Readers Write for Sunday, Nov. 1

ESTIMATE AND TAXATION

Put Wheeler on this important board

Minneapolis citizens have an important vote to make on Nov. 3, and I urge them to make David Wheeler their first choice for the Board of Estimate and Taxation.

I have known David since he served as a seminary intern pastor at Grace United Methodist Church in northeast Minneapolis from 1977-1978. He brought energy, people skills and passion for the city to his work in our neighborhood.

David went on to serve churches in the metro and Duluth, where he was elected to the City Council, chaired the Finance Committee and served as a commissioner of the Duluth Economic Development Authority. Moving back to Minneapolis in 1997, David served several large churches, and now is development director of an agency that supports people with disabilities.

David Wheeler will bring proven leadership and progressive values to a position that will grapple with difficult property tax issues and bonding in Minneapolis. In these challenging times we need someone who sees the big picture and has the skills and willingness to work hard and collaboratively with all parties.

JOHN W. VANDERMYDE, MINNEAPOLIS

Minneapolis City Council

Reich's rich experience superbly qualifies him

I was very disappointed to see the Star Tribune endorse Susan Howitz Hanna over the DFL-endorsed candidate Kevin Reich for Minneapolis City Council. As the chair of Senate District 59 DFL and as a DFL Ward 1 coordinator during the caucuses, I can also say that Reich is a much better candidate and has much more community support.

Here are just a few things that Reich has worked on or supported: neighborhood activities and events, finding ways to clean up problem and foreclosed properties, community master plans, supporting businesses, advocating for more police and fire, looking for ways we can get bike paths and transit, supporting our schools and much more.

Reich is a very good community organizer. He also understands budgets and the city process and has worked with members of the council, school board, Park Board and Legislature on projects and improvements. He is a very well rounded candidate, and has a much better grasp of what a council member needs to do than any of his opponents. This is why the DFL is fully behind him.

PETER VEVANG, MINNEAPOLIS

ST. PAUL SCHOOLS

Varro, Brodrick and Street-Stewart

In 30 years of involvement with school issues, I have only disagreed with the Star Tribune Editorial Board on school issues a couple of times, but this year is one of those times.

Yes, the St. Paul school board needs to be stronger, but dumping John Brodrick or Elona Street-Stewart, now the strongest members of the board, is not the answer.

Brodrick understands what works in the classroom from his lifetime of service as a teacher. During the five years I served with him, I saw him grow into a very effective board member.

Street-Stewart likewise deserves our support. She is this week receiving a national award for her service as a school board member.

Vallay Varro will add a new, strong voice to the board.

AL OERTWIG, ST. PAUL;

FORMER CHAIRMAN, ST. PAUL SCHOOL BOARD

MINNEAPOLIS PARKS

Forney: I'll be upfront about revenue, funding

The Oct. 28 Star Tribune editorial titled "New energy needed on Park Board" misrepresented my position on taxes and misstates facts.

As a candidate for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board District 6 commissioner, I discussed with the Editorial Board the disparity evident in the park system. My example was about neighborhood residents rallying together to seek funds for a historic foot bridge over Minnehaha Creek and yet there are no funds to replace a boiler in a Phillips neighborhood park building. I suggested that citizens should have the right to vote on correcting inequity in the system by considering a referendum for capital improvements for neighborhood centers. The Star Tribune says that I am "quick to raise property taxes." This is not a fact.

Yes, I am quick to note disparity and I will be upfront with the citizens of Minneapolis that they have the right, the choice and the responsibility to consider voting on a referendum to raise their own property taxes in support of a specific critical need, such as maintaining the infrastructure of our parks. Voters deciding by referendum is a more grass-roots approach to taxation than deals made inside city hall.

This discussion was after I highlighted numerous opportunities to offset fiscal challenges such as hiring grant writers, partnering with mission-based agencies like Three Rivers, the Department of Natural Resources and the Metropolitan Council, and advocating for tax reform that encourages governmental agencies to be economically sustainable and not be punished when they raise complementary funding. We need to continue crafting new paradigms of revenue generation like the Legacy Act for which the Park Board was at the helm in collaborating with multi-jurisdictions and the Park Dedication Fee that the Legislature passed some five years ago and yet the city has refused to bring to reality, missing significant opportunities for new revenue to come to our parks. If the revenue streams I suggested are developed, raising taxes could be avoided altogether.

MEG FORNEY, MINNEAPOLIS

Collapse of Wall Street

Pensioners might object to label of greed

In his Oct. 25 column, Nick Coleman uses the phrase "conspiracy of greed that brought collapse on Wall Street."

In the same Opinion Exchange section, Fred Zimmerman, writing about underfunded public pensions, writes: "... Fund managers have responded by seeking higher yields. ..."

Were the fund managers acting greedily on behalf of teachers, police officers, firefighters, and state, city and county workers of every description?

ROXIE AHO, OAKDALE

PENSION FUNDS

For some retired teachers, all they have

I wonder if Fred Zimmerman ("That money is washing away," Oct. 25) and your readers know that a significant percent of retired public school teachers are not eligible for Social Security. Their defined benefit plan is often the only monthly income they receive.

When my husband and I were hired by the Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools in the 1960s, teachers in those districts were not allowed to contribute to Social Security because of the existing teacher retirement fund programs in those cities. Sometime in the 1980s we were at least given the option to buy into Medicare -- but that's all.

Unless those retired teachers were able to accumulate enough Social Security units from summer jobs in the private sector, they are not eligible for Social Security. What are they going to live on if the pension funds "go under" or their benefits are slashed?

SUE ENGSTROM, ALEXANDRIA, MINN.

ISLE ROYALE

As park founders knew, humans are observers

Regarding the Oct. 25 article "Trouble in nature's laboratory": My family has been fortunate to have a small cottage on Isle Royale for several generations, starting long before wolves roamed there. The caribou antlers hanging on the wall in the cabin should tell you how we've seen the island change, yes, there once were caribou.

When the island became a national park, nearly 400 such families were on the island; now there is just a handful. We as a people decided that some land and water in our nation was too valuable to allow for overreaching human intervention.

Even as my days enjoying our small cabin are numbered, I couldn't agree more with the preservation of the island as a park to be enjoyed by all of our citizens. While making such efforts to bring this treasure back to its natural state through decades of work, it would be blatantly hypocritical of us to even contemplate intervening with the moose-wolf relationship. In this natural biosphere we are merely observers. To be anything else would damage the integrity of noble goals created by the founders of the park generations ago.

TIM SNELL, MINNETONKA