A month before Council Member Sandra Colvin Roy abandoned her insistence for a citywide vote on the mayor's Vikings stadium plan, she was preparing to adamantly defend the stance in a newspaper editorial.

Colvin Roy, whose eventual support was crucial to obtaining majority support for the stadium, was irked in late February by a column from Star Tribune reporter Patrick Reusse. The article criticized Colvin Roy's sympathy for the Occupy Minnesota movement in calling for a vote, and labeled her one of the Council's "dedicated lefties."

Her full-throated response, which was never sent to the paper, explains that she is calling for a referendum "to respect the clear wishes of the citizens." That references a 1997 citywide vote that barred Minneapolis from spending more than $10 million on a stadium without a referendum.

She would later support the plan without a referendum when the city attorney told her it was not legally necessary.

Colvin Roy's letter is among a series of stadium e-mails obtained by the Star Tribune under the Minnesota Data Practices Act, covering communications between Feb. 22 and March 7. They were provided two days after the mayor's office responded to a similar request.

"The citizens of Minneapolis have every right to expect that their wishes – as codified in the city charter – will be respected," the letter said. "Reusse says my explanation is 'silly.' In fairness to him, I don't think he understood my explanation. However, if it's silly to respect the clear wishes of the citizens; if its silly to think that integrity in governance is important, then I aspire to be the silliest representative of the people that I can be."

The council member sent a version to Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin on Feb. 24 with the subject "need your confidential comments on my proposed editorial, ASAP PLEASE."

McLaughlin responded that it was "nicely done" and he "wouldn't change a word of it."

Here is the letter:

Strib Editorial Vikings