Challenges await new Met Council chair

Leading the Metropolitan Council has long been a big job. Now the role is about to expand — both officially and unofficially.

Officially, reflecting the job's technical and political complexity, Gov. Mark Dayton intends to make the chair's job full time.

That's a smart and overdue change. The Met Council has an $890 million annual budget and about 4,200 employees. The agency is tasked with running Metro Transit, collecting and treating wastewater, partly funding a regional park and trails system, supplying some families with subsidized housing vouchers, and planning for a growing metropolitan region.

Susan Haigh, who will leave the top job when a successor is chosen, has admirably and indefatigably chaired the council on a part-time basis, even though the role calls for far more hours — and handling many more challenges — than many full-time governmental roles. Haigh will concentrate all of her professional energies on her other worthy civic effort, leading Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.

Unofficially, the Met Council job just seems to get bigger, especially because of misguided, partisan political attacks on the organization itself. The next Met Council chair can add advocating for the agency near the top of the already long to-do list.

The Republicans who helped start the Met Council nearly 50 years ago saw the wisdom and efficiencies of working as a cohesive region. That same concept is even more relevant today as the Twin Cities metro area keenly competes with other national, and even international, regions. Success is more likely with strategic planning and marketing that makes the entire region more attractive to outsiders — and more livable for residents.

None of the companies that business-development organizations such as Greater MSP are working to attract would plan and implement growth strategies on an ad-hoc basis. This region shouldn't, either, and in fact the Met Council gives it a great advantage.

The divide is over several issues, but it's centered on the council's Transportation Policy Plan. This kind of tension has long existed, but it stands to intensify if state government leaders cannot come up with a way to increase investment in infrastructure that is used by cars and transit alike.

Of course, all sides should realize that this is not a zero-sum game — strong central cities, suburbs and exurbs are symbiotic, not independent entities.

Many of the issues are rooted in real decisions that are difficult in any environment, but particularly when resources are limited. Some of the schism is probably perceptual, especially with the emphasis on the controversy over the Southwest light-rail line (also called the Green Line Extension). The proposed 16-mile, $1.65 billion line would travel through portions of Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie.

Southwest has gotten through the difficult municipal consent process, but it still faces lawsuits and uncertain funding. Even if the project preoccupies the new chair, completing this connection between the job-rich southwest suburbs and downtown Minneapolis — the business core of a several-state region — is essential.

The new chair not only will play a crucial role in implementing Southwest, but also another light-rail line and two bus rapid transit lines: Bottineau light rail (also called the Blue Line Extension), a 13-mile line that would travel north from downtown Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park; the 16-mile Burnsville-to-Minneapolis bus rapid transit Orange Line, which was granted federal approval this month to enter project development, and the planned 12-mile Gateway bus rapid transit line that would connect Woodbury with downtown St. Paul.