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Ranked-choice pivotal for Park Board
The citywide race features four incumbents and three other candidates vying for three spots.
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Follow local news on TwitterMinneapolis' new ranked-choice voting system will play a crucial role in winnowing a field of seven candidates to the three who will serve as citywide representatives on the city's Park and Recreation Board.
The list includes citywide incumbents Mary Merrill Anderson, Tom Nordyke and Annie Young, plus Bob Fine, a board member who is seeking a citywide seat after being denied DFL endorsement for reelection to his southwest Minneapolis seat. John Erwin, who served one term on the board and sat out one term for family reasons, wants back in. Dave Wahlstedt is seeking a seat with Republican and Independence party endorsements. Also running is John Butler.
The new voting system will be critical, because unlike years past, voters won't get three equal votes to cast. Instead, they will rank one candidate as their first choice, another as their second choice, and one more as their third.
All first-choice votes will be counted, and any candidate who gets more than 25 percent support in the first round will be elected. If fewer than three candidates reach that threshold, the second or third choices will come into play.
Candidates who receive the fewest first-choice votes will be dropped from the count, and the second choices on those ballots will be awarded to the remaining candidates. In addition, if any candidates reach the winning threshold, there is a distribution of their "surplus" support -- that is, votes exceeding the number needed to be elected. The next choices on ballots cast for those candidates are awarded on a fractional basis to the remaining candidates. Rounds will continue until three candidates are elected.
Based on endorsements, fundraising and effort, Erwin may be the candidate to beat. The horticulture prof wants to return to the board after leading the citizen committee that devised a route for completing the Grand Rounds parkway system on the city's East Side. He won DFL endorsement along with current board President Nordyke and Merrill Anderson, a former park superintendent.
Young, as in past races, is Green Party endorsed. Fine has proven his ability to win in the past without party endorsement and has lots of youth sports contacts, especially in vote-rich southwest precincts, from 34 years of coaching.
One thing on which candidates agreed at a recent voter forum is that they oppose this fall's proposed charter amendment that would revamp the makeup of the city's Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET), which sets taxes, borrows money and audits city functions. The proposal would give these duties to the City Council alone. One of that board's six members is a representative of the Park Board, whose members feel the proposal would lead to a gutting of park finances.
Instead, Merrill Anderson and Erwin want to see a third publicly elected member added to the BET, while Young favors that or having a second Park Board representative on it.
Wahlstedt advocates three new publicly elected BET members. Fine prefers adding a park commissioner to the BET, but said he'd settle for a third public member. Nordyke said he'd rather have three council leaders setting taxes through the BET than giving that job to the council majority.
The field is split on the issue of whether to rehire Parks Superintendent Jon Gurban or look for a replacement when his contract expires in mid-2010. Fine supports him, Young, Erwin and Nordyke want a new superintendent, and Wahlstedt and Merrill Anderson say the board needs to follow its processes.
The board also has been working for years with the City Council on a proposal to require developers to donate land or money for park development when they do projects, something many suburbs do. All but Wahlstedt favor it; he said that it would pose a barrier to development and that property taxes from development, and not what he terms an entry fee, should fund parks.
Several candidates, particularly Fine and Merrill Anderson, told a recent voter forum that a top priority for them is to keep recreation centers open in neighborhood parks, especially with St. Paul sliding from 41 city-run youth centers to a possible 25 such centers next year. Wahlstedt pushed for developing outside partnerships with entrepreneurs to help make that happen.
Neighborhood staffer Young is seeking her sixth term on the board. Lawyer Fine is seeking his fourth. Nordyke, who works for a nonprofit housing developer, is seeking his second term, as are Merrill Anderson and Erwin
Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438
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