I simply cannot leave unchallenged Lynnell Mickelsen's statement that the "14 bosses" problem in Minneapolis government only arose after nine council members pledged last year to defund the police ("'Strong mayor' plan mainly strengthens white elite," Opinion Exchange, Oct. 7).

In the late 1980s I worked in the commissioner's office for the Minnesota Department of Administration whose then-commissioner, Sandra Hale, was promoting an initiative to improve the effectiveness of public services at the state and local levels.

In a meeting the commissioner and I attended with some department heads from the city of Minneapolis, we were told that their primary obstacle in delivering the most effective government services was juggling the demands of the mayor with those of individual council members. The competing and often contradictory demands of these 14 bosses added a layer of political complexity that interfered with their main jobs — collecting garbage, plowing snow, delivering clean water to residents and cleaning and repairing streets.

None of this is sexy stuff, I know. But in the past 18 months, we've seen how dysfunctional this "14 boss" system can be during a crisis.

Curiously, Mickelsen failed to mention the competence of the city just across the Lake Street-Marshall Bridge that operates under a so-called "strong mayor" system.

Marcus Kessler, St. Paul

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Now is the time to fix Minneapolis city government by voting "yes" on City Question 1.

Lee Munnich, Minneapolis

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Mickelsen's critique on City Question 1 is that it would uphold white elites. To the contrary, City Question 1 actually stops extreme agenda-driven groups from taking over the city.

Minneapolis is mainly a one-political-party city, so getting the Democratic endorsement is key to victory. Yet a small but fervent activist group can easily overtake party conventions by either revoking the endorsement of an incumbent or giving the endorsement to their candidate — especially when it takes fewer people to hold up a nomination process. This has happened in the Republican Party, too. So by voting "yes" on Question 1, voters would actually stop polarizing groups from controlling the city process and push for a more cohesive city government.

Once again, Minnesota finds itself in a contradictory position. The Star Tribune Editorial Board ("New climate center is a win for region," Oct. 7) hails the decision to build a Midwest Climate Adoption Science Center at the University of Minnesota. One of its primary goals is to preserve and enhance the world's most valuable assets including air, water and soil. This is truly excellent.

However, our governor and Legislature, both Republican and Democrat, are doing everything possible to turn over Minnesota's supply of fresh water — including Lake Superior — to two foreign mining companies, Glencore and Antofagasta, who are among the world's most corrupt. For three straight years, our elected officials have refused to hold a single public hearing, denied a health study petitioned by the state's health community including the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, and have stonewalled all requests for their rational and ignored all warnings including those from former Vice President Walter Mondale about the permanent damage this type of mining will do to our drinking water.

If the public and media continue to ignore this imminent challenge, we will find ourselves among the 2.3 billion people globally without access to healthy drinking water.

Arne H. Carlson, Lake City, Minn.

The writer was governor of Minnesota from 1991 to 1999.

After a decade of fighting for climate justice in the form of divesting from fossil fuels, the University of Minnesota is finally listening to the voices of the activists who have sought this type of action for years. But divesting is not enough. The U must choose to actively reinvest this money in more eco-friendly, sustainable programs and renewable energy. One of the ways this money could be used is in working to make our Twin Cities campus plastic-free. Seated on the Mississippi River, the university has a unique responsibility to protect its waterways from pollution such as plastic waste. The plastic straw or bag we use for just a few minutes can take hundreds of years to degrade, and more often than not, ends up in our lakes and rivers. Nothing we use for such a short time should end up harming our waterways for years to come! By divesting from fossil fuels and choosing to reinvest in programs such as becoming a plastic-free campus, the U would be a trailblazer for more sustainable colleges to come.

Talitha Anderson, Chanhassen

The writer is a student at the University of Minnesota.

On Oct. 6, Gov. Tim Walz issued a letter to the Legislature urging it to take immediate action to address three pressing matters: front-line worker pay, drought relief and pandemic response ("Walz's COVID plan gets pushback," front page, Oct. 7). Particularly on the pandemic response matter, Walz laid out in bullet-point fashion 13 ways to help Minnesota address this delta variant wave that has hit our great state. I found many of Walz's requests reasonable, such as relaxing regulatory and licensing requirements in nursing homes and health care facilities to address staffing and capacity issues. Other requests I found justifiable based on scientific evidence, such as testing, masking and vaccine requirements for schools and long-term care facilities. All of which were couched in a plea to at least collaborate on taking some action to make this COVID pandemic a little bit better.

In an effort to hear both sides of the story, I visited the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus website to see if there was a response. What I found was brief statement from Sen. Paul Gazelka, which reads in part: Walz's "approach continually fails to recognize the diversity of Minnesota and its communities and disregards the value of trusting our local leaders who are in the optimal position to make the best decisions for their residents." My follow-up questions to Sen. Gazelka are: Do you plan to keep Minnesota residents isolated to their particular locality? What stops a resident of your district (which has one of the lowest vaccination rates and one of the highest case counts per capita) from driving down to a Vikings game and impacting the lives of those in Hennepin County? What is your plan to address the pandemic, and how does that make our lives better than doing nothing? Or is that your plan — doing nothing?

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Regarding Walz's COVID plan: Who's in charge here? The do-nothing "let them die" minority, or the "save lives" majority? Gov. Walz, it's time for you to declare another peacetime emergency and do the right thing.

As for the long-term care facility mentioned in the story with a 45% staff vaccination rate: Shame, shame, shame on the 55% who are just fine with putting their residents at risk. Where's the "care" in that facility?

Lynn Maier-Belair, Blaine