Editorial: Can-do Rybak deserves third term

When an elected official seeks a third four-year term, it's appropriate for voters to set the bar higher than for a second one. The good news for Minneapolis is that its mayor set his own standards higher during his second term, and met them. R.T. Rybak is a mayor at the top of his game. We recommend his reelection.

Seldom do elected officials in executive posts improve their performance during second terms. Rybak has -- despite the crises of a collapsed freeway bridge, a home foreclosure bomb that went off in already fragile neighborhoods and deep cuts in state aid to cities.

Through those troubles, Rybak has been a steady, visible leader with a can-do message. He has focused on improved public safety, disciplined fiscal management, job development and brighter prospects for the city's youth. He's also emphasized green development, more transportation options and more accountability and responsiveness to citizens. On each of those fronts, progress is evident:

•A police force 100 officers larger than four years ago has helped bring crime rates down sharply throughout the city. Most impressive has been the change in violent juvenile crime, which was reaching crisis levels a few years ago and is down 42 percent over three years.

Rybak readily concedes that he erred in his first term in dissolving the juvenile unit within the Police Department. It was recreated in 2006 in the context of a multifaceted, holistic Blueprint to Prevent Youth Violence. It's been credited by national experts on policing with the city's juvenile crime drop, which has been larger and more dramatic than can be attributed to larger demographic trends alone.

•Minneapolis has paid down $117 million in debt during Rybak's years, restoring fiscal health to a city that relied too much on internal funds borrowing and debt-financed spending in the 1990s.

That required the tough medicine of a series of 4 percent levy increases solely for debt reduction, combined with a crimp on spending that has affected every city department. The financial health those measures bought positions the city to weather this long recession and borrow again in the future.

•Few other big-city mayors can boast, as Rybak does, that his city's unemployment rate is lower than that of its surrounding metro area, state or nation. Rybak's job-growth tactics deserve credit. He's pushed for city assistance for small, startup businesses, tied to hiring Minneapolis residents; summer jobs for youth, and training targeted at hard-to-employ populations.

•Minneapolis' government structure limits a mayor's control over schools, but not his influence. Rybak has used his bully pulpit to aid the next generation. He's promoted early childhood education, all-day kindergarten and smaller class sizes in the city's disadvantaged neighborhoods, and has helped put career counseling centers in every city high school, at private expense.

Rybak has learned the value of sticking with his priorities. A third term won't bring a new direction, he says. But he plans to step up efforts to achieve a goal that's critical to the city's future: Every Minneapolis high school graduate should be ready for college, "no exceptions."

He makes no secret of his interest in running for governor next year. That likelihood bothers some critics, who believe he should retire from City Hall before running statewide. But political ambition is often a spur to performance. Rybak is opening himself to larger scrutiny, while gaining influence over the state policies that affect local quality of life. Minneapolis voters should be loath to deprive themselves of the fruits of Rybak's ambition.

But Rybak's opponents -- he has 10, eight of whom met with the Editorial Board -- raise a point of concern about his gubernatorial quest. They say it is the reason no debate with them has been on his calendar this month. A Rybak spokesman denies the connection, and says that the mayor plans to meet his opponents once, on Nov. 2.

One such exchange isn't enough. While none of Rybak's opponents is prepared to be mayor, a number of them lodge criticism that the incumbent ought to heed. For example:

•Rybak should respond to the impassioned pleas by TV talk show host Al Flowers and community activist James Everett for a better relationship between the city's minority communities and its police. Both express the deep resentment that festers within the city's minority community about unjust policing through the years. That's a problem that long precedes Rybak's tenure, but it's one he ought to own up to and correct.

•The mayor should absorb the criticism of rising property taxes leveled most pointedly by Papa John Kolstad, a Lake Street business owner and musician endorsed by the Republican and Independence parties. Minneapolis needed to get its fiscal house in order during Rybak's first two terms. It now needs to restrain its tax bite, lest high taxes send small businesses and middle-class homeowners packing.

•Landlord Bill McGaughey is right to question whether targeting "problem properties" rather than criminal conduct itself is either a just or effective crime-fighting strategy.

•Consultant Robert Carney Jr., former alderman Dick Franson and Kolstad fault the city for inadequate internal auditing. Their claim that no independent audit of the city's books has been done in three years is inaccurate. One was completed under contract with the state auditor's office only last month. But internal auditing is weak at City Hall, and Rybak has been too slow to strengthen it.

The challengers also bring new ideas to the fore. In that regard, Everett is a standout. His notions about spurring entrepreneurial activity in distressed neighborhoods deserve wider exposure. (Also seeking Star Tribune endorsement were writer John Wilson and musician Joey Lombard.)

None of Rybak's challengers is capable of playing in his league anytime soon. In one way, that's unfortunate. Competitive elections often make for better governance.

But in another sense, the lack of a serious bid to block a third term says something positive: Minneapolis has a good thing going in the mayor's office. Voters should keep R.T. Rybak on the job.