we recycle, and the trash tax or PAY-AS-YOU-THROW program really adds up. We just spent $60 for blue trash bags, I sure hope they last more than a month.

Apparently on October 6, 2008, the City of Malden began this Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) Program for residents of Malden. All household trash must be disposed of in special City of Malden blue trash bags. The bags are sold at several local stores where a box of 10 33-gallon bags go for $20.

See the rest of the article here.

Ridiculous? Yep, just like the idea that we're even discussing the city taking away your ability to choose your own garbage hauler.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: Walters sends out letter

2011-08-01T08:14:00.002-05:00

In a fight for their lives as well as the employees they employ, garbage haulers that service us in Brooklyn Park are beginning to send out letters to their customers. This morning I received a copy of the one Walters Recycling and Refuse sent out this past week. Sadly one of our council members commented on Facebook that this and apparently other letters or comments about this issue are filling his email with "crap" (the same council member who defriended me on Facebook, and the same council member I spent dozens of hours helping elect through investigating and documenting the history of his opponent. Loyalty is a virtue some don't seem to appreciate.)

Brooklyn Park Garbage Hauling Issue - Walters Letter - OurBrooklynPark.com

There is also a website featuring factual information about the takeover of garbage hauling being proposed in Brooklyn Park and other cities. It's MNGarbageFacts.com. Be sure you visit it and are aware of the facts.

Over the weekend I had someone involved in our city send me an email with an interesting observation. They were at the "Movie in the Park" night this past week. Before the movie they had some of the city Ambassadors talking about our City's mission statement: "Brooklyn Park...a thriving community inspiring pride where opportunities exist for all".

The observation was that during this same event was a commercial for the "community cafe's" where the topic of discussion will be the confiscating of your right to choose your own garbage hauler, where opportunities will exist for only ONE garbage hauler, where jobs will be lost for many so the city can use garbage hauling to increase revenues (those dollars come from you, folks), and where you will lose your ability to switch companies if you receive poor service.

In other words, this entire issue is a blatant violation of the city's new and loudly touted mission statement. Worse, it appears that some on our council are pushing for this nationalization of your choice of vendor, taking away your right and using taxpayer dollars to propagandize for it.

Keep filling their emails and voice mails. Call them at home (Jeanette Meyer's phone listed on her mayor lit piece is 763-535-4870. She always puts it out when running and then hides it once in office). What is "crap" is not hearing from you, what is "crap" is the idea that they're wasting their time and yours in even considering this thing. The fact is, the very idea that there are Community Cafe's about this and not important issues is insulting and it's a complete lack of leadership. We don't elect people to lick their finger and stick it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, we elect them to have the guts to make good decisions. Sometimes those good decisions are no decisions, having the guts to say "this isn't a good idea, we shouldn't waste our time on it".

These people need to know that if they decide to confiscate your right, you will confiscate their office and will work against anyone who supports this thing. Tell them today, tell them tomorrow, and don't let them forget that you won't forget.

If you receive a letter from another garbage hauler, please send me a copy and I will post it here. You can email it to me at john@johnjordan.com.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: Smoking Gun, City DOES plan to raise revenue by taking away your right to choose your own waste hauler

2011-07-29T14:28:00.002-05:00

It's been denied by virtually everyone, the idea that the City of Brooklyn Park wants to take away your right to choose your own garbage hauler so they can use it to increase revenues. From the city manager on down everyone says it's just "speculation" or there's been "no discussion" of it.

This past week a smoking gun has been found that blows wide open this ongoing official denial.

In the June 10, 2010 minutes of the Citizen Long-Range Improvement Committee (CLIC), Item 4.4, the minutes state:

The Task Force on Solid Waste/Organized Trash Collection: The Budget Advisory Commission presented to Council a recommendation to study organized solid waste collection because it may be less expensive for residents and also be able to collect a portion of money to put in a street reconstruction project budget.

As I have stated from the beginning of this manufacturer issue, follow the money. In our June 28th column entitled "Brooklyn Park Garbage Debate: Insidious revenue grab, selling your freedom for $2 a month?", we had heard the plan from an insider who said this was clearly discussed as a way to "save money but attach a fee" to raise city revenues. What is now clear is that there is a plan to 1) sell this to residents via propaganda and feel good (just look at this month's Park Pages) and 2) not discuss the revenue "enhancement" opportunity.

This is simply dishonest. Our city and our elected officials are being dishonest with us by hiding this plan to raise taxes through this backdoor plan.

Where is our new "conservative" mayor? Over a month ago he said he wanted to talk to me about this and one month later I've not heard from him. He's supposed to be "pro-business" but is wishy-washy on this job-killing manufactured non-issue. Another council member "defriended" me on Facebook and am told he's not returning emails from people on this issue. Another is telling people "I haven't decided". The lack of leadership from our current crop of elected people is stunning.

Our city needs many changes such as regulations and attitude toward businesses wanting to grow or move here. This issue is so big that it's appalling that it doesn't lead every council agenda. Yet it's never part of the discussion, nothing is happening, and despite residents screaming about this issue for years there is absolutely NO leadership by any of them on this most important issue.

But we're holding "community cafe's" to talk about the city taking over our garbage hauling, something that isn't important to anyone, isn't an issue, and is a total waste of time...

...unless there's another reason they're not discussing. And now you know what it is - they want to USE you, they want to take away your right to make your own decisions, and they want to fool you into thinking you're "saving money" when it's really a way for them to tax you more.

Do you know what happens when they've put this system into place for a year or two? They see it as a place they can raise even more money. Today they'll say they're "saving" you money. A year from now they'll see it as a place to raise their fee another $.50 or $1.00 (and will say "you're still saving money...". A year or two later, they'll do it again. Pretty soon you're no longer "saving" money, you're spending more. Worse, you won't have a choice in changing again. You'll be stuck with the city's nationalized garbage hauler who will be providing crappy service and telling you "tough luck, buddy" when you complain.

Contact your city council and mayor, tell them you will personally campaign against any one of these people who support this insidious plan to raise your taxes.

Brooklyn Park State Senate Race: DFL endorses wife of BC Mayor, here we go again

2011-07-29T13:37:00.000-05:00

It's the oddest thing. The local DFL Senate District 46 operation has an "Affirmative Action Officer" I'm told. Yet the best candidate the DFL Party can field in a city that is now the first majority minority city in Minnesota history (Brooklyn Center) is the inexperienced, never-held-office, white wife of a mayor.

Over the years I've heard over and over again from DFL'ers about how "racist" Republicans are. Yet locally we've had Linda Etim run in both SD 46 and 47 and for school board - all GOP endorsed. George W. Bush had a number of African-American women in high posts such as Condi Rice.

Personally I don't care about race, I want an honest, hard-working, experienced, successful, conservative candidate who cares about not spending taxpayer money on unnecessary things and keeping the government out of our lives. Ethics and character matter, the tone of one's skin doesn't.

What I fear in the case of this DFL-endorsed, Mike Nelson and Deb Hilstrom-endorsed candidate isn't really about race but about having the wife of a sitting mayor taking more money from the taxpayers. We learned this lesson the hard way in Brooklyn Park already with Mr. and Mrs. Meyer, we sure don't need to learn it again.

Like I said, I just think it's odd.

Help Wanted: eCommerce Product Specialist

2011-07-29T08:23:00.000-05:00

Back from vacation and back to work - and still looking to hire an eCommerce Product Specialist.

If you're really good with Microsoft Excel, have good communication skills, and are well-versed as an Internet user, I am looking to talk to you about our FT position. This is with a well-funded new venture (parented by a very old, stable company) that is going to turn the online office products industry upside down. Guaranteed to be a fun ride for the right person.

See the entire job listing here.

If you're that person, or know that person, send a resume to me at john@johnjordan.com.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: Contact your council members today

2011-07-18T13:18:00.001-05:00

If you're like the majority of Brooklyn Park residents, you just want our city government to mind their own business on most issues. With crime being what it is, with our business climate being as repressive and depressed as it's been for years, and with so many other important issues, the concept that they're even considering socialized garbage hauling frustrates you. What I've been hearing is that the council is getting an earful from you about the drummed up "organizing" of our garbage hauling. Many of them have contacted me as well, so I have a good sense about what they're hearing. But it's not good enough.

Our city council needs you to contact them, specially the following council members:

Rich Gates
Elizabeth Knight
Jeanette Meyer
Mike Trepanier
Mayor Lunde

This list is based on my opinion about where they might come down on this issue. Trepanier, Meyer and Knight are all on the most "liberal", government-style side of issues. The idea of socializing garbage hauling fits right into that kind of political agenda. Rich Gates, one who might tend to fall into that category, is also more pro-business and I think could be more reasonable about this issue. I can't imagine him being on the side of putting people out of jobs and taking away your freedom to choose your own household service providers.

Be kind, be firm. Council members need to know that the residents of our city think they have real issues to deal with and that our garbage hauling is just fine the way it is. My guess is that calls are running between 70-30 and 80-20 opposed to this concept, maybe even higher opposed.

Send your email, give them a call, and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same. The clock is ticking.

Help Wanted: eCommerce Product Specialist

2011-07-18T08:16:00.000-05:00

We interrupt this blog to post a job opening....

I'm looking for an Excel guru - the job title is eCommerce Product Specialist. The position is for a hands on individual who is an almost expert-level Excel user and expert level Internet user. The functions of the job are multi-faceted.

1) Create and maintain master price files - a very intense set of price files that combine costs from a variety of sources on tens of thousands of SKU's.
2) Creating and maintaining product import files, keeping thousands of products up to date with the latest manufacturer information.

We require someone who is extremely detail oriented, friendly, one who can work with others (you'll be working a lot with dozens of manufacturers), can meet deadlines, is innovative, is intuitive in their thinking and is mission-oriented.

The Excel requirement is an absolute must - good at numbers and formulas. Must also have a good working knowledge of Word and Powerpoint.

The position is with a new venture, parented by a larger, profitable, stable company in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis.

If you or someone you know meets these qualifications please send me a resume at john@johnjordan.com.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: An American Principle, it's my choice, not yours.

2011-07-17T10:48:00.001-05:00

Garbage hauling is not a utility.

In the coming weeks our city council is asking you to choose between two options. 1) Waving your freedom to select your own household service providers (opening the door to future city government interventions into your private lives) and 2) Keeping their hands out of areas they don't belong.

One argument you will hear is that garbage hauling is a utility, like water, telephone, police and fire. In a discussion with a friend yesterday who happens to think this CLIC garbage hauling idea might be okay, he offered up the concept that it's simply a utility.

I have to disagree.

There are basic impracticalities with providing certain services to a whole city via private enterprise. We couldn't possibly have multiple water suppliers with new water pipes being dug through entire neighbhorhoods. Clearly that wouldn't work. The same is true for police or fire protection, it's just not practical to have multiple, competing private police departments offering their services in a given municipality.

Telephone services used to be considered a utility in that one company would wire an area and "own" it through city-provided "franchise" agreements. Over the past several years, through the advancement of technology, that idea has been completely thrown out. Sure, CenturyLink (Qwest) still has a franchise agreement, and I believe Comcast also has something similar, but there are multiple options outside of those companies to receive local telephone service. I haven't used either of those companies in years (you ought to try VoicePulse - cheap and reliable, worlds better than Vonage). Telephone service is no longer a true utility, it's a commodity available in the open market.

How important is garbage hauling anyway? I'm told I'm making too big a deal out of garbage hauling and, through inference, I should just let the city "save us some money".

The fact is, garbage hauling isn't that important. There's nothing wrong with saving money, even a few dollars a month. But that is not the issue. The issue is that this is a private concern, it's not our city government's place to inject itself into. Who I choose to take away my garbage is my business and not theirs.

The principle is that there are many companies who offer this service competitively. They employ real people who have real families. They compete against other in the open marketplace to offer their services for a reasonable price with the best service they can offer. And when they're no longer competitive or they no longer offer good service, I get to choose to stop using them and select another company.

That's the America we live in, at least for now.

In a world where our government is telling us we can no longer use a certain lightbulb, it seems so many people are more and more willing to let the elites among us make our choices for us. What makes their opinions any better than yours? Well, it's because they know better than you - just ask them.

I'm not ready to give up my rights for the supposed savings of a few dollars. Yes, it's "just" garbage hauling. But that's just the beginning. When the precedent is set you will have allowed our elected people to think they can make the next step and start making other "money saving" deals on your behalf. Today it's lowly garbage hauling, tomorrow there would be absolutely nothing to stop them from making other choices for you. While some mock the concept that a city could select Comcast for you and kick out DirecTV or Dish Network, I have to ask: what's the difference? What if Comcast offered our City Council a deal they couldn't refuse, a deal that "saved" ever resident $XX? Would they ban other cable/satellite companies from competing in our city? If you think that garbage hauling is no big deal, a "utility", where is the line draw and what principle is that decision based upon?

Principles. It seems like such an old fashioned concept lately. This morning I heard a DFL commentator say that the GOP shouldn't have held to their principles and should have "compromised", that would have made them "statesmen".

Think about that statement for a second. The idea that someone holds a core principle, campaigns on it, wins by large margins because of it, and then is expected to throw all that away, to give up that core principle, and that would make them a "statesman". That concept is appalling. It's the very antithesis of being of statesman. The fact is, holding to that principle is the definition of statesman, not living in a way where principles can change with the wind.

The concept that government doesn't belong dictating to my family, your family, who we should select in a private enterprise competitive world is an American principle. Our American principles are being thrown away too often and those who want to take those freedoms from you start with the small, "unimportant" things first. It's how they can "move forward" and say "but we've already been doing that in these other areas...."

Garbage hauling is not a utility, it's a choice. It's my choice, not yours. It's your choice, not theirs. City government, keep your hands off my garbage.

HandsOffMyGarbage.com - share this link with your friends. Spread the word that Brooklyn Park is still in the United States of America, we're not (yet) part of the European Union.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: Anoka County Watchdog writes

2011-07-11T11:52:00.002-05:00

Like OurBrooklynPark.com, Anoka County has their own watchdog keeping an eye on local governments. Because they've faced the very same nationalization of garbage hauling that's coming to Brooklyn Park, they've written a humorous take on our very serious freedom-taking, job-killing situation we're facing...

Watchdogs, this is one is rich - and scary. Apparently, the city council over in Brooklyn Park has solved the city's problems regarding crime, property foreclosures, declining tax revenues, demographic changes, and future pension obligations because the city is now focusing scarce taxpayer resources on an issue that isn't a problem - garbage collection.

Yes, garbage collection. The city is actually considering moving to a government-run, monopolistic garbage collection scheme.

Under this scheme, the city would grant a monopoly to just one trash hauler to pick up trash in the city. If they're feeling generous, the city could be divided up into sectors, with a monopoly for each sector.

In other words, the city in its infinite wisdom would decide for you when it comes to selecting a company to haul away your banana peels and snotty tissues.

Apparently some think the taxpayers over in Brooklyn Park are too stupid to pick a trash hauler.

This is a government-imposed monopoly folks. Don't like the hauler the city picks? Don't like the service? Don't like the price? Too bad. Under this system, the government has taken away your choice to pick your garbage hauler.

Instead of being able to fire your current hauler and pick up the phone to hire the hauler of your choice (after pricing them against each other), under government-run garbage collection you will have no choice.

See the rest of the column at the AnokaCountyWatchdog.com.

The Late Debate with Jack and Ben: Incredible experience, going back for Sunday's show

2011-07-08T08:04:00.001-05:00

Anyone who has known me for any amount of time knows I love radio. Radio is the theater of the mind and offers something to listeners television can't offer; the ability to get into your imagination and make you think.

As a kid I was hooked on radio. From around the age of ten I would walk around with my transistor radio listening to whatever I could find. In my teen years a local radio host, Bob Allard, would tick me off to sleep every night as he did his best to push a liberal agenda through the walls of the "fairness doctrine" of that day. (Sad to say, Allard committed suicide in the late 1970's.)

My radio hero was Steve Cannon of WCCO-AM. With the characters he created and executed flawlessly, Cannon was a true radio performer. While I worked part time for a local Christian radio station in the early 1980's I had the opportunity to meet Cannon at the State Fair. It was my honor to let him know that he was my radio hero.

Another was Franklin Hobbs and his late night show "Hobbs' House". When I'd get off of my 6 pm to Midnight shift I'd turn on 'CCO to get my fix of Hobbs. His deep, deep voice along with the big bands he'd play were so awesome. Some years later, in the late 1980's, I met Hobbs at KLBB radio (otherwise known as old people radio). Unlike Cannon, who was a true gentlemen, Hobbs was aloof and a bit of a crank. But he was Franklin Hobbs and there was no taking away the fact he had some serious radio skills.

Today I love radio as much as ever, listening to stations around the country every night as I go to sleep. Through the use of technology, I use an Internet Radio instead of trying to find faint signals bouncing off the atmosphere. It's a wi-fi radio that connects to thousands of streaming radio stations around the world.

With my life-long love of radio, and some experience working in the field, it was an absolute honor last night to be invited, along with fellow Brooklyn Park resident and leader Andrew Reinhardt, to a radio show called The Late Debate with Jack and Ben. It's a growing and fairly popular radio show about politics, largely at the state level. Jack, a young guy with no radio experience, has a natural talent for the craft. He's inquisitive and curious, well-educated on the issues and knows the lay of the political landscape. Both he and producer Ben Kruse (not the State Senator) are hilarious and make a great on-air team.

For about 45 minutes Andrew and I had the opportunity to discuss Brooklyn Park and it's "organized garbage hauling" scheme and how it infringes on our rights as Americans. We discussed how city government, politicians and some well-meaning but misguided residents attempt to force their whims on their neighbors simply because they have a personal peeve over something. It was incredibly fun, feeling right at home (even though it had been over 25 years since the last time I'd actually sat in-studio behind a mic.) I think we did a good job representing the issue and our city. I can say that Andrew did a great job.

The best part is that I've been invited back to participate in the show's Sunday night edition, the Bloggers Roundtable. During the first hour we sat in-studio listening to an interview of State Senator Mike Perry of the People's Republic of Owatonna. So many times I wish I could have piped in on the state budget issue but it wasn't out time. This Sunday I'll get that opportunity and can not wait.

So if you're a late night radio listener like I am, Sunday night on 95.9 FM (or 1150/1300 am St Cloud). The FM frequency isn't meant for the Twin Cities as a whole and is "iffy" at times in Brooklyn Park. But if you're able to get it, I'd love to have you listen in.

Brooklyn Park: On The Late Debate with Jack and Ben radio show tonight

2011-07-07T15:06:00.002-05:00

Want to hear about the city garbage hauling takeover from average Brooklyn Park residents? Listen tonight at 11 pm to The Late Debate with Jack and Ben on 95.9 FM. Myself and Andrew Reinhardt will be on the show discussing the issue along with a discussion on how local governments stiffle residents and business through over regulation.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: Time for a "come to Jesus" meeting with our Mayor and Council members

2011-07-07T08:20:00.001-05:00

The City of Brooklyn Park's propaganda campaign has begun on the self-created non-issue of "organized garbage hauling". This attempted power grab by our city, and from what I hear, most council members, is designed to take away your freedom to select your own household vendors (and to fire them when you want to change).

Under the guise of "taking trucks off the street" and "reducing noise", our city is setting up the case to confiscate this right from you and force you to use their chosen garbage company. From what I'm hearing, the fix is already in and the decision has been made but to cover themselves they're going through the motions of "listening" to you.

So while the battle may already be lost we still need to give them an earful and let them know that if they support this power grab we will force them out of office come 2012. It's important for them to know we don't need them tampering with a system that has worked just fine for years. We also don't need our city supporting a job-killing plan (yes, garbage people have families, too). We're already one of the worst cities in the metro area for doing business, this will just make our hope to turn that around that much more difficult.

The question I continue to have is, what is next? If they are successful in taking over this decision from you, what's next? Will they decide, because there are so many trucks driving the city on a daily basis, that you have to have Comcast only? No DirecTv or Dish, it's too unsafe to have all those vans driving around. The emissions is awful and the noise is unbearable.

Or perhaps we'll need a city plumber. Or a city electrician. We can't have all those plumber trucks driving unsafely all over our streets emitting noise and emissions. Once they successfully take over one area, what is next?

It seems the "big" issue is those complaining about "too many trucks on the streets". Have you ever driven our residential streets during a typical weekday? They're dead. 90% of people are at work. Who is home to worry about something every street in America deals with for a few minutes, once a week? This is about the most ridiculous argument there is for taking away the freedom to choose from their fellow residents. It's also a complete lack of leadership by an elected official to attempt to confiscate your rights in order to accommodate what is, according to more normal people, a fairly whiney complaint.

We have much bigger problems in our city than this non-issue. Let's have Community Cafe's about our business climate and our ridiculous regulations and poor attitide toward new business. That would be something I'd support.

While the fix seems to be in, the city is going through the motion of "listening" to you. They've set up Community meetings on these dates:

Monday, August 8, 7 pm - Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free Church
Thursday, August 11, 7 pm - Grace Fellowship Church
Monday, August 15, 7 pm - Discover Church

Let's show up and give these people a talking to. It's time for a "Come to Jesus" meeting for our new mayor and our council members, letting them know that we need them to deal with real issues, not this ridiculous waste of time.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: Insidious revenue grab, selling your freedom for $2 a month?

2011-06-28T09:26:00.001-05:00

I'm not much of Jesse Ventura fan. In fact, I'm not a fan at all. But in person, behind closed doors and with no cameras, he's a really nice guy. I had the pleasure of meeting with him and perhaps another 6-7 other State Representatives once when he was trying to convince us to vote a particular way on a bill.

While I'm not a fan there is one thing he's always stated that has turned out to be correct almost every time the rule is followed: Follow the money. When you don't understand why something suddenly became an issue, follow the money.

I've been trying to figure out why this non-problem, non-issue of continuing to select our own garbage hauler came out of the blue. There aren't any problems, garbage haulers are doing their jobs, they're all competitive, they're all offering decent service and reasonable rates, kids aren't getting run over and we don't live in a smog cloud like we're in Los Angeles.

Overnight I received an email from someone who seems to have discovered the source of the issue and, while it won't surprise you, it should disgust you to your core.

The reason this idea is being pushed so hard is that the city is seeing this change as a massive source of new revenue.

Yes, it's a hidden tax increase. Not just a tax increase, but a tax increase that is paid for with your freedom, your convenience, your right to make your own decisions, and with yet another government take over.

I'm told this is a Jeanette Meyer-inspired idea and having watched her on the council for years this smells like something that would have her finger prints all over it. While they swear it's a "citizen-inspired" idea, there are others who say this came from someone in the city, whether Meyer or a staff member I do not yet know for sure (but will find out).

Here's the plan: Let's say you're paying $10 a month for your garbage hauling (just an example). The city goes out for bidding and negotiates a super low rate like $6 a month. Instead of charging you that $6 they mark it up to $8-8.50 and take their "cut" (a term I'm told was used by city staff). How mafia-like is that? New and free revenue, and they get to "sell" it to you as a "decrease" in your monthly cost.

The insidious plot to take away your freedom to select your own household vendors is going to be sold to you as a "savings" that will "save the environment" and be "safer" and "save our roads". For $2 a month they expect Brooklyn Park residents will be willing to sell their rights away based on the false arguments of safety and green.

I would say this shocks me to my core but I've seen how politics works and this is par for the course. The use of the false "green" issue to sell us on giving away our freedoms is used all the time. "Save the planet" is now the mantra governments of all levels use to chip away at our basic rights.

Our city doesn't need this. We need less governemt interference in our lives, not more. We don't need the City of Brooklyn Park making decisions like this for us. We don't need the City of Brooklyn Park putting us in the position of not being able to change a vendor who's not doing a good job. And we sure don't need them lying to us about the real reasons they're whipping this thing up into an issue that really doesn't need to happen.

When Waste Management wins this contract - the almost-certain winner of a contract like this since they're one of the few financially large enough to afford to take on such a contract - you will be stuck with them and you won't be able to change when they provide poor service. I've seen their poor service myself and even under the threat of change weren't willing to correct their issues. Under this kind of deal with the city we'd have no option, we wouldn't be able to change, and there would be no reason for them to correct it - they've got the contract. Giving away our freedom to choose, to change, isn't worth any amount of money, and sure isn't worth $2/month.

I expect is honesty from my government, not this deception. If this information is true, and trust me I will find out, it may be time for some real changes at City Hall. Of all the sins, I hate lying and deception the worst.

Brooklyn Park City Council: No discussion about our freedom necessary

2011-06-26T13:21:00.001-05:00

There is no bigger fan of a city council who enages in "community engagement". To me, community engagement helps determine the mood, the opinion, the direction a city wants to go. It is ultimately what "democracy" is - knowing what The People want.

At the same time, we are a Representative Republic and not a "democracy". Our Founding Fathers determined that a direct democracy where every issue comes to a public vote was not efficient nor desired. As we've seen with other issues over the years it is sometimes easy to sway the people through misinformation or misunderstanding, later having to come back and correct the error once the people experience the mistake they've made.

There are times when certain things, things that are basic freedoms, should not come to a vote of the people or even the elected representatives. No one, for instance, would want a community discussion over closing all churches, confiscation of all private property, or banning one particular political party. Those are basic rights, freedom of worship, private property rights or the freedom of association. If the idea to discuss those changes were presented we'd expect our elected leaders to say "we don't need a discussion, we don't discuss taking away people's rights".

Instead of the reduction of rights the best course of action for a government is more choice, more freedoms and more openness.

In the early 1980's AT&T lost a landmark anti-trust decision which ended up creating the "Baby Bells". Maybe you've never heard of this monumental decision. Previous to this decision every telephone was owned by "Ma Bell" (AT&T) and every call (local and long distance) went over their phone lines. You could not buy your own telephone at Target or Best Buy, you had to buy or rent it from the phone company. Long distance charges were based on Interstate and Intrastate rates based on mileage tiers. You could easily pay $.40-.50 a minute for basic long distance.

The first major competitor to AT&T was MCI. After the breakup of AT&T you were allowed, as it rolled out "prefix by prefix" (the first three numbers of your phone number, like 561 or 425), to choose your own long distance company. At first it was MCI, then others came into the market. By 1984 there were sometimes a dozen choices available in every prefix.

In 1985 I worked for a small Omaha-based long distance company offering rates of $.32 a minute. We sold a hundreds of companies on this choice. In 1986 I was recruited to work for MCI as a sales manager managing eight sales people in order to coach them to do what I'd done with the previous company. We were offering more services and prices were dropping like a rock.

Fast forward to today - how much is your long distance? A nickel a minute, maybe even less? Why do you suppose that is? Choice and competition. Choices created a whole new market. Competition created innovation. Innovation created efficiencies. Efficiencies created lower costs. Lower costs created lower prices. And the cycle continued. All the while companies were lowering costs and prices service couldn't disappear or their customers would just move to another company.

Over the past several years our country has forgotten these basic economic principles. They've banned regular lightbulbs that cost $.50 each for those costing $5.00. They promise you'll save $100 a year in household energy and will "save the enviroment". Well, it's a lie. I changed most of our lightbulbs over a year ago and you know how much money we've save? None. It cost us more. The new bulbs don't illuminate, they take forever to get bright (and still never really give as much quality light). They don't last that long despite the promises. And it almost takes a nuclear-suited haz mat team to dispose of them. Worst of all, they're made in China and our US-based lightbulb manufacturers were forced to close.

In the end, the government choosing for us has proven to not only not work as expected but has cost thousands of jobs. Government made the choice for us, knowing better than us, leaving us with bulbs costing 10 times more, lasting no longer, giving less bright light and creating difficulty in disposing of them. This is government intervention into a problem that didn't exist.

Monday night our city council will be considering giving you the opportunity to discuss taking away the rights of others. For the past couple of decades we've all had a choice of our own garbage hauler and it's worked just fine. It's a solution desperately seeking a problem to solve.

Some years ago I chose Waste Management - the absolutely worst waste hauler on the planet, in my opinion - and I got rid of them after some pretty bad service. One week they didn't pick up some basic garbage sitting next to the can. For the next four business days I spoke to someone and promised "tomorrow we'll pick it up". Four business days of promises, four business days of failure to fulfill that promise. On the five business day I found another company (and saved money, too.) Without any government help I was able to solve the problem on my own.

Choice is good. When I had bad service I gave the company all the opportunity in the world to make it right and after four days of not telling me the truth I was able to make another choice, to change. It's a basic American right and it works pretty well.

When government takes away your choice they are taking away your freedoms as Americans. From the Federal government taking away your choice of light bulbs or forcing you to have health insurance or face penalties, to a local government making selections for you and taking away your ability to not only choose but also change, we don't need them making our choices for us.

Monday night the Brooklyn Park City Council will decide whether to continue down a road of "community discussion" - discussing taking away your freedom of choice for your garbage hauler, the freedom to negotiate with your chosen vendor and the ability to change vendors if you don't believe their service is what you expect. This is not a discussion of choosing between red or green, it's a discussion whether or not you will continue to be able to exercise your rights. The very idea that they'd entertain such a discussion is disturbing and makes one wonder what other freedoms they'd be willing to discuss taking from us.

It's not too late. The decision to enter into a "community discussion" is to be made Monday night, June 27th. If enough of you contact them and tell them "choose to just do nothing" your freedom in this area will be preserved. They need to know that when it comes to your basic rights there is no discussion to be had, there is no "community discussion" necessary. Where your council member and our mayor come down on this issue will define whether or not they believe in basic American principles or if they believe that they know better than you, and that they believe government can take away your choices and force their will on you.

This isn't about "preserving roads" (or roads are some of the best built in the state), "emissions" (should we stop all DirecTV and Dish Network trucks and "choose" only Comcast for you?), or safety (maybe we should just close off all neighborhood roads just in case an accident might happen?). These are false arguments presented in order to scare you into giving up your freedoms. They're simply not valid arguments.

Contact your city council right now. Let them know they should just let this manufacturered issue die.

Brooklyn Park: While the pressure mounts, the fact remains that our freedoms aren't up for the lowest bidder

2011-06-25T10:06:00.003-05:00

From what I'm hearing (and reading from the mayor's Facebook status), they're getting lots of calls, emails and questions about the garbage hauling issue. Keep it up.

There has been a lot of, well, pressure for me to "get the facts first" before discussing this issue. And as I've stated, I've not been privy to the discussions leading to this issue going public. What I do understand is a principle, a principle that no "fact I'm missing" can change. That principle is, taking away our freedom to choose our own waste vendor is against every American bone in my body.

As I've discussed this with people inside and outside of Brooklyn Park they've all said the same thing; don't even consider going down this path. I agree.

It really doesn't matter how "cheap" a rate they can negotiate, in the end it's the quality of service that counts as well as yours and my ability to change vendors at will. It is guaranteed that the city will say "but we'll be able to push them into better service or fixing problems or they'll lose their contract".

Right.

It just never happens like that. You and I are just a pimple on the back end of an ant and our individual complaints will never matter to the whole of the situation. If our problem isn't fixed we will have absolutely no recourse and have no ability to switch. We'll also have no opportunity to negotiate an even better rate on our own, we'll be stuck with the "city deal".

In my opinion there's no discussion to be had. The principle of free choice, free market and your right (yes, right) of privacy in this matter isn't up for discussion and can't be sold to the lowest bidding garbage hauler. The last time I checked Brooklyn Park was still in the United States of America, right? As such, we need to hold our elected officials responsible for upholding our very basic rights. There can no more be a "community discussion" about taking away your freedom of speech (although a previous council once attempted to do that to me over my previous website) than there can be for taking away your freedom of choice and privacy in this matter. We don't need a "community discussion", we need a council and mayor willing to say "thanks for your opinion, CLIC, but our residents have basic freedoms like any other American and we're not going to give those away to the lowest bidder".

Keep emailing our council and let them know you want them to stop this right in it's tracks.

City of Brooklyn Park Garbage Issue: We don't need your help choosing our garbage hauling company

2011-06-24T08:09:00.001-05:00

What are we? As a city, what defines what our future will become?

Is our city council and mayor about regulation, making choices for you, acting as your parent to protect you from things they deem to be "dangerous" to you? Or is it too late for us to change to a city where you are left alone to make your own choices, where government isn't your nanny who wants to bundle you up in a helmet and padding like the kid from the movie "Little Giants"?

In the coming weeks we are going to be finding out exactly who we are as a city and what the true principles are of our mayor and city council. We're going to find out if they're going to have the stomach for the kind of changes we're going to need to make - from rules and regulations to taxation and attitude - to recruit new and real jobs to our city. The initial test, like a test vote in Congress, will begin next Monday night as our city council looks at garbage hauling.

For some reason our Citizen Long Range Improvement Committee, a committee where I was once vice chair and Mayor Lampi was chair, is recommending that our city take away your freedom to choose your own waste hauling company. In their wisdom they've decided, as I'm told, that we should have just one company performing this service. That company would be chosen by the city on your behalf and without your ability to choose or change.

In an article in this week's Sun Post an attempted case is made for this change. As the article states, "Monitoring the provider's service is the customer's responsibility, unless significant problems develop, and even then, the city has limited authority to require improved performance."

This is the proponents case for you not being able to manage your own lives. If there are problems it's too bad that "monitoring" their service is your responsibility. Apparently we're unable to manage our own affairs and need the government to do this for us. It immediately begs the question, what other areas where we currently monitor our household vendors does the city think they need to help us with? Cell phone companies? Maybe a "city plumber" and "city electrician" because we can't "monitor" their work on our own? Perhaps I'm just new to this whole having to take care of myself thing but I've never had a problem with a garbage hauling company I couldn't take care of with a call or changing companies (or the threat of changing companies).

As bad as a city wanting to become my parental unit, wrap me up in a blanket and hold me close so as to not be bruised by the mean, evil world, is the excuses that will be used to push this on us.

"Other factors that are influencing the city's desire to review the current system are the number of trucks on the road and road wear (often three or more collection vehicles travel the same routes through the neighborhood on the same day), amount of emission, safety issues with more trucks on the road, noise, among others."

Perhaps we should limit the number of cars any house can have to one. After all, we need to protect the roads from wear and reduce emissions.

Please.

When precisely did it become the responsibilty of a city government to monitor and protect "emissions"?

Give one example in the history of Brooklyn Park when a garbage truck ran over a little kid or was a true, out of the ordinary "safety" issue?

And is our city building cheap roads unable to accommodate simple truck traffic? Perhaps we need to start firing people in our transportation department for not doing their jobs in making sure our roads aren't up to the standards of other cities.

These are ridiculous arguments that are not based in any facts. Roads are fine, they're built to handle this very basic traffic. There is NO "safety" issue. And any argument based on "emissions" is only because their smoking something that gives off a very different emission.

Freedom is at stake in Brooklyn Park. A few weeks ago our city council, sadly including our new mayor, instituted a "policy" saying a smoker can't sit on a park bench and take a puff. Why? Because of "second hand" smoke (outdoors?) and "litter" (nevermind that "litter" ordinances have never been enforced in our city and it's already against the law). You can't even plug a bit of chaw in your mouth because it violates the "policy" (how that works with litter, don't know...and is there a second hand chew problem?).

Now they're wanting to take away your right to choose your own garbage company. Got a problem with the new, single company? Too bad for you, you can't change. You can complain all you want but there is no incentive for them to change. Sure the city will tell you "tell us, we'll fix it". But with 75,000 people you know how well that's going to work.

As with other household vendors you choose, the very threat that you could change to a competitor is the one thing that makes sure the vendor does a good job and does it for a reasonable price.

We don't need government-control do-gooders making choices for us. The fact is, our city needs to go the exact opposite direction. We need more jobs and companies bringing them here. In order to do that we need to review every regulation we have and open them up, reconsider them, make sure they're legitimate and compare them with competing cities. Closing our city to competition and taking away freedoms of our residents and businesses is wrong and I intend to fight against it.

I am already being told "you don't have all the facts" and I'm sure that's true. However, no matter the "facts" the principle is the same, our city government should not be wasting their time on this takeover discussion. I'm unsure what "facts" one needs to know other than attempts to justify our city taking away your freedom to choose. The fact is, Tim Pawlenty was right with his "Google Test". If you can Google a product or service and there are private companies offer those products or services, government should stay out of it. It's no different here - let the market compete and let the people choose who they want to hire to haul their garbage.

If you love Brooklyn Park, if you want a better city that competes for new jobs and businesses, if you want expansion of the tax base (which helps every home owner with their property taxes), then join me in stopping this step backwards, this step in the wrong direction.

Email the entire city council.

Please, please, please share this with others. Get the word out or it will be too late to stop this confiscation of one more piece of your freedom.

Brooklyn Park: What's up with our city lately?

2011-06-22T16:45:00.001-05:00

It seems lately that our city has been having an issue understanding the concept of "freedom". Sound at parks - outlawed. Smoking in parks - banned. They're even talking about taking away your freedom to choose your own garbage hauler under the guise of saving the environment (which is the excuse used for government taking away a lot of our freedoms lately).

Recently the City of Brooklyn Park sent out an e-mail looking for people to participate in a commercial about the recently enacted smoking ban at most city parks and facilities. Former Parks Commission Chair Andrew Reinhardt, one who agrees with the position that our city seems to have an issue with freedom lately, put together the following commercial script and allowed me to share it. Here is what he wrote:

The scene is an empty park in Brooklyn Park. A soldier just back from Afghanistan is on a park bench trying to enjoy precious time with his daughter. The girl runs off to the playground. To steady his nerves (the only way he knew how between firefights in the war zone), he lights up a cigarette.

Just then, a busy-body kid from across the empty park spots the man, sprints over to him, and attempts to smack the cigarette from his hands.

Veteran- Hey, what are you doing?

Kid- Cigarette smoking is banned in this park! Can't you see that sign?

Veteran- Since when? I'm not bothering anyone. This is a legal product, and I'm a taxpayer in this city!

Kid- Since a group of us do-gooder kids (as a front for American Cancer Society lobbyists) got the City Council to unanimously pass a smoking ban.

Veteran- Why?

Kid- We showed that smoking creates a bunch of litter.

Veteran- Isn't littering illegal? Why not enforce that?

Kid- Well, we were concerned about second-hand smoke.

Veteran- But I'm outside. And smokeless tobacco is on your sign. What second-hand smoke do you get from snuff?

Kid- We got the city to agree that people should be doing healthy stuff in parks.
Veteran- Funny, I was just at Tater Daze, and the city was making plenty of money off of selling beer and greasy food at Noble Sports Park. Did you ban Big Macs yet?

Kid- Seeing people smoke might make kids try it.

Veteran- They are not going to see it at home? Better not watch the John Adams series on HBO, all of our Founding Fathers smoked.

Kid- Sorry man, smoking is banned in most park facilities in Brooklyn Park.

Veteran- Most?

Kid- Yeah, you can plunk down $100 at the golf course and smoke away. But your little Suzy over there on the slide isn't bringing in any revenue!

Veteran- Wow, I can't believe that while I was fighting overseas THIS was a priority with all the high crime, high unemployment, and high foreclosures in Brooklyn Park, but fine.
(Veteran extinguishes his cigarette and reaches over to turn on a small radio to catch up on the Twins game)

Kid- No, no, no... sorry, the city also passed a ban on amplified sound while you were gone. Remember, this is a blue city in a blue state, bud!

Veteran- Wow, and I thought people in the Middle East had a lack of freedom. At least they can smoke.

Kid- (turning to the camera) This park is now safe for society. On to Tessman Acres. GO BP!

I'm not sure what's going on with our city lately. We're hurting for jobs and business but at every turn we make it harder to live or do business here. Freedom works, freedom helps expand a community. Silly ordinances not allowing smoking in parks because they cause "litter" (litter is already illegal, right?) makes Thomas Jefferson role over in his grave (but sure makes Karl Marx a dead happy camper). C'mon, people - grow some commons sense, stand up for freedom for a change. And that includes every council member who supported this ridiculous, unneeded ordinances (including, sadly, our new mayor). I'm very disappointed in what's happening lately.

To be clear, I hate smoking. I hate everything connected to smoking cigarettes. I have two grandparents who died of lung cancer after smoking like chimney's their entire life. But as much as I hate smoking, I love freedom more.

Time for some truth from our local DFL representatives

2011-06-17T12:39:00.000-05:00

Don't get me wrong, I like our State Rep. Mike Nelson as a guy. Politically, though, I don't think there's one thing where we'd agree. Todays emailed "update" is one of those areas. The fact is, it's completely lacking in fact and credibility. The other fact is, he didn't write it.

The unknown secret that constituents don't know is that it's rare that any legislator writes their own updates, letters to the editor, etc. There are legislative staff members who are "partisan" in nature. This means the DFL and the GOP has their own people on the state payroll writing things like this for them. My guess is that if you checked the email updates from other constituents they would be identical.

Reading this update I had to laugh, then I got angry. Simply put, it's so full of lies I can't believe Mike would put his name to it.

The GOP was elected on one issue: solve the state budget without raising taxes. It was their key issue. They won the House and the Senate, the Senate for the first time since I was a kid. They didn't win despite their promise to balance the budget without raising taxes, they won because of it.

Mark Dayton, on the other hand, barely won election. More importantly, he had 44.63% of the vote, Tom Emmer had 43.21%. Despite what Mark Dayton likes to hallucinate about, he does not have a mandate to raise taxes on anyone.

Mike Nelson claims that the GOP has been "my way or the highway". Laughable. The GOP has offered a budget that increases spending by 6% over last year. INCREASES spending, not decreases it. They've also just dropped part of the plan that would cut taxes on some areas that would have helped stimulate the Minnesota economy.

What has Dayton's response been? "You're not compromising!"

Mark Dayton, Mike Nelson and the rest of the DFL has one goal: Make the GOP raise a tax, any tax. Why? Because when 2012 comes around you'll see campaign literature put out by every one of them saying "See, you can't trust the GOP, they lied and raised taxes."

Mark and Mike, we're NOT stupid. We know what you're up to and it's not going to work. Worse, you've been planning this shutdown since the beginning and have been planning for it for months. Sadly for you, though, the GOP has not bitten on your propaganda and they've held to their word.

Taxes do NOT need to be raised. If you confiscated every DIME of earnings from the so-called "top 2%" it wouldn't affect the budge at all, it would still be a problem. This isn't about raising their taxes, it's about the trap and the cynical campaign strategy.

Mike Nelson, Mark Dayton and the rest of the DFL need to stop playing games with tens of thousands of jobs and sign the balanced budget plan passed by the legislature the MAJORITY of Minnesotans elected. Anything short of that and we know who to blame for a shutdown, and it's not the GOP. It's the uncompromising, game playing, cynical DFL.

Here's Mike Nelson's propaganda email:

SHUTDOWN NEARS WITH REPUBLICANS STUCK IN CEMENT

We have just under two weeks before the vast majority of Minnesota’s
state government shuts down, negatively impacting virtually every
Minnesotan. The pain of the shutdown will be felt far and wide. While
the courts will ultimately decide what is deemed critical and what is
funded during any government shutdown, contingency plans have been
developed and we’re getting a sense of just how painful a shutdown
would be for the people of Minnesota.

Teenagers won’t be able to get driver’s licenses, hundreds of
thousands of Minnesotans may not get the health care they need, families
will not be able to get the high-quality child care that they rely on,
our K-12 schools wouldn’t receive any further aid after July 15,
families wouldn’t be able to enjoy our state parks and trails, or get
their fishing licenses, colleges and universities will be forced to tap
into their reserves and borrow more money, and nearly 40,000 state
workers will go without paychecks, dramatically hurting their families.
Overall, 49 agencies will close and the rest will operate with minimal
staff, keeping only operations running related to the health and public
safety of Minnesotans.

The pain that will result from a government shutdown is a reminder to
keep our focus on preventing it from happening. Governor Dayton has
modified his budget proposal twice, including a compromise offer of half
cuts and half revenue through a tax increase on the wealthy 2 percent of
Minnesotans. The Republican majority has been stuck in cement and stuck
on the budget number they first introduced early in session. They have
made no sincere attempt to compromise with the governor, but instead are
willing to shutdown government to protect the wealthy 2 percent.

The Republican majority is operating on a “my way or the highway”
philosophy and that’s no way to lead and no way to govern. Governing
requires compromise and so far, Governor Dayton is the only one willing
to compromise and do the right thing for the people of Minnesota.

Minnesotans have said loud and clear that they want a balanced approach;
they want a compromise, and they want us to get our work done.
The stakes of a shutdown are too high for political games. It’s time
for the Republican majority to compromise with Governor Dayton on a
budget that protects all Minnesotans, not just the wealthy few and
special interests. It’s time for the Republican majority to get their
feet out of cement and stop sending Minnesota to a government shutdown
just to protect the wealthiest 2 percent of Minnesotans.

Brooklyn Park restaurant recognized nationally

2011-06-08T10:05:00.000-05:00

This morning Brooklyn Park restaurant Sweet Taste of Italy was recognized nationally by the U.S. Chamber Association. Below is the press release.

Congratulations Jim and Mel Stone who have worked tirelessly to give Brooklyn Park residents a wonderful place to eat.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sweet Taste of Italy 2 Receives 2011 Best of Minneapolis Award

U.S. Commerce Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

NEW YORK, NY, June 1, 2011 -- For the third consecutive year, Sweet Taste of Italy 2 has been selected for the 2011 Best of Minneapolis Award in the Italian Restaurants category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Nationwide, only 1 in 120 (less than 1%) 2011 Award recipients qualified as Three-Time Award Winners. Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2011 USCA Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a New York City based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association

Brooklyn Park State Senator Linda Scheid enters hospice

2011-06-03T14:01:00.003-05:00

Sad news today from Sen. Linda Scheid:

Dear friends and neighbors,
As the legislative session comes to a close this year, I wanted to share with you, my friends and neighbors, a recent decision I have made in consultation with my family and doctors.

Many of you know that I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005. Since then, off and on, I’ve undergone chemotherapy treatments to keep this disease at bay. There comes a point when the benefits of chemotherapy do not out-weigh the debilitating side effects. I found myself at this crossroads in May and have decided that I will no longer be seeking further treatment. I am currently in home hospice care and spending much time with my family and friends.

It has been an honor to serve the communities of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center in the Legislature. Our community is bright and I have high hopes that it will continue to be a thriving community.

I invite you to share any thoughts or stories on my Caring Bridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lindascheid

As well as my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Linda-Jayne-Longabaugh-Scheid/125412794204534?sk=wall#!/pages/Linda-Jayne-Longabaugh-Scheid/125412794204534.

Any questions or comments you may have may be directed to my Capitol office at 651-296-8869, or e-mail at www.senate.mn/senatorscheid.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and concerns on issues facing our state and community throughout the years. It has truly been an honor to represent you at the Legislature.

Warmest regards,

Linda Scheid

Brooklyn Park: What's the Next Big Project?

2011-05-25T14:40:00.000-05:00

The other day a city friend, a volunteer extraordinaire, called me on my way home from work and asked a really good question; what's the Next Big Project?

It's his feeling that our city is ready for something big, something we can all first imagine, then work together to make happen. It's about making us stand out as a community. Instead of pointing to good parks or a formerly big name golf course, his thinking was that he thinks we're ready for something new, something big, something we may not even have thought of yet.

I've been giving his call a lot of consideration as it's a thought-provoking question. Are we ready for something big, something thought to be impossible, but something that could really put our community on the map?

Some years ago the city of Cottage Grove went to Target and asked them to building a store there. Target looked at it and in the end decided it didn't make financial sense to them. Given their location, and the fact ther were nearby stores in Hastings and Woodbury, Target thought having a store in Cottage Grove could not be profitable.

The residents of Cottage Grove didn't take that decision sitting down. They rose up and banded together. They put together a campaign to lobby Target telling them that they would be loyal shoppers and would not disappoint them.

After considerable effort by a banded-together citizenry Target changed their mind and built a store there. If you ever drive by that store on the way to Hastings or Red Wing you'll always see a full parking lot at that Target Store. I don't think they look back with regret in putting one there.

That's the idea my friend has. Not a Target store but something that at this moment we might not have even have thought of or something we believe is impossible.

One idea we discussed was revisiting the idea of a Performing Arts Center. With the Target campus next door, the land sitting empty, the political climate being much less toxic than it was in 1998-2001, and a city council that would be much more open to such a project, we thought this could be an interesting discussion.

Clearly the Minnesota Orchestra has lost interest in such a project having spent, I think I've read, $6 million. However, the plan they had passed every level of scrutiny, from the city council through the Minnesota Court of Appeals and the MPCA. In the end it's failure to complete was related to the cost that opponents imposed on the project. These are lessons learned if something were to come forward again.

What is interesting is that failure of any Twin Cities community to make this happen. Opponents succeeded in other cities where they didn't in Brooklyn Park. Our group, "Music to our Ears", the group Steve Lampi and I co-founded and co-led, is willing to take some significant credit for that. At the same time when the bank account runs dry, as it did with the Minnesota Orchestra, it's time to pull the plug.

For that reason a different, better funded partner would be needed. Partners like House of Blues themselves, who were slated to be the managers of the previous venue, would be interesting to have a discussion with.

Again, this is just one idea that we discussed. Is it too big? I don't know but I like to think big and attempt the impossible.

Another thought, perhaps concurrently, would be not only changing but...really changing....the business environment of our city. Attack with gusto the attitudes, ordinances, fees and how we do everything relating to attracting new business to Brooklyn Park. I'm not talking about staff replacements (although that would be necessary if they failed to implement the new policies as directed and with that same gusto), I'm talking about a top-down change in direction from our city council.

There is no reason Brooklyn Park can't be the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities". None at all. But it isn't going to happen with just talk, it requires action - immediate action. And it takes leadership by our new mayor and every city council member. Those not wanting to go along with the program, those who have historically been anti-business, should be ignored. It's time to get it done. Now, not next year, not this fall, but starting immediately.

Imagine what Brooklyn Park could look like over the next five to ten years as we bring in significant jobs. You want restaurants? This would do it. Good daytime jobs would create lunch business for restaurants. Daytime jobs would also create opportunities for peripheral businesses. Together these new opportunities would general more jobs, especially for the youth in our community.

Now add a Performing Arts Center next to the Target Campus and we have a thriving area with good daytime jobs, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses. The State of Minnesota would be forced to complete Highway 610. The City would have millions more in tax revenues.

All of that came from one fifteen minute phone call. Well, the Performing Arts Center side of this discussion anyway.

We need action. If you're like me you're tired of watching the council agenda and yawning. Another gas station, big deal. Like we really need a Kwik Trip.

I don't know if the PAC idea is a winner or not, I do know that the business side of this discussion is, though. What I don't know is if our council really has the will to make it happen. I've spoken with a few, including our new mayor, and they say they are.

What I fear is that as a new mayor begins he gets overwhelmed by the minutea, then beat down by the every day regular agenda items and doesn't leave time for the leadership necessary to make something this big happen. I know that's what I've seen with most council members. The packet shows up Thursday night, it's big and thick, they wade their way through it and the ideas, the big ideas where actual leadership is necessary, moves to the back seat. The big ideas are lost in the shuffle of life.

And that's where you and I come in. We're the Post-It Notes for Politicians. We're the reminders in the calendar. We're the occasional "pest", the pop-up window that drives us a little crazy but is still necessary to keep us on task.

If they won't lead, we need to. Will you help? Will you be the reminder your council and mayor needs to make this happen? Let me know. PAC? The "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities"? Both? Another idea? I really would love to hear.

Brooklyn Park: Are you a "restorer"?

2011-05-20T07:15:00.003-05:00

For the past two and a half years I've been part of the Brooklyn Park Mayor's Prayer Breakfast committee. It's been an incredible experience working to bring together people of faith in our community, along with challenging all of us to continue to work together for a better Brooklyn Park through faith and unity.

Last night I was unable to attend our meeting and think I missed something. This morning our Chair, Pastor Steve Larson, emailed the following passage from a book that describes how I believe each person on the committee feels about our city. This diverse group of people from a variety of Christian traditions work hard to present an event that is both a blessing to our community but also a challenge to each person personally. I wanted to share it with you and hope you feel the same way about helping to restore our community. I think it describes most of the volunteers I've known and gotten to know over the past several months following the passing of our friend.

RESTORERS

I've observed a new generation of Christians who feel empowered. Restorers exhibit the mind-set, humility, and commitment that seem destined to rejuvenate the momentum of the faith. They have a peculiar way of thinking, being, and doing that is radically different from previous generations. Telling others about Jesus is important, but conversion isn't their only motive. Their mission is to infuse the world with beauty, grace, justice, and love.

I call them restorers because they envision the world as it was meant to be and they
work toward that vision. Restorers seek to mend earth's brokenness. They recognize
that the world will not be completely healed until Christ's return, but they believe that the
process begins now as we partner with God. Through sowing seeds of restoration, they
believe others will see Christ through us and the Christian faith will reap a much larger
harvest.

They are purposeful about their careers and generous with their time and possessions.
They don't separate from the world or blend in; rather, they thoughtfully engage. Fully
aware of the seachange under way, they are optimistic that God is on the move-doing
something unique in our time.

They possess away of following Jesus that is radically different from the others I've
described. And they may carry the most hope for the future credibility of the entire
Christian movement in the West. It combines the best of both expressions (both
Separatist and Cultural Christians do have strengths) but adds an entirely new ingredient that makes their faith come alive: restoration.

The perspective they exhibit is not anew Christian idea; it's actually quite old. But what's
fascinating to see is how they have latched onto one concept in particular and applied
it in every area of their life. Their faith activity isn't restricted to "religious" activities, but
carries over into every day of the week and each aspect of their careers, relationships,
and social lives.

I finished my presentation at Lionsgate wondering if I had been of any help to Haley and
her team. Perhaps my presentation forced me to organize these categories in my head
more than it helped their team gear up for anew marketing campaign. The categories
I gave her described how Christians in America were relating to culture in the midst of
a seismic culture shift. I am sure they weren't perfect, but they expressed a sentiment
about which I was convinced.

The way many were relating to culture had hurt our faith's image and, more important,
impeded the Christian mission. But as anew generation was rising up, many of
them were taking a different path. Determined not to become another punch line in
the Christian parody, these faithful followers are committed to writing a compelling
restorative narrative.

Lyons, Gabe, The Next Christians, The Good News about the end of Christian America.
New York: Doudleday, 2010. (Pgs 47-480

Harmon Killebrew: The Gentle Killer has left the Park

2011-05-17T11:18:00.000-05:00

The Gentle Killer has left the park
June 29, 1936 - May 17, 2011

Two people are most influential in my love for baseball. First, my grandma. From my earliest days she took me to Twins games from the East Side of Saint Paul to see our team. By bus, sometimes by cab, we'd make our way to Bloomington to watch Rod, Cesar, and the rest of our favorite players.

The other is Harmon Killebrew. Always an absolutely gentleman, Harmon was the kind of player my grandma wanted me to be like. A hard player, but never letting it go to his head. He was just a regular guy.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of spending 20-25 minutes just talking to Harmon on the floor of the Metrodome. Both of us were manning a booth during the Minnesota Golf Show and it was a down time. During our conversation we talked about all sorts of things, none of which included baseball. We were just two guys talking.

Harmon was just a regular guy who liked people. Today baseball, and the Twins, have lost a true great. Not just a great player but more importantly a great person.

Guest Column: Brooklyn Park's Community Engagement Initiative

2011-05-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

Hello Brooklyn Parkers!

John has graciously given me some space on his blog to talk about the Community Engagement Initiative that was so important to our late Mayor Steve Lampi.

In the Fall of 2009 the City held several Community Cafés to get input from residents, business owners and other stakeholders on what we would like to see happen to ensure one of the City Council’s goals in ensuring stable neighborhoods in Brooklyn Park. Over 400 people participated.

Next in January 2010 a group of 32 city staff, residents, educators and business owners were called together to form the Brooklyn Park Core Planning Team. After 36 hours of meetings, the Core Team developed the new mission and core values statements for the community focused around the Community Cafés input. These were developed by consensus, meaning every one of those individuals pledged to publicly and privately support those statements by their actions and words. The Core Team included the Chief of Police, City Manager, Mayor, and Two Council Members.

During 2010 Action and Measurement Teams were put in place and they developed Action Plans to get us to our mission, “Brooklyn Park, a thriving community inspiring pride where opportunities exist for all.” They focused around our three strategies, Resources, Youth and Diversity.

Finally in November 2010 the Core Team suggested to the City Council that they adopt the new mission, core value statements, strategies and action plans. The Council unanimously accepted the Core Team’s Suggestions.

What has happened since then?

In January 2011 applications became available for community members to join the Action Teams. The deadline was supposed to be February, but that was extended to increase the marketing and recruitment efforts so more residents could become involved. Then the unfortunate thing happened, Mayor Lampi, the person who put the wind in the sails of the project became terminally ill with cancer, passed away and then our city underwent an exhausting special election.

This leads us to today… Here we are a few weeks after all these events and our city is beginning to heal and move forward. Part of this process needs to include you as a resident, business owner, educator, or parent stepping up to put the wind back in the sails of the Community Engagement Initiative and move this vital program forward so we can ensure stable neighborhoods here in Brooklyn Park.

If you are interested in volunteering to be part of this powerful program along with me, please go to http://www.brooklynpark.org/CEI fill out an application and return it to City Hall today. Do you have questions about the CEI? You can call Chief of Police, Mike Davis at 763-493-8201, City Manager Jamie Verbrugge at 763-493-8002 or Special Events Coordinator Denise Rene Wollenburg at 763-493-8154.

One of the Core Value Statements that resonates most with me is, “We believe that community thrives when each individual takes responsibility to contribute.” If you don’t feel the Community Engagement Initiative is the thing for you to get involved with, I ask you do something so simple as to reach our your neighbors and learn about them, volunteer a few hours at a local school, church, nursing home or other organization. Brooklyn Park is full of volunteer opportunities waiting for you!

GOP Redistricting Plan for Brooklyn Park is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG

2011-05-10T08:14:00.001-05:00

Brooklyn Park, what do you have in common with Keith Ellison and the 5th Congressional District? Absolutely nothing. Yet according to the current Republican Congressional Redistricting proposal a portion of our city is being abandoned to the 5th.

Looking at the map below you will see how the area south of the red line is being cut out of the Third District and out of Brooklyn Park and sent to the no-representation land of the Fifth.

Can anyone seriously believe that the representation elected by the people of the City of Minneapolis will ever care one wit about this small section of a suburban community like Brooklyn Park? Our concerns will NEVER be considered, our voice will NEVER be heard. The fact is, the people in Brooklyn Park who will be tossed into this no-man's land will have no need to vote in Congressional races for ten years. Our vote will no longer matter and our voices will be disenfranchised.

Why are we being red-lined? Why are we being profiled? Where are our State Representatives? Rep. Melissa Hortman is on the committee, where is she? Rep. Mike Nelson - where is he? Where is our State Senator, Linda Scheid? This isn't an issue of putting 663,000 people into all eight districts, this is bigger than that. This plan is simply wrong and needs to be stopped, by a lawsuit if necessary.

The person in charge if this awful redistricting plan is Rep. Sarah Anderson. For the purposes of full disclosure, Sarah is a wonderful person and ran my first campaign for State Representitive back in 2002. However, in the case of this plan they've made a mistake without taking into consideration our entire community.

It's time for ALL Brooklyn Park residents to write to Sarah and save the representation and meaning to our votes. She can be reached here:

Sarah Anderson (R)
549 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-5511
E-mail: rep.sarah.anderson@house.mn

The rest of the committee is here.

Brooklyn Park City Prosecutor: Soft on domestic abuse, crime

2011-05-09T08:14:00.000-05:00

One of the ways I've suggested we can improve the business climate of Brooklyn Park is to begin taking crime more seriously. Brooklyn Park needs to develop a Wisconsin-like reputation for a completely lack of tolerance for crime of any kind.

One of the solutions I've calls for is the dismissal of our current City Prosecutor. This 20-year city prosecutor is one of the biggest problems we have in this city in not turning crime into something criminals fear committing within our borders. Too long in the office, he's lost his compass, his ability to tell the difference between a criminal and a victim, and has gone completely soft on real crime in our city.

More evidence from a recent MinnPost.com article where he's been shown to be the single most lenient when it comes to domestic abuse. According to this article at MinnPost.com:

Brooklyn Park had the single largest number of continuances for dismissal at 133 — beating Minneapolis’ 107 and tripling the next highest suburban city count: St. Louis Park at 46.

City Manager Jamie Verbrugge says there have been talks between Brookyn Park’s Chief of Police Michael Davis, who Verbrugge says is passionate about the issue, and prosecutor Roger Fellows, who the city has contracted with for more than 20 years. “There’s a desire to see less of these settlements. There’s a concern that they are not providing encouragement for the behavior change we’re looking for.”

I have to tell you that domestic abuse makes me sick. It is the single most cowardly crime someone can commit, in my opinion. The idea that any prosecutor would be soft on the abuse of a spouse or child just makes me want to throw up.

There is no excuse for plea bargaining on any case where some overbearing thug is beating his wife. Anyone who does this should be making license plates for as long as we can convince a judge to make them do so.

To be clear, I understand that not everyone who claims abuse was abused. And not every person accused of abuse did it. A prosecutor needs to have the wisdom to understand the difference (and based on his past actions in other cases I am familiar with, he doesn't have that basic common sense). I also understand there are times when he's got to pick the battles where he's got the evidence and can prove the case.

My point is that statistics don't lie. Soft on crime is no longer the reputation our city needs. We need a new reputation, from top to bottom, that we just aren't going to put up with crime anymore. Want to beat your wife, take it someplace else (better yet, stop being a jerk and don't do it). Want to rob a store, don't even think about it because we're never again going to plea bargain such a case, you're going to jail - the first time.

In the end, this guy's just been in this office for too long. I'm not sure if he's bored, jaded or just plain incompetent. Whatever the case, it's time to make the change.

D's Family Pizza (Albertville): It was well, Tasty Pizza

2011-05-07T18:53:00.002-05:00

We decided to risk it all tonight to drive up and try the new restaurant owned by two former Brooklyn Park city council members, council members this space was not overly happy with some years ago. But as I wrote a week or two back, pizza and politics don't match; pizza transcents politics.

Late this afternoon my trophy wife and I drove to Albertville to visit D's Family Pizza. Not knowing what to expect when we arrived, we were steeled for anything from "we don't want to serve you" to "good to see you" (although I really didn't expect the latter).

We parked off to the side, out of sight of the restaurant windows in order to enter by surprise. When we entered there was Scott Draeger, the last of the Draeger council members. I think both of us were surprised. Scott gave a friendly "hey, how's it going?" (or words similar). Everyone in the back started looking toward the front to see the old nemesis they figured would one day walk in their door. Today was that day.

Seated at one of the 5-6 tables, we were greeted by server Emily. I think she's Scott's daughter. Emily was an excellent server - friendly, attentive, engaging - all without being overbearing like some servers can be. In short, one of the best servers we've ever had. A model for others to emulate.

We asked if the pizza was the same as it was here in Brooklyn Park and she confirmed that it was. Now I absolutely could not wait to get my food.

I ordered a small saugage pizza (is there any other kind?), my bride got the Club Wrap. Since I didn't eat the wrap all I can do is report that it was really big, filling and good, according to she who ate it.

The pizza was, well, ooh-la-la. It was a flash back to Tasty of old, both here in Brooklyn Park and in Blaine (before that location took a decidedly downward turn when it sold to the Broadway Pizza franchise chain). For the next fifteen minutes I was back in 1996, on Zane Ave sitting in the first booth to the right, savering the tasty Tasty pizza we used to know, love and almost worship.

The restaurant itself is new, bright, clean but small for dine-in eating. Their clear intent is for local delivery and pick up traffic. Yet for us road-trip pizza lovers yearning for a shot of flashback delight, there's plenty of space and comfort to enjoy our old love.

A bit overdone? Not a chance. Remember, the pizza was made by someone who kept "unliking" me from their Facebook page. If I didn't like it, if what I'm saying wasn't true, I would have had every reason to say so. But I can't lie, it was simply incredible pizza and we intend to go back.

If you're going shopping in Albertville, are passing through, or like me, are willing to drive any distance for a good light-cheese sausage pie, this pizza snob wholeheartedly recommends D's Family Pizza in Albertville. Now if we can only get them to expand and bring one back to Brooklyn Park.

Shopping for plants or flowers this weekend? Help TreeHouse while you shop

2011-05-05T15:45:00.000-05:00

If you haven't noticed, I love TreeHouse. When I see that they're doing a fundraiser in Brooklyn Park, you're going to see it here.

This weekend, do your shopping at a Linder's Greenhouse, Garden Center or Flower Mart and 15% of your pre-tax total purchase will go to TreeHouse to support their work with at-risk youth.

YOU MUST USE THE COUPON BELOW when shopping to make sure they get credit. Click the coupon, print it out and take it in. Then spend like a wild man to help TreeHouse.

Visit Linders.com for their locations. The coupon is good from May 6-9.

TreeHouse information:

TreeHouse is a faith-based organization offering hope, guidance and unconditional love to at-risk teens dealing with issues such as depression/suicidal tendencies, substance abuse, truancy, self-injury and sexual activity. Our balanced programs meet the social, emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual needs of at-risk teens. TreeHouse provides a safe environment and mentorship for teens to receive support, guidance and practical skills in making better choices today to live as healthy adults tomorrow. TreeHouse serves over 1,500 youth annually in the Twin Cities, spanning 15 different school districts and 22 communities.

Brooklyn Park Business Growth: Our Responsibility, a new Our Brooklyn Park program

2011-05-05T07:59:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn Park is a city of hope, a city of possibilities, a city of what could be if we make some simple changes to attitudes, how we treat businesses and how we view crime. With over 70,000 people we are also a city that should be able to support existing businesses without them worrying about going out of business.

The last leg of the three changes our city needs to make is a change by residents. That means you and me, not everyone else.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard and read "we need more restaurants". All the while restaurants we've had over the years - good restaurants - have closed their doors. Restaurants don't close or move because they're having success, they close because the locals aren't supporting them. So while people are clammering for "more restaurants" we're not supporting the restaurants we have.

Did you know we used to have a Key's Restaurant? It was really good, as are most Key's. It was in the same place that Sherwin Williams Paint is located at 85th and West Broadway. Did you know we used to have a Ponderosa Steakhouse? It's where the Smile Center Dental is in front of Rocky Rococo's (and when they closed Key's moved there).

We've had Zippy's, Tasty's, Big B's, and other pizza places. We've had many other restaurants that have come and gone.

And it's not just restaurants, it's other businesses. Lane's Hardware, right in the heart of the action at Zane Ave and Brooklyn Blvd, closed. In a city our size there's no reason a local hardware store can't make it. Sure, I understand we have Menard's, Fleet Farm and Home Depot but that's not the point. I look at every one of us and blame us for Tom, the owner of Lane's Hardware, not making it.

When speaking to Mayor Lampi about this very issue last fall we discussed Lane's Hardware. we both had to admit that we would go there to buy the odd screw or nut but never for the large things. I didn't even think about them when I bought my new snowblower. Given that I bought it at another local-type hardware store, I look back with a degree of embarrassment that I didn't visit there first.

And that's the point, isn't it? That in a city of 70,000 people there's no reason a quality local store like Lane's or a good restaurant like Key's can't make it here.

So this leads to the real point of today's blog post, the third of three on what needs to happen to really make Brooklyn Park successful. The real point is a change in our personal attitudes toward our own city and our own businesses.

We need to think local. Not in the Whole Foods-shopping, "ride the choo-choo"-touting, environmentally-kooky way. Instead it's about community pride. When thinking about going out for dinner we need to ask ourselves, is there a restaurant in Brooklyn Park we could visit tonight? When going to look at a snowblower or lawn mower, is there someplace in our city that could offer this to me (Cherokee Hardware, for instance)?

I'm not naive to think we can or should do all our shopping here because we don't have everything we need or want. But imagine with me what would happen if every one of us increased our local dollar spend by just 20%. Even just 10%. The success of local businesses would explode and the newspapers would be writing articles about how Brooklyn Park was really supporting their local people. Word would get out and new businesses would be attracted.

In other words, YOU have a direct impact on the future of business growth in our city. YOU can impact change on new businesses deciding to come here. If you want new restaurants in Brooklyn Park, support the one's you have right now. If you want more jobs and businesses in Brooklyn Park, support the businesses that are here right now.

When we decide to start doing that - really start doing that on purpose - we will see job growth, we'll see business expansion, we'll see new restaurants.

One other related side note. Our city needs to emulate what Maple Grove does with their website. We need to promote our businesses more. Visit their website and look at the left hand navigation area. Listed are menu options for Restaurants and Shopping. Click on Restaurants and there's a list, with link to a website, address and phone number. Click on Shopping and you get a list of centers, under which are lists of the stores with links and phone numbers. Maple Grove is business-friendly and they're promoting their businesses. There's no reason the City of Brooklyn Park can't be doing this and promoting it on their home page.

Imagine a program called "Our Brooklyn Park" with window stickers at local businesses, those that are offering specials to BP residents. Imagine window stickers on our cars saying we support "Our Brooklyn Park". Imagine a city website section devoted to businesses that are part of the Our Brooklyn Park program. We could promote it in utility bills, in the Park Pages, on the city website, on Channel 12, in the Sun Post. Every participating business could promote it in their stores, on their websites and in their advertising. There wouldn't need to be much of a cost to be part of it, it would just be something a business would sign up for on a page within the "Our Brooklyn Park" section.

I would be willing to donate, free, the domain name "OurBrooklynPark.com" to such an effort because I believe in it.

This is Our Brooklyn Park. It's our responsibility to take care of it, nurture it, support it, promote it and protect it.

In the end major changes need to occur. It's an attitude thing for each of us. We as a city need to decide that we not only want new business but we need it for our future success. Success as a business community means more jobs, more good jobs as well as more entry level jobs. Together that means financially successful families, financially stable households, youth who are employed and off the streets, all of which turns into less crime.

We need to change our attitude to include confidence in our city. If you're like me you're tired of the negative press and comments people make about our city. It's time to defend ourselves instead of putting up with it or even agreeing. New Mayor Jeff Lunde was exactly right when, at the Village Child candidate forum, he said "we lack confidence in our city, we need to change our attitude".

We also need to make the changes that will alter the perceptions. Crime has to go and that means changing our attitudes toward criminals. No more Mister Niceguy, no more plea bargains, no more messing around. It's time for a change in the City Prosecutor office because this guy has been part of the problem.

And lastly we need to take it upon ourselves to do more business in Brooklyn Park. It's something all of us can do and must do to have an impact. I believe that if we could get just 10% of us to commit to doing as much business as we can right here the impact would be enormous. Will you commit to that?

Changes are possible. Changes are necessary. I'm committed to these changes but can't do it without you.

Brooklyn Park Business Growth: Time to take crime seriously. Seriously.

2011-05-04T07:43:00.001-05:00

In my previous blog post I spoke about how Brooklyn Park needs to change their attitude toward business. From regulations, fees and attitudes, we need to prepare ourselves - now - to be ready for an economic recovery. Once the recovery begins in earnest we need to have our ducks in a row to become the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities".

Another important leg to this stool is crime. We have talked about crime in Brooklyn Park since the beginning of time. We have a Crime Prevention Association, we're a leader in National Night Out, we've built a new police station near the heart of crime in our city and statistics seem to show improvement. After all that we still lead in crime when compared to similar cities.

According to an email I received yesterday the new businesses at Xerxes and 85th have almost all been robbed, some at knife point. There still appears to be no fear by thugs and criminals to pull up and just rob someone or some business.

Why is that?

I contend it's because we've not treated the criminal the way we should. We plea bargain, we give them mercy, or in some cases, we even abuse the victims. The fact is, the Brooklyn Park city prosecutor has not done our city any favors in how he operates in our city. He's weak on crime.

Criminals need to fear Brooklyn Park. They need to know that if you commit a crime in Brooklyn Park we're not only throwing the book at you we're going to shred the book and stuff it down your crime-committing throat.

You've driven in Wisconsin, right? As you do you tend to watch your driving a little more closely than you might in other places. Why do you do that? It's because you know the reputation of Wisconcin state troopers. You know there is no mercy for speeding. You know that if you're busted in Wisconsin that you're going to pay and you're going to pay cash. No exceptions. No messing around.

That's the reputation we need to develop here. If you commit a crime here you don't get a second chance. On your first offense we're going to the mattresses with you. You will be charged, you will be convicted and if it's the last thing we do you're going to serve as much time as we can legally get you. If you want to commit a crime, do it somewhere else because we're going to go all Jack Bauer on you if you do it here.

In other words, no more Mister Niceguy.

It's time to dump the current city prosecutor in favor of one with some wisdom, some courage and some toughness. The current one has a hard time sometimes telling the difference between a criminal who threatens law-abiding citizens and one who is the victim of that criminal. I saw it personally where this city prosecutor charged the victim of a crime because the criminal made stuff up about them and he couldn't tell the difference. Not only do residents of our city have something to fear in turning in crimes, we have a prosecutor who doesn't have the brains to tell the difference.

If we're going to grow our business we need to take crime prevention seriously. Not more seriously, but seriously. It's time for the gloves to come off and seriously get tough on crime. We don't need programs, we don't need classes, we don't need to "understand" them and we sure don't need to give them a group hug. We need to grab criminals by the virtual neck and throw their carcass in the slammer for as long as we can. Let them make big ones into little ones for a while and see if they like it.

When we decide as a city to really take this issue seriously we'll start to see new business, especially retail, begin to return. When we decide that happy neighborhood parties on one night in August isn't the answer to stopping robberies at businesses, we'll start to succeed. We need to try new things, new technologies, ideas that are working in other areas. The recent KMSP story about crime tracking is just the beginning, a good start.

In the end, it's more than parties and technology (both good), it's developing a reputation among the criminal community. If you're not prepared to do real, hard time, don't do the crime in Brooklyn Park. If you're not prepared to be treated like an uneducated, non-human, criminal thug piece of crap that we're going to run up the judicial flagpole until you're so chaffed you'll never want to come back, then don't commit crimes here. When we finally decide that this is going to be our attitude, business growth will start to happen.

Crime is serious. It's a serious issue. Start with a new city prosecutor, then a new attitude. And fire Mister Niceguy, he's not done us any good.

New Mayor Jeff Lunde interviewed on Channel 12 News

2011-05-03T15:16:00.001-05:00

Don't miss the Channel 12 interview with new Brooklyn Park mayor Jeff Lunde.

If you watch closely you'll see yours truly shaking the new mayor's hand as he comes into city hall late Saturday night (not that this is a big Chris Matthews 'thrill up your leg' moment).

What I think it awesome is the discussion of the Meet the Candidate Night. I'm convinced we have started not only a new tradition for Brooklyn Park elections but perhaps something that will be emulated in other cities around the state.

It's time for Brooklyn Park to become the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities"

2011-05-02T08:24:00.000-05:00

To be blunt, it's time for us to get moving. The election is over and now there is serious work to be done. Not just moving "forward", but to put this thing in high gear and move faster than we've ever done before.

While it may not seem like it our economy will recover. There will be expansion again. New jobs will be created, businesses will build new locations and we as a city need to be ready.

Despite what we would hope, and there's no disrespect intended for any current city staff, we are not prepared. We continue to live in a city that holds the same attitude we've had for twenty years. That attitude has been that of "you want to build here? We'll see...." And then beat them up for one more design element, we insist on a certain color, we hold out for more because we think we can get it or think we deserve it. I sat on our Planning Commission, I've seen it.

The results of that attitude? Empty fields.

Look at the empty fields near Highway 610 and Zane Avenue. Roads are built, stop lights are installed, and the field that used to be the golf driving range sits growing weeds. Today is should be a bustling area with a Walmart Super Center surrounded by a number of other businesses.

Look at the huge, abandoned area west of the Target Campus. That should be a vibrant performing arts center surrounded by restaurants, hotels and other businesses. This was the result of these attitudes on steriods, and you have council member Jeanette Meyer to thank for what we see there today.

We should have three TCF Banks instead of one. Instead I'm told we wanted "green" roofs.

We force new businesses to overspend. We harass new businesses to do things simply because "we" like the look better "that" way. We harass businesses because their outdoor storage is piled one foot too high.

After all that, and dozens of other examples, we wonder why other cities have all the restaurants or jobs.

We are a city of over 70,000 people and every one of us of us leaves our city, the sixth largest in the State of Minnesota, to get a burger or a pizza. We have one local hardware store left, the other closed up shop and kept their Champlin location. He was right in the heart of our city and should have had no problem succeeding.

Boyd Morson was right about one thing, we don't have a "fine dining" restaurant. While he's right that we don't have such an establishment he could never address the reasons for it. I will.

It's not just restaurants, it's jobs in general. Our city is a place where we get out of bed, we get ready for work, we get in our car and we drive to work - someplace else. It's a very low percentage of Brooklyn Park residents who actually work in Brooklyn Park.

I want you to go with me on this for a few minutes...

Imagine a city that is business-friendly. Not in a way that just bends over and with blinders on gives in to the whim of any business desire. Not in a way that's unsafe to the community or customers. But in a way that has the attitude that good jobs in a community are good for the community. In a way that good jobs create other jobs, and those jobs help prevent crime by keeping youth off the streets.

Billy Bishop says Maple Grove's crime rate is better than Brooklyn Park. Well, it is. Maple Grove has a business-friendly environment that has given them a vibrant job environment. Clearly they have a different, more advantageous geographical area than we do but that's not what made them successful.

If you compare Twin Cities business hotspots with their crime rates - Woodbury, Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Maple Grove, etc - you will find they have two things in common. They're business-friendly and they have low crime rates. I would suggest the two go together.

Imagine a Brooklyn Park who changed their attitude from that of "we deserve the best" to "we need jobs and businesses so we're going to do what it takes to bring you here". Imagine a Planning Commission that didn't beat up businesses wanting to come here but truly, in attitude and deed, helped them do so. Imagine a city council who desperately wanted to turn our city from drive-through territory to the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities", the fastest growing, most successful, most business-friendly city in the Seven County area. Imagine our business development staff being able to sell our city in a new way, being able to tell the story of a business-friendly renaissance that's happening in our city.

Now imagine new jobs coming to our city and building in areas that today are fields of weeds, in the Boone Avenue area, or other potential business zones. I'm not talking fast food, but GOOD jobs. Day time jobs paying solid wages with good benefits. Read the business section or business magazines, these jobs do exist and they do move to new locations every day. We can have a piece of this action but not until we change our attitude, our regulations, our ordinances and, in some cases, our elected officials.

Imagine we've made those changes and businesses start to come. What happens? Those new daytime workers need to eat so new restaurants will come. Sure, some will be fast food but others will be nice sit-down restaurants. Why will they wait? Because we don't currently have the daytime traffic for them. But give them that daytime traffic and they'll be clammering to build here.

Who do you think those restaurants and secondary businesses employ? Young people. Lower income people. People needing second jobs.

Effects of this success? Lower crime, higher tax revenues, money saved by homeowners, money saved in the city budget.

Is all this simplistic? You bet it is. There is clearly more to all this than a simple plan. But if we don't do the simple things we'll never get to the hard stuff. We have to start somewhere. We have to start some time.

So where do we start?

This weekend we elected the right person to be our mayor. He believes these things as I do. I know a few other city council members do, too, because I've spoken with them. The others had better get on board with this or they're gonig to be run over and sent out to pasture. 65% of the votes placed on Saturday were from candidates who are business-friendly.

As taxpayers, as residents of Brooklyn Park, as city volunteers and activists - we need to force our City Council to make these changes. Now. Today.

The first thing that has to happen is a Manhattan Project for Brooklyn Park Business. It needs to be a Mayor-appointed committee of business people. By this I mean people who have built businesses here and elsewhere, people who have been through our processes, people who understand business growth, development and recruitment. It cannot be a city-centric committee, one controlled by city staff.

Not because I don't trust them but because they understandably bring their biases and comfort to the table instead of the interests of those who have seen the process from outside City Hall. At the same time, this committee needs to have full access to city staff and their investigative tools and services. It needs to have the full cooperation of the City Council and other city committees as needed.

The charge of this committee needs to be to investigate the successes of other cities in the metro area that are similar in nature, size and geography to Brooklyn Park. Find out others who have been successful, find out why, what their ordinances and regulations are like, how it affects business growth and recruitment, and compare to ours. Study our history. Study who came calling and why they didn't move or develop here. Figure out our successes and why we were successful. Figure out our failures and see where those businesses move to and why. Interview commercial developers and get a handle on our reputation and why we have it. Get to know from them who has a good reputation and why they have it. Then talk to them and learn all they can from them.

After all that bring a comprehensive report with recommendations to the City Council. Recommendations on tax policies, regulations, attitudes, recruitment, reputation, etc. Then make the changes. Instruct our city staff to make it happen, to change the attitudes within City Hall, and to implement the plan. If they don't, find people who will. We need to change.

As the economy recovers we need to be ready. If we're not ready then we're behind. This committee needs to begin immediately so as expansion is move again our plans, our changes, are in place. Delay is not an option.

Brooklyn Park has the land, it has the people, it has Highway 610, and it has the will - if we make it happen - to become the "Sioux Falls of the Twin Cities". It is good for taxes, it is good for crime prevention, it is good for families to have good jobs, it is good for youth, it is good for those among us with lower incomes, it is good for those who need second jobs. The fact is, there is no one this isn't good for.

To borrow a line from my pastor. "life is meant to be an adventure". Brooklyn Park needs to embark on this new adventure. Now. Without delay. Our future as a city depends on it, and it's time.

If you've known me for any amount of time, if you've been a reader of my blog, you know I am a person of ideas and action. It's what I do in business and it's what I've done in all my years of public involvement in Brooklyn Park. The Meet the Candidate Night started as an idea here and three weeks later we had all twelve candidates, three community group sponsors, major promotion and 350 residents showing up. When I say something is going to happen, I'm going to put my well-worn nose to the grind stone and it's going to happen.

This needs to happen but it's going to take the help of every city volunteer, every OurBrooklynPark.com reader. Contact your city council members. Push them. If they won't cooperate, let me know and I'll publish it here. If they say they're "in", let me know that, too. I want "on the record" information on every council member as to their being on board with this idea.

Together we can move our city forward with lightning speed. Change needs to happen and it starts with each of us.

In the next several days I will address two other important areas related to what we need to do at the city level. There are going to be responsibilities on both the current city business owners as well as residents. I'll outline those later this week.

Brooklyn Park Mayoral Race: The Final Word

2011-05-01T14:06:00.001-05:00

Going into the Brooklyn Park Special Election I could think of at least ten different scenerios that could have taken place. There were cases to be made for a Lunde win, a Pistilli win, a Russell win, even a win by Meyer or Morson. But in the end, and as I wrote about earlier, the Lunde scenerio was the one that made the most political sense. He had the most recent citywide name recognition, he had the political party endorsement, and he was on his game at the most recent candidate forums (especially the televised one that was played over and over again).

With the results from last night there are a number of lessons to be learned as well as reasons some candidates did well, or better than expected, and why some didn't do as well as some had hoped. It's really a study in an unusual election, both in the suddenness, in the shortness of the campaign as well as the idea of twelve candidates in a race without a primary.

This race brought a number of very interesting dynamics, from party politics to a sideshow between a two black candidates, one a Liberian and the other using race to try and cater to skin color to appeal for votes. We had one appealing to virtually 100% fear, another appealing to his vast previous experience, and another simply wanting to move over one chair for cash or ego.

Putting all that together it's a race that really should be studied in college political science classes for years to come. To this day I do not understand the concept of putting one's name on a ballot but then refusing to participate in candidate forums, put up signs, do literature drops or really do much of anything except offer a website. Laurie Hilgers was probably the most fringe candidate in the race. Not wanting to bend to "man's rules" (the reason I heard), she refused to participate in both the Village Child forum or the North Hennepin Chamber/League of Women Voters forums. She did participate in the Meet the Candidate Night, however. She refused to answer our candidate survey. From what I've been told by those who spoke to her at the Meet the Candidate night she was not very informed about city issues. In reading her website, though, city issues weren't on her mind. Instead she was under the impression she had a special message from God for our city, one that she exclusively had been given and was going to be elected to deliver. While, as a Christian I believe many problems could be solved through the exercise pf personal faith, I was under the impression we had a campaign for Mayor, not chief pastor. It was simply an inappropriate campaign in my opinion.

Scott D. Scheid is a candidate I came to like as a person but not as a candidate. He's a nice guy and could have some future in our city. But that future is down the road and is going to take some years of getting involved as a volunteer with city committees. Trust comes with interpersonal experience, not because of one's name. Not claiming that's what he was hoping for, it's just the fact that he's got to earn his own personal trust in Brooklyn Park. I wasn't really surprised with his 121 votes. There were a few signs around the city but I never saw a wide literature distribution or campaign effort. His candidacy was overrun by more powerful, better known candidates.

While his numbers were low, I believe Tait Turnquist could have a future in the city. One of the concerns I heard about him was a set of political beliefs that leaned extremely left (I'll also address this with another candidate). In my conversations with him I didn't see it, nor did I see it on his campaign website. It's really important to separate ones political beliefs from how one deals with city issues. In a lot of circles this was the issue that kept coming up. I'm not sure if he was even aware that this was an issue for him. On a personal note, though, I think he could make for a good future council candidate. He's well-spoken and has a good business background. To me a few years on a city committee or two would help him for a political future.

A lot of people called Joe Tanner "Joe the Comedian". I'm not sure if this was an issue he could have gotten over. In one of the first two forums, I can't remember which, he was a bit defensive about it yet handled it fairly well. In the voters minds, though, I'm just not sure they could get past it. One thing I saw online and perhaps others saw was his son's post on the extremely-left-radical Daily Kos website, his son calling for voters to support his "progressive", "union leader" dad. I left it alone yesterday but if anyone saw it like I did it would tend to turn off the largely non-partisan Brooklyn Park voter. While I think Joe's heart was in the right place and I got to like him personally, this kind of background would worry me when it comes to any future council run. His campaign, while having some signs around town, never took off. I don't believe I saw literature for him at my house or others.

As the first returns came in from the first precinct, Billy Bishop had some fairly decent numbers. At the time my comment to others at City Hall was, it looks like Billy Bishop's message may have resinated with a significant amount of voters, maybe the crime issue is still larger than others think. But as the rest of the numbers flowed it because obvious that there was another message to consider - while no one thinks crime isn't an issue, we're tired of our city being viewed as a crime haven, especially when the numbers prove it's improved dramatically over the last several years. The Billy Bishop message of fear was soundly rejected by Brooklyn Park voters and a message of hope, confidence, pride in our community, and a belief that we're better than that. His utter defeat was extremely encouraging to me.

My biggest disappointment came in the Wynfred Russell numbers, That disappointment was not, repeat, not in Wynfred himself. He ran a hard, honest, positive campaign that should have done better. I firmly believe that had this been a normal campaign in a regular campaign season he would have done much better. I believe that he became the sideshow target of a sub-campaign in the Liberian community. Boyd Morson targeted the Liberian community and thought he could appeal to them based solely on the fact he was black. Such a campaign is insulting to the Liberian community and anyone of an African-American background. Morson's campaign appealed to nothing but skin color and a thought that loyalty to that instead of the experience, vision and ideas of a candidate would gain him votes. With each Liberian so-called
"endorsement" they would lie about Russell instead of tout whatever positives they might see in Morson. In the end Russell was a victim of the Morson sideshow and ended up splitting the Liberian vote.

The rest of Russell's support just never materialized. He was very popular among city volunteers, most of whom had a hard time getting over their perception of Jeff Lunde not being able to show up, stay or pay enough attention to committees while he was a council person and working out of town 3-4 nights a week. Sadly the delusion, and I don't mean that badly, was that this support was larger than it really was. When surrounded by the same circle of friends and supporters it's sometimes hard to see the bigger picture that this group of volunteers didn't represent the voters at large. Russell is a quality person, good hearted, community-
minded, and has a desire to help our entire city. Morson henchmen smears can't change those facts. I really hope he stays involved and continues to gain support in Brooklyn Park. He'd make a wonderful council member.

Jim Krautkremer offered himself up as a candidate who had extensive experience and could step in without missing a beat. He's a man with a really big heart for Brooklyn Park. As the campaign proceeded no one I spoke to thought he'd do that well. I did. He was very popular for most of his 18 year stint as mayor and those who are still here from that time period like him. His 556 votes are largely long term residents. Unfortunately for him, most people living in our city today weren't here when he left office two decades ago. I believe this will be his last attempt at political office but hope he gets back involved to share his experience and wisdom.

Voters could not figure out why Jeanette Meyer was running. She never explained her vision or ideas but instead just listed her long resume. In the end, what voters saw was someone who felt entitled by her (too many) years on the council to move over one chair, get the cash and get the title. Voters in Brooklyn Park never go for someone who feels entitled and a 7% result shows it.

I would have been more surprised by the Mark Mata results until I saw him in action at the Meet the Candidate Night. Mark is a "carnival barker", and I don't mean that in a bad way. Really. He is a natural in a business show environment. He'd do very well in the State Fair grand stand with a stand selling kitchenware or the Sham-Wow. He's just very good with a number of people standing around him. During that entire event there wasn't a moment he wasn't surrounded by a good sized (to large) group of people. I think he convinced a number of voters to go his way that evening. Additionally, Mark's business success gave him the resources to spend on this campaign and I believe his mailing went to every household. That alone was worth a number of votes given that most candidates never made it to the entire city.

Tony Pistill owes me a Caribou Coffee. That's just a side note. His candidacy was predicated on voter memory. While a Planning Commission member and then East District council member, Pistilli was very popular. Eight years out on the Met Council, though, took him out of the news and many voters forgot or didn't know who he was. Combining that with Lunde having been the most recent council member as well as most recent city-wide mayoral candidate doomed the Pistilli candidacy. He was very popular among a certain set of GOP supporters, although he had lost the endorsement to Lunde. The nail in the coffin, I think, was missing the televised candidate forum. Had he been there, something I realize was unavoidable for him, I think this would have been a much closer race. In the end, I chalk up the loss to the out of site, out of mind issue.

Jeff Lunde became the candidate who could best represent the Lampi Legacy to voters. He came out immediately saying "this is not a time for change but continuity, to continue with the Lampi Legacy, and to expand upon the business growth efforts that have been made". He was very good at delivering that message, peaking at the televised candidate forum. That forum, being played over and over again, helped him the most. Put that together with having just recently run a city-wide campaign, something Pistilli didn't think was all that big of a deal, gave him the convincing win.

Lastly, Boyd Morson was completely repudiated by the voters of Brooklyn Park. The amount of lying, the placing of signs in illegal locations (over and over again on election day after having been removed several times), the sending henchmen into minority owned businesses to play the race card and make stuff up about Wynfred Russell and our city, and just the fact he was the most unethical candidate our city has ever had could not force voters to give him the title of the leader of our city. After all is said and done, for all the signs, flash-based website (claiming to be the "People's Candidate"), and glossy literature, people were just on to his con. He is done here and should just go home to Detroit. The good people of Brooklyn Park don't want Al Sharpton as their mayor, "leave us alone" was the message to this fraud. I hope he finally sees it and moves along.

There are some very big positives from this election, besides Morson being thoroughly rejected.

The fact that we need a revolution in how we treat business is glaringly obvious. The top three candidates all featured this idea as key planks in their campaigns. Over 65% of the votes went to candidates who believe we need to overhaul our regulations, how we treat current and new businesses and how we recruit new businesses. I made it a big deal when I met with these candidates and had a good discussion late last night with a council member about it. For this blog it's going to become our new theme in the coming weeks as it's so important to every area of our city life.

The city charter needs some tweaking as regards to how special elections are handled. Never again should we have an election with twelve candidates without first having gone through a primary to weed out the less serious. Believe it or not, I've had this discussion with...wait for it...Jeanette Meyer (for those who have known me for any amount of time, you need to pick yourself up off the ground.)

The good people of Brooklyn Park are a wise lot. They saw through both the fraudulent campaign of Boyd Morson as well as the less experienced (but not fraudulent) decent people who just weren't ready to be our leader. Despite a short and sudden campaign "season", they tried very hard to educate themselves to make the right decision. I came away very proud of the people of our city.

We had some excellent people running for office. It was encouraging to see the quality of people who serve our community in so many ways. I made many new friends during this time, many of whom supported varying candidates. In the end we'll all come together now and support our new mayor, just as it should be.

Thanks to each of you who have read this blog over this time. It's been one of the most emotional times of my life, especially with the loss of my friend and our mayor, Steve Lampi. The singular goal of my words have been to find the best candidate who would continue his work. I believe that goal has been accomplished and for that today I feel a great deal of satisfaction and pride, mostly in the people of our city that I've had the pleasure of serving.

Now the work begins, and continues.

Brooklyn Park Mayoral Race: The Results

2011-05-01T08:02:00.001-05:00

While analysis will be forthcoming this afternoon, for the record, the results:

For comparison, the results of our last poll:

Some similarities, some differences. I think the differences are driven by who doesn't read this blog, supporters of Jeanette Meyer (which, if looking at the election results, don't number all that many).

Special Election Live Coverage begins at 8 pm

2011-04-30T18:34:00.000-05:00

I'm hoping to be able to provide live coverage of events as they occur tonight. Since I have no special access I'm uncertain what I'll be able to provide but wanted to make this available if access becomes available. For a while I will be at one of the candidate's events but will make my way to City Hall right after 8 pm to report on results as they're available.

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=8f621d06c7" >Special Election Live Coverage</a>

Results Tonight: Watch Twitter Feed

2011-04-30T11:36:00.002-05:00

I'll be at City Hall tonight reporting the results of the election as they become available. If you're a Twitter user, "Follow" me @BPJohnJordan. Otherwise, watch the Twitter feed in the right column for updates as they become available this evening.

Brooklyn Park Mayoral Race: VOTE TODAY!

2011-04-30T06:23:00.000-05:00

This is one of the most important day in this history of our city. You have a responsibility as a citizen to go to the polls and place your vote for the office of mayor.

If you haven't been keeping up I encourage you to read through the pages of this website before voting. Learn about the candidates, see what they're about, know the facts.

If you're not sure of your polling place visit www.brooklynpark.org for more information.

Polling places open at 7 am and close at 8 pm tonight.

Brooklyn Park Mayoral Race: Come together on one candidate or face the nightmare

2011-04-29T08:04:00.001-05:00

It's the day before the most important Brooklyn Park election in the past twenty five years. To some degree there is the feeling of uncertainty along with moments of cold sweat and fear. Yet every time I sense disquiet, every time worry comes to my mind, these thoughts come to mind:

"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid" - Isaiah 12:2

I believe both in the wisdom of the people of Brooklyn Park as well as a God who protects us.

As stated in my post yesterday, the people of Brooklyn Park have already chosen and their choice is not the path of division and self-service, the path of putting someone on the "Center Stage", or the path of putting into office as our leader one who has so many problems that his own endorsing letters call im "imperfect".

In the beginning of this process the list was sparse and disappointing. But as time went by, as forums occurred, as I got to meet and speak with most of the candidates, I came to believe that we'd been provided with a number of current and future leaders all in one large package. I have come to better understand some, trust some, develop respect for many of them. In this group of twelve are several who we will see down the road as future community leaders. In short, it has been my pleasure, my absolute pleasure, to get to not only meet most of these people but to share my thoughts on them with you.

In the end we must make a choice and hope that this person will be the leader we need to step into the sudden leadership none of them could have imagined three months ago. Last Fall we decided who we wanted as our mayor. That person was the very definition of quiet leadership, a man of fairness and thoughtfulness, and a person of action. For whatever reason God chose to take him home early.

Tomorrow we as a people will now have to make another choice and it's not easy. The choices are many and the qualities are varied.

As I've met with candidates, read their literature, consulted with a large number of community leaders, and given a great deal of thought to their backgrounds, actions, comments, behavior and demeanor, it started to become obvious to me who that choice should be.

Not just a normal election between normal candidates with varying views, we have a candidate who would literally rip us apart at the seams. As a danger to our community it's extremely important to come together and select a good candidate who best represents the successes our former mayor helped give us. It's important that we come together, to not split the vote and give - by default - the election to this con man.

There are several wonderful candidates. The leaders of the pack seem to be Jeff Lunde, Wynfred Russell and Tony Pistilli. Virtually all of my friends have come to choose one of those as well as virtually every community leader I've spoken to or emailed with. Good candidates, all.

Imagine with me if we split our vote between those three what the effect would be; a Boyd Morson win. It is at this point I have to send my mind back to the verse from Isaiah.

We must come together. We can have a candidate who is a gentle leader, humble in spirit, one who has the business background we need, one who has the community experience, one who has the will to not only win but create a win for our community in recruiting new business to our city. We can have a candidate who is about others and not a resume, one who understands that parents are the key to the success of youth and not simply throwing another program at them. And we can have a candidate with the belief that tax dollars are your dollars, not government dollars.

As I made my previous endorsement of Jeff Lunde I made some people angry. Some wrote me emails suggesting my endorsement of Jeff was simply because he was a good parent. Others suggested that Pistilli had a better resume. And others are still concerned over his past job taking him away from the city so much.

The fact of the matter is, we have some excellent candidates in those top three and we'd do well no matter which of them wins. But the most important factor we need to look at is, what happens if we don't come together?

There's hardly a city leader who isn't supporting Lunde. He is the consensus candidate for so many. He has the experience, the temperament, the gentle and humble spirit, and the resume (both business as well as community and political) who can best affect a positive future for Brooklyn Park.

Perhaps he's not your perfect choice. I understand that. No candidate has ever been my perfect choice. In a normal campaign there is no way I'd even attempt to make this case - let the best man win. But this isn't a normal race. 1000 votes will win this election and will almost certainly only win by 20-30 votes. Because this isn't a normal situation we don't have the luxury of multiple quality candidates, we need to come together on just one. And among most, that candidate is Jeff Lunde.

Today I'm asking you to give consideration to the seriousness of the situation. I'm asking you to reconsider the choice you may have already made and give Jeff another thought. Despite both Tony and Wynfred being friends, I believe the future of our city, and the awful possibility of a very bad future if we don't come together, depends on us coalescing around Jeff.

Boyd Morson likes to talk as if he's courageously standing up to the "good ol' boys" (no such thing exists except in his mind). He lies about our city favoring non-minority businesses over those owned by minorities. He has played the race card more and more as the election has come closer. I cannot in my wildest nightmares imagine this Al Sharpton being sworn in and "leading" our city. The thought of this fraud sitting in the middle of our city council literally makes me sick. It would also motivate me to begin, Sunday, a recall movement.

You can prevent all of this, we can prevent it, if we come together. Please, consider again whatever choice you've made. A vote for the lesser candidates (not in their quality but in their viability) is a wasted vote. No offense is intended to any of them, it's just the reality of voting for a fourth party candidate. A vote for Laurie Hilger, Billy Bishop, Scott Scheid, Joe Tenner, Tait Turnquist or even Jeanette Meyer is a vote for Boyd Morson. Yes, that's a tough, almost controversial statement to make but they are - no matter their quality, no matter if they're good people or not (and almost all of them are) - not the most viable candidates in the race. Votes for them are votes to split the field instead of choosing for the one candidate who can make sure the worst nightmare doesn't happen.

The Case against Boyd Morson: The people have already decided

2011-04-28T07:33:00.000-05:00

For the last several days I had been mulling a blog post that would be entitled "The Case against Boyd Morson". There is a long case of dishonesty, promises of unity but actions of division, arrest for "fraud by misrepresentation", the attempted taking of the state human rights board name, mail AND bank account, the attempted taking of his homeowners association name, lies about Detroit, doubts about his residency in Minnesota, doubts that his so-called "nonprofit" does anything, and so much more. I had in mind a summary that would have been worthy of the closing arguments of a Perry Mason episode.

Then I looked at this picture from Tuesday night's Meet the Candidate event:

At that moment I changed my mind. No closing arguments were needed.

Why?

As I sat in Jim Thomsen's chair observing the crowd I watched who they were talking to and who they weren't. This picture represented the attitude Brooklyn Park voters have toward Boyd Morson. He was largely ignored. Sure, some talked to him out of curiosity, that was going to happen. But he was largely the candidate without an audience.

The people of Brooklyn Park know. They know he's a fraud and a con man. They know he's blowing lots of smoke and there's no substance to his propaganda about "unity" and wanting to take "Center Stage" (we don't need a mayor who believes he's got to be the main character of the play, we need a servant-leader).

So I decided to just show the picture instead of making a case. The picture tells the story that replaces the closing argument. My level of confidence in the people of Brooklyn Park has grown immensely after seeing this picture, taken at random.

A couple of side notes about what you see in this picture. Notice the baseball hat. A guy in a suit, trolling for votes, a so-called "leader", wearing a baseball cap. I don't care if it says "Brooklyn Park" on it or not (it should say Detroit Tigers, shouldn't it?), it looked silly and not serious.

The other observation, one that someone pointed out to me and I watched to verify, is that he spent all night whispering to those who'd come to his table. The picture shows it. He spent the night leaning in and talking softly to the resident, speaking very quietly, no one around them could hear what he was telling them.

"Whispers are lies."

That's what this person told me. While every other candidate would talk clearly, loudly enough so others around could hear his answers, Morson made sure no one else could hear what he'd tell a person at his table. As the night went on I watched and sure enough that's what he did in almost every case, leaned in and whispered. Meanwhile you can see Jeff Lunde, Joe Tanner, and just off-camera to the right is Mark Mata, all speaking clearly and loudly to groups around them. No need to hide what they had to say, they wanted people to hear what they were talking about. Morson, keeping it quiet so he could say whatever he wanted. It was really strange.

Whispers are lies. It was such a perfect observation.

The case against Boyd Morson has been made and the good people of Brooklyn Park know. Despite his lie-filled letter to the editor this morning, and the "endorsement" full of non-sense by some failed candidate Tim Davis, the people know. They know he's not qualified to be mayor, council member, or dog catcher (here or Detroit).

I rest my case against Boyd Morson. The people have already decided.

Brooklyn Park Meet the Candidate Night: "Phenomenal" Success

2011-04-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

For a person who clearly has no trouble putting words onto a screen, this morning I do not know where to begin. The Meet the Candidate Night last night was nothing short of spectacular. It's success is not a personal achievement, it is a success that belongs to the people of Brooklyn Park.

Three wonderful groups, without hesitation, gave their support to an event that has never been done before in our city. To my knowledge, such an event has never been done anywhere in the Twin Cities. All the candidates "manning" tables, waiting for voters to come up and shoot unscreened, unmoderated questions at them. The concept seemed simple, as most inventions themselves are, but yet so surprisingly new and refreshing.

Dave Williams, President of the Brooklyn Park Lions, told me that when asked about being part of the event he immediately said "Yes, this is why we exist. Our motto is "We Serve" and that's what we're doing." The Brooklyn Park Women of Today brought several volunteers all ready to do whatever was needed. Pastor Steve Larsen of the Brooklyn Area Ministerial Alliance was there to serve, whatever was needed he was there to do.

When I arrived at about 5:50 pm, 40 minutes before the event, there were probably 15-20 people already there to meet the candidates. One news outlet got the start time wrong. Yet that group of waiting, eager voters was a sign of what was about to happen.

By 6:30 all twelve candidates were in their drawn-by-lot table locations. The room was already buzzing with excitement - strangely odd given that this was an event to meet and grill candidates for Mayor.

By 7:00 the City Council chambers was already full with barely room to walk. It stayed that way for much of the night. People continued to come with one couple walking in at about 8:30 that I hadn't seen in almost thirty years - a man who had been in my wedding and is now pastor of a Brooklyn Park church. On top of it being an awesome event, this helped top off the evening.

KSTP-TV and Channel 12 each sent a crew and another television station discussed it, I'm told.

Terry Parks being interviewed by KSTP-TV

After the event it was decided that the hosting organizations were interested in making this an every-election event. To me that was such an easy decision to make because it was clear that both the candidates and voting public thought it was so useful to them. Starting in 2012 this event will now be held to help voters meet all the candidates in one place. A new Brooklyn Park tradition has begun.

I spoke with nine of the twelve candidates during or after the event and without exception every one of them thought it went extremely well. One sent me an email late last night calling the event "PHENOMENAL".

Natalie and her dad (I promised her I'd post her picture).

The public was hungry for such an event. They are hungry for information about those who'd like to be the next leader of our city. While other forums are good and very much appreciated, giving the public direct one-on-one time with all of the candidates in one room helped so many people whittle down their candidates or helped them solidify their decisions.

How many were there? My best guess is at least 250 and probably more for the entire evening. Had we had more time to promote it I think we could have easily doubled that number. In a normal election I think having signs similar to the Smelt Fry would be helpful.

I was very happy to see the entire Lampi family visit, going to each table to greet the candidates. Also, Steve's sister Sue and her husband where there to visit with those running for her brothers office.

While this event belongs to our entire community, there is a great deal of personal satisfaction. From the beginning it's been my goal - my singular goal - to find the right person, the one who can best carry on the legacy that my friend Steve created in our city.

The writer of the book of Hebrews says that "since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses", alluding to the idea that there are those who have gone before us who can see our actions, I think Steve looked down at his city with pride last night.

One of the greatest compliments even given to me happened as we were leaving last night. Amy Hanson, Wynfred Russell's campaign manager, city volunteer, fellow Planet Fitness member, and friend shook my hand and said "your friend would be proud of you". It took everything I had to not go misty at that moment.

After thinking a lot about that I thought, Steve would have been proud of all of Brooklyn Park last night. Faced with a sudden tragedy twelve community members, most of whom are serious, largely qualified people, stepped up and said "Here am I, send me". The people, in their desire to do what is best, through the auspices of three community organizations said, "we are here to serve". And the residents by the hundreds showed up this cold, rainy night to listen, learn and try to make the best decision they could.

Indeed, Steve is looking down and he is proud of you, Brooklyn Park.

Brooklyn Park Mayoral Race: Meet the Candidate Night is TONIGHT

2011-04-26T07:31:00.001-05:00

In this space three weeks ago tomorrow the idea of a time and place where residents could just come and meet the candidates was born. While other, more formal candidate forums, with moderated questions, was good - and appreciated - it didn't seem to be the best way for voters to meet a field of twelve candidates in the same race.

Fast forward to this evening when all twelve candidates have agreed to appear for two and a half hours, each with their own tables to "man", to meet you, answer your questions, and share their vision for the future of Brooklyn Park.

From 6:30 to 9:00 tonight, in the Council Chambers at City Hall, all twelve want to meet you, shake your hand, discuss your cares and concerns about our city, share their ideas and let you get to know who they are and what they're all about.

Three organizations graciously agreed to host the event, each thinking that this was an important time for our city. They are the Brooklyn Park Women of Today, the Brooklyn Park Lions Club and the Brooklyn Area Ministerial Association. None of them are political but all three represent important segments of residents in our city and wanted to make sure you had this opportunity. Each has worked very hard to promote the event to their constituencies and worked together to help make this the event it will be.

My personal thanks to the following people and organizations who have helped to make this event what it will be:

Channel 12 - They've been very helpful in promoting the event. For the past two weeks they've promoting it with on-air messages twice an hour. They also ran a story on yesterday's broadcast (go to the 21:47 minute mark).

Brooklyn Park Sun Post - They published a front page sidebar last week and place it on the home page of their website last Thursday.

Star Tribune - The Brooklyn Park beat reporter has been very helpful with a Saturday newspaper mention as well as their website. My understanding is that she'll be doing a Twitter tweet today as well.

City of Brooklyn Park - There are a number of people to thank here, from providing the space as well as their promotional help via press releases and the official city website.

Lions, Women of Today and BAMA - When presented with the idea each of them were immediately embraced the idea and supported it with their organizational help. This is a very special thank you to the leadership and members of each of these organizations for stepping up and helping our community in this very important time.

Various other media outlets have given some promotion including KSTP-TV's website. I hope I haven't left anyone out given the lack of sleep over the past few nights.

So we look forward to seeing each of you tonight. Come and meet one or meet all twelve candidates. Ask the hard questions, make them explain why they should earn your vote. In the most important Brooklyn Park election in twenty five years, tonight is extremely important to our collective city future.

Time: Tonight, 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Place: Brooklyn Park City Hall

Wynfred Russell: Endorsement over Morson

2011-04-25T12:16:00.000-05:00

As you know, my candidate is Jeff Lunde. But another of my Top Three is Wynfred Russell. Watching the sideshow created by Boyd Morson attempting to wrest Liberian support away from Russell has been fun to watch.

Today, Russell received a really good endorsement. Here it is:

The Liberians listservs, known for their lively debates, exploded into an even more intense intellectual theatre recently when two leaders of the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota endorsed Boyd Morson, an African-American, for the Brooklyn Park mayoral race, literally throwing Wynfred Russell, their fellow Liberian immigrant, “under the bus”.

As part of a new series, The Liberian Journal (TLJ) will capture some critical moments of the debates, especially highlights of the reactions.

Below Dr. Emmett Dennis reacts to the Russell debate:

It seems like a "no-brainer" to me. I expected every Brooklyn Park resident from Liberia to campaign and vote for Wynfred Russell their fellow Liberian, to be Mayor of this American city in Minnesota. Something historic, I would think. The first ever Liberian to run for such a position.

But then I read about Liberians wanting to vote for a non-Liberian named Boyd Morson on April 30th? What's going on here? Do these Liberians (Richard Sondah, Zubah Kpanaku and others) really believe that a non-Liberian will take care of them better than their own Liberian man?

Aye man, my people! What's wrong with Liberians in Minnesota? I thought we were all "our brother's keepers"? Shouldn't it be about "unity is strength"? Shouldn't it be "we are all in this strange country together" fighting the same battle?

Aye man, Liberians in Minnesota! What's wrong with your [you or you all]?

I would hope ULAA is out there too, financially supporting Wynfred Russell. Look at the bigger picture. A Liberian Mayor in an American city opens the door for other Liberian visionaries to try their luck in other cities throughout the USA as city council leaders, majors [mayors] and then governors. This would bring about more political power for Liberians living in the USA.

It seems like a "no-brainer" to me!!!!!!

Emmett

D's Family Pizza (Albertville): Former BP Council member, Pizza and Politics

2011-04-25T07:58:00.002-05:00

Years ago Brooklyn Park had great pizza. Unlike today, with all the national chain garbage on a crust that they pawn off as "pizza", there was a day when we had a number of fabulous pizza places in our community. As "progress" occurred they all closed with most being overrun by new developments. Pizza places need inexpensive (but safe) locations in which to exist and sadly new developments are always much more expensive. What this has left us with is a dearth of quality pizza in Brooklyn Park.

Today we have a Pizza Hut delivery location, a Papa John's, a Papa Murphy's and two locals, Sammy's and Sweet Taste of Italy. Sammy's is bland, and Sweet Taste is best known for spaghetti (and their model doesn't call for delivery).

Did you know we used to have a Rafferty's? Never heard of them? Visit Brainerd, Nisswa or Crosslake (especially this location) and you'll find their fabulous pizza. Years ago they were in the spot that is now the Comcast office across from North Hennepin College.

Did you know we used to have an Aurelio's? Best lunch buffet on the pizza planet. They took over the Rafferty location. They have one existing Minnesota location in Roseville (we've been going there ever since the BP location closed years ago). They're one of Chicago's largest pizza "chains", locally owned.

Ever heard of Zippy's? Probably not. But they had the best delivery pizza around. I know it's hard to believe but Walgreens and White Castle weren't always there. Previous to the White Castle was an old strip mall where Zippy's was based. Out front was a restaurant called Gordon's in the Park (you don't think Morgan's just thought that up, did you?) Zippy's had unbelievable crust - chewy, with a zip to the taste of the sauce. Mmmmm.... I mourned for weeks when they had to close so we could build that White Castle.

And lastly, we had one of the best pizza places Brooklyn Park ever had. It was the location of my brother in law's grooms party. At the corner of Zane Avenue and 73rd, where the tall new townhouses are now was once a strip mall. In that mall was Tasty Pizza. Once the home of a fabulous salad bar, a full menu with some very good spaghetti, was some of the best pizza in the Twin Cities.

Tasty was owned by the Draeger family - Kathy, Scott and others. It had been around for as long as I could remember, definitely was here before we moved here in 1982. It was really good food. Sadly, we ate there way too often. When we moved to our current house in 1993 Kathy herself would sometimes deliver to us.

Unfortunately, politics got involved. Kathy, the lead owner of Tasty, ran for City Council and became part of what we called "The Gang". The Gang was a trio of Jeanette Meyer, Draeger and one of the most evil women to ever exist, the late Peg Snesrud. I don't call her "evil" lightly, there's hardly anyone with any history in our city who wouldn't agree with me. If you weren't on her team you were the enemy and this group didn't take kindly to their enemies. They hated those who opposed them and did everything they could to make your life miserable.

In my case, myself and Steve Lampi led the battle for the Minnesota Orchestra's Performing Arts Center. The Gang opposed it. Snesrud once called the legal department of the Pioneer Press (I was their first Internet Sales Manager) and claimed I was sending harassing emails to her from my SPPP email address. In fact I'd sent her one email, two sentences, wanting to find a way to put all this stuff aside and was offering an olive branch. She took the olive branch and tried to beat me with it. She told them she'd send them dozens of emails I'd sent to her. Never did, of course, because they didn't exist, but I almost lost my job that day due to the hate of this woman and people like Meyer and Draeger.

Back then I was "blogging" - it wasn't called that then - but was keeping the politicians honest like I do today. The Gang, including Draeger, didn't like it. I don't blame them, Having the light of truth put on their personal agenda had to be uncomfortable.

In 1997 Draeger sold Tasty Pizza. The new owners of the place ran it into the ground and a few years later it was gone. We couldn't eat it anymore, the place was dirty, the service was awful and he finally killed it and put it out of its misery. The last of the good pizza in Brooklyn Park was gone.

Draeger ran unopposed for re-election in 2000. In February of 2001 she resigned without explanation. Rumors were that she had ulcers, or that we'd run her out of town. All I thought was, how dare someone run for re-election and then quit, moving out of town without explanation to the voters. She seemingly disappeared (although I knew she'd moved to Albertville). (I now know the reason she left, it's between the lines in the article I'll discuss in a few paragraphs.)

A special election was held and her brother, Scott, using her signs was elected. Voters bought the name on the sign. He was completely inept as an elected person. His attendance record was awful, running something like 60% attendance. He couldn't form his own thoughts or opinions if his life depended on it and voted with Meyer virtually 100% of the time. At Tasty Pizza, though, he made a mean pizza. It was a gift.

For me, pizza transcends politics. If you make a good pizza I don't care if you're a communist, just give me good food. The same is really true of any business - I'm not one to worry about the politics or religious beliefs of someone who provides a good service at a reasonable cost. In my world you have the right to believe as you want, right or wrong, because this is America.

Unfortunately, though, the Draeger's don't agree with that statement.

Google has a wonderfully useful service called "Google Alerts". I've got a number of alerts set up with one of them being "Brooklyn Park". When that search term shows up on a website or blog I get an email with a link to the site. Last week a surprising alert came - the Draeger's had opened a new pizza joint in Albertville.

To be honest, I hadn't given them a thought since Scott didn't run for re-election in 2004. To have their name pop up was really out of the blue.

They've opened D's Family Pizza. Within a few minutes I found their Facebook page and "Liked" it. I love good pizza and have been looking forward to visiting to see if it's as good as it was here in Brooklyn Park.

Again, politics don't matter. It was years ago, I don't care, I just want good pizza.

Then the oddest thing happened. My "Like" on their page was gone. I thought maybe I'd "Unliked" it accidentally so I "Liked" it again. Later that day, gone again.

It was clear as day, the Draeger's were "unLiking" me from their Facebook page. In the past several days they'd done it about a dozen times. Last night my brother "Liked" them and this morning, that, too, was gone. (He's like me, he Liked it again, too).

Ten years after her resignation and fleeing Brooklyn Park, this former council member still can't move on. Let. It. Go.

I intend to visit the restaurant and order a pizza. Soon. Will they call the police on me for wanting a pizza? Will they doctor my food (a felony, I might add)? Should be interesting.

It's sad that Brooklyn Park has lost their pizza places. To me, Sammy's is bland and needs to add a few "zippy" spices to give it some life. For some reason our city has been unable to attract new, local pizza restaurants. I ran into one a few years ago that was expanding. Spoke to the owner and he was interested in our area. Clearly that didn't work out. I suspect it has something to do with the rules and regulations that have been instrumental in scaring away so many others.

Addendum: I was amiss in not mentioning Carbone's and Angeno's. I had intended to mention them but work was calling and, well, the blog just doesn't pay the bills like my regular job does.

Carbone's was an East side fixture for years. Often city staff could be seen eating lunch there. Great pizza, too bad it couldn't last.

Angeno's is still around. While it's adequate, in my opinion, it's just never done much for me. I appreciate the fact they've stuck around in the area they're in. Please patronize them, as well as Sweet Taste, as we need local businesses to survive.

Happy Easter: A Must-See Video for Easter morning

2011-04-24T07:00:00.002-05:00

Brooklyn Park Mayoral Race: StarTribune runs promo for Meet the Candidate Night

2011-04-23T06:53:00.000-05:00

This morning the Star Tribune ran a promotion for the "Meet the Candidates Night" being held this Tuesday. While the correct beginning time is 6:30 pm, promotion is good no matter.

With a special election to choose a new mayor set for next Saturday, Brooklyn Park residents will have a chance to size up the candidates on Tuesday.

The Brooklyn Park Lions Club, Brooklyn Park Women of Today and Brooklyn Area Ministerial Association are sponsoring a Meet the Candidates Night. It will be held 6-9 p.m. Tuesday in the Brooklyn Park City Council chambers at City Hall at 5200 85th Av. N.

After Brooklyn Park Mayor Steve Lampi's death from cancer in February, 12 candidates filed for election to succeed him. Several indicated that they want to continue his legacy of multicultural inclusion and outreach to the city's youth. This will mark the third time the candidates have faced off.

The candidates are Billy B. Bishop, Mark Mata, Jeffrey Lunde, Tait Turnquist, Laurie Hilgers, Wynfred N. Russell, Jeannette Meyer, Joe Tanner, Boyd Morson, Scott Denver Scheid, Jim Krautkremer and Tony Pistilli.

The polls will be open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday.

MARIA ELENA BACA

See it here

Thank you, Maria.

Google Search Term Update: Polling by Keyword

2011-04-22T13:54:00.000-05:00

On this Good Friday I thought I'd provide an update on the Google keywords used by readers to find this website. Remember, the list below are keywords entered into Google, terms used by readers who then clicked on a link within this blog. They list below is not my rankings and are unrelated to my wishes in the race.

The current list looks like this:

Jeff Lunde - 78
Boyd Morson - 59
brooklyn Park mayoral candidates - 30
brooklyn park mayoral race - 30
brooklyn park mayor candidates - 28
jim krautkremer brooklyn park - 22
jeff lunde brooklyn park - 19
brooklyn park mayor race - 15
billy bishop brooklyn park - 15
brooklyn park mayor election - 15
jeanette meyer brooklyn park - 14
laurie hilger for mayor - 13
brooklyn park special election - 11
brooklyn park mayors race - 10
scott denver scheid - 10
laurie hilgers - 9
brooklyn park mayor's race - 8
jeffrey lunde mayor - 6
tait turnquist mayor brooklyn park - 6
tait turnquist mn - 6
boyd morson brooklyn park mn - 5
boyd morson brooklyn park - 5
jeanette meyer - 4
jim krautkremer - 4

Any other term related to the race has three or less. Also, there are dozens of single, unique keywords used that have just one use. An example would be "Boyd Morson dlf". Lastly, there are dozens and dozens of other terms I'm not showing because they're related to the name of the site, my name, or other words used to find the site.

Conclusions?

People are getting more interested. They're seeing campaign literature and are looking up different names. And Jeff Lunde is still the leading candidate based on these numbers.

One week left. Will it be a sprint or will it be anti-climatic?

Boyd Morson: Endorsement calls him "imperfect messenger"

2011-04-22T11:08:00.000-05:00

In one of the funniest "endorsements" I've ever seen, Boyd Morson today received one that should give any voter pause. As you know, the sideshow of the current Brooklyn Park mayoral race is the Liberian endorsement parade between Boyd Morson and Wynfred Russell.

Today each received an endorsement.

Wynfred Russell's endorsement came from the Liberian Community in Minnesota/St. Paul (LCM). In their endorsement they stated:

LCM recognizes the many contributions Mr. Russell has made and continues to make to Liberian communities not only in the City of Brooklyn Park, but in the entire State of Minnesota.

Wynfred has always championed the economic and social development of immigrants living in the City of Brooklyn Park and its surroundings. We believe that he is the best candidate for Mayor of Brooklyn Park at this time.

No where in this endorsement was there a mention of Boyd Morson.

In the endorsement for Morson, we see a completely different kind of tact - the admission that they guy they're endorsing isn't such a good guy:

"Our community has discovered an advocate with a fearless courage to challenge the Brooklyn Park status quo despite his being an imperfect messenger..."

Hilarious. That's quite the quality endorsement.

And in the typical fashion of every Morson endorsement by so-called Liberian leaders, it's not just good enough to say good things about your candidate, they all attack Russell.

In an exclusive interview with TLJ recently, he also warned critics “to be careful with how they insult the intelligence of others”, especially “those who are disappointed that some Liberian community leaders apparently abandoned Wynfred Russell, our so-called Liberian brother”, preferring instead “to endorse Boyd Morson.”

“This is a man who hates country people [indigenous Liberians]… and he often plays the ethnic card to achieve his selfish agenda”, he exploded..."

Quizzed as to how he arrived at his conclusion about Russell’s alleged “anti-indigenous” sentiment, Kesselly, without skipping a beat said, “There are more than enough evidence to prove our case. Lot of people already know about Russell’s resentment towards country people.”

As you've read these have you noticed a trend? Morson, the candidate who talks about unity is always on the attack. Every endorsement he receives attacks others but doesn't say anything good about Morson. In fact, none of them have given their endorsement based on anything he's ever done, it's always because he's been willing to "shake a hand" or something silly like that.

Funny stuff. It's apparently by these so-called endorsements that Morson's desperate and sees his only way to head off the obviously more experienced, popular and liked opponent, Russell, is to personally attack him. Character always shows through and in this case it's clear Morson's is an empty suit.

Boyd Morson: Divisive, race-based claims proven wrong with one simple video

2011-04-22T07:14:00.001-05:00

Boyd Morson, candidate for every office he's eligible to run for (here and in Detroit), claimed in a MinnPost.com interview yesterday that Brooklyn Park is racially motived in how they deal with businesses, especially "people of color".

"My perception and my hearing is that they've been unfriendly to businesses, they've been unfriendly to people of color," said Morson, who is black. "It's like a good-old-boys network that they have down in City Hall," he said. He supports tax breaks to bring new businesses to the city.

I have to say that I have not seen it. He has presented absolutely no evidence. If it exists he has had years of opportunities to do so. The City Council has an open forum every Monday night and he's never presented evidence there. The city's phone number is 763-424-8000 and I've checked, he's never presented a complaint about it (from multiple data requests I've done).

To be clear, if such discrimination exists - let's fix it. Let's root it out and stop it because it would be wrong. But in order for something like this to be wrong it first has to exist and he's not given any reason to believe it does.

If no evidence exists then it's just Boyd Morson using the most cynical, hateful tactic in politics today - the politics of race. This kind of divisive, non-unifying strategy has the affect of dividing black from white and causing strife in our community. Amazingly, this is the kind of actions we're seeing from a guy who has this on his website:

"This is not a race, about us or them, black or white. But, clearly a race about, uniting a diverse city. And how you andme came and worked together daily, extending a helping hand to our fellow man and helped move our city forward. It's just that simple."

His actions, his campaign, his background being the most divisive person on any local committee he's ever been on do not match the flowery, poor-grammared words on his website.

Actions are always more important than political promises.

Yesterday I received an email from someone with a link to a video on the city website that completely blew a hole in the race politics of Morson. He claims that the city discriminates against Brooklyn Park business owners of color but the facts in this video prove that the exact opposite is true.

More proof that Boyd Morson should never be our mayor, a city council member or the elected leader of a neighborhood block club. Divisive, race-based politics has no place in our city or anywhere.

Hat Tip: Anonymous source.

Boyd Morson plays the race card in interview with MinnPost.com

2011-04-21T11:02:00.001-05:00

Finally someone in the media attempts to get please-elect-me-to-some-office-any-office-will-do candidate Boyd Morson to talk about his "mysterious" past.

In a column on MinnPost.com, former StarTribune writer Jay Weiner talks to Morson about his past, his Detroit run and his "occupation".

While I disagree with Weiner about his claim that the campaign has been "effective", it's interesting to see Morson quirm about his occupation:

Morson, too, is a bit vague about his occupation, "an independent sales associate … I do a little consulting and those type of things with youth," he said.

We've tried to find any information on his "nonprofit" and with Weiner he admits it's just "those types of things with youth", suggesting it's not that big of a deal. Yet he's suggested each time he's run that this is his full time occupation.

His "independent sales associate" occupation is multi-level PrePaid Legal, something I've confirmed through sources with the organization.

Weiner also takes on Morson's Detroit run and residency with this:

There's the outspoken, somewhat mysterious but engaging outsider, Morson. He ran for City Council in Detroit, Mich., in 2005 while still living much of the year in Brooklyn Park. He received 2,092 votes out of 338,687 cast in that Detroit primary.

In an interview with MinnPost, he downplayed his run in Detroit but acknowledged he was back and forth between Minnesota and Michigan during that period.

"What happens when you get into a resident thing, does it make a difference?" Morson said. "If a person can move to Florida for six months, and move to Minnesota for six months, he's still a resident."

It's apparent that Morson has lied about his "eight year resident" claim he's been making here. Anyone who is moving back and forth, running for office here and running for office there, cannot with a clear conscience continue to claim they've been an eight year resident here. It also leads one to wonder if he's still a resident of Detroit while he's running for Brooklyn Park mayor.

Morson makes the racist claim that our city is unfriendly to businesses, especially "unfriendly to people of color":

"My perception and my hearing is that they've been unfriendly to businesses, they've been unfriendly to people of color," said Morson, who is black. "It's like a good-old-boys network that they have down in City Hall," he said. He supports tax breaks to bring new businesses to the city.

Prove it. Where's the proof? Where are the business owners who have faced anything different than any other business owner trying to start a business in our city? You can't just make a claim like this without being able to prove it.

Really, I want to see it. If it's happening, let's have the evidence and then let's stop it. Throw-away campaign lines like this, without hard evidence, is shameful and it's hateful to the people who run our city. He's claiming that the people who work for our city - from the City Manager down to the Administrative Assistant - are racists in how they handle new businesses wanting to come here.

We have problems as a city when it comes to businesses wanting to locate here but they're in no way related to race. Simply put, it's a lie intended to gain the sympathy of African-American voters. It's playing the race card at it's worst. It has no place in this race.

You can see the entire column where it discusses all the candidates. He sort of disses our city with the claim that "Brooklyn Park is one of those drive-past places en route to somewhere else" but it's something we've gotten used to in the Twin Cities media.

Brooklyn Park Mayoral Race: Sun Post promotes Meet the Candidate Night

2011-04-21T08:27:00.000-05:00

Buried deep in the Brooklyn Park Sun Post, this information about next Tuesday's Meet the Candidate Forum:

A meet-the-candidates event preceding Brooklyn Park's special mayoral election April 30 is set for 6:30-9 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, at Brooklyn Park City Hall, 5200 85th Ave. N.

Residents will have the chance to speak with candidates one-on-one. Each candidate has been invited and encouraged to share campaign literature on a table.

The event is hosted by the Brooklyn Park Women of Today, the Brooklyn Park Lions Club and the Brooklyn Area Ministerial Association.

Link to story

At this point every candidate but Billy Bishop has stated they will be at this event. No other forum gives you the opportunity like this to meet each candidate, ask your questions, hear their vision - without moderation, without your questions being screened.

Grab this document, save it and sent it out to all your Brooklyn Park friends. In the most important Brooklyn Park election in twenty five years, it's important to get as many people out to this as possible.

MeetTheCandidates4.26

Boyd Morson: Did person who endorsed him steal $30,000 from poor people?

2011-04-21T07:15:00.000-05:00

One of the sideshows of the Brooklyn Park Mayoral Special Election has been the endorsement race between Detroit-native (and perhaps current resident) Boyd Morson and Liberian immigrant but long time Brooklyn Park resident and volunteer Wynfred Russell. Both have been targeting leaders in the Liberian community for endorsements with each them them receiving a published one about every other day.

More interesting has been the dynamics of the Morson endorsements. From what I've been hearing, Morson's endorsements have been from largely small-timers who claim to have significant following but, in reality, are just minor players in the community. Russell's have been from various major leaders, pastors and what most people to be legitimate community leaders. When published, however, the average person wouldn't know the difference.

I thought I'd help by pointing out how Morson's endorsements really aren't of much value. In fact, some of them demonstrate just the kind of people Morson wants to be endorsing him.

Yesterday Morson received the endorsement of "Dr. J Givson Keypo and his wife". In the typical Morson endorsement it gives glowing statements about his so-called ability to unite people - despite him never having being able to perform that task on any city or state committee he's ever been on in Minnesota - and then rips into Wynfred Russell with name calling and accusations that anyone who's ever worked with him knows is untrue.

“The prospective Mayor and his beautiful wife met us at the Unity Party induction program and walked to us with a friendly greeting”, recalled Mrs. Susie Keypo, a businesswoman, as she paused to apparently refresh her memory. “Their respectful attitudes have put us in the spirit to…endorse Mr. Morson's candidacy.”

Apparently just walking up and shaking this guys hand was enough to get the endorsement.

But in another online source, which I am stating here as clearly as I can, cannot be verified and is the opinion of the writer, Lawrence Saydee, he states:

"When I heard that Mr. Gibson Keypo was doing auditing job for OLM I knew Gibson Keypoesomething was wrong. You cannot have a man who does not have a good record to do audit. We know that the same Gibson Keypo man was one of the Assistant Managers at the National Housing Saving Bank in Monrovia. But that is not all. Mr. Keypo is got away with more than thirty thousand dollars from that bank."

Quite the endorsement, from someone being accused of stealing $30,000 from poor people.

Of course, we know that Morson has two current, recent judgments against him for $25,000 each. We know he's filed Chapter 7. We know he's sued people over and over again. We know he attempted to take the name AND bank account of the state Human Rights board (and only got kicked off the board, not charged with a felony). We know he tried to take the name of his homeowners association. We know his so-called "nonprofit" has no record anywhere of ever doing anything. No one can verify his employment, except with the multi-level "PrePaid Legal".

Yeah, great endorsement there, Boyd. Birds of a feather.