North Side park funding tiff prompts ethics complaint

Two legislators have filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Denny McNamara, saying he shouted accusations at them that the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board had reduced purchases from his family's landscaping business as political payback.

The two DFL legislators contend that the Hastings Republican threatened to expose an alleged Park Board threat against the family business unless they agreed to a proposal McNamara favored to change how money flows to North Mississippi Regional Park.

In the complaint, Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, claims that she's "never felt so threatened and domineered by a fellow legislator" in her 43 years in the House.

McNamara released a statement Monday that accused Park Board lobbyist Maryann Campo of making the threat to retaliate against a business he said is owned by his son. Campo flatly denied that. McNamara also apologized to Kahn.

The complaint was filed by Kahn and Rep. John Persell, DFL-Bemidji. The complaint grew out of a May 16 meeting involving McNamara, Kahn and Brian Rice, a Park Board lobbyist. Persell was in a nearby office, heard the yelling, and left the office thinking he was headed to break up a fight, the complaint alleges.

Denny McNamara's son, Mike McNamara, president of Hoffman & McNamara, said his father has not been involved in the Hastings-based landscaping business since selling it to him in 2004.

The firm has been on the Park Board's list of approved tree suppliers for years. The Park Board had a dozen such suppliers in 2014 and 15 suppliers this year, as it planted more trees to offset ash tree losses. The Hastings firm sold 412 trees for $81,147 to the Park Board this year, about the same as in 2013, but less than the $138,573 it sold to Minneapolis parks last year.

"We thoroughly enjoy our relationship with the Park Board," Mike McNamara said.

Denny McNamara's statement said that he'd been told by an unnamed DFL legislator that a Park Board lobbyist had said there might be retaliation against the business if funding for the regional park was modified.

McNamara said that during a meeting with Rice, who he thought had made the threat, "I reacted in a way that I now regret." He said he was told later that the threat came from Campo. McNamara's statement included a comment from Rep. Dennis Smith, R-Maple Grove, who was at the meeting, that he didn't feel that McNamara was attacking Kahn or approaching her in a threatening manner.

The dispute involves efforts to change how interest is spent when the Metropolitan Council sells bonds for park purposes. Under current law, the interest long has been devoted exclusively to acquiring and developing North Mississippi Regional Park and nearby park facilities under a statutory provision Rice crafted 30 years ago.

After a Star Tribune article noted the long-running flow of money earmarked to a particular park, attempts were made during the regular legislative session to broaden the distribution of the money. Rice said the park gets about $400,000 annually from the interest.

Pending legislation would allow the Park Board to collect the money for three more years to help pay for the cost of the adjacent swimming pool at Webber Park in north Minneapolis. Then the earnings would be distributed more widely among metro park agencies.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Twitter: @brandtstrib