Shift of financial powers goes to voters

Minneapolis voters will get an opportunity to vote this fall on only one of three proposals to change city government, the Charter Commission decided Wednesday.

The commission rejected proposals for a referendum on shifting parks from a semi-independent board to the City Council and installing a city administrator over department heads, agreeing with arguments that those ideas need more study. But voters will decide whether to end having a separate board oversee taxation, bonding and audits.

The commission bought the 11th-hour arguments of four elected officials that the parks and city government proposals ought to get more study to see if the stated goals of efficiency and accountability can be reached. It's unclear whether that would result in new charter proposals or merely in negotiated agreements.

Mayor R.T. Rybak's office backed the study approach, prompting Council Member Paul Ostrow, who led the drive for charter change, to declare he's "profoundly disappointed" by the mayor's late entry.

It's unclear whether the parks and administrator ideas will keep their political constituency, given that three of the five current council members who support them are leaving office, including Ostrow. But Ostrow said he's heartened that some commissioners who argued that the proposals haven't been thoroughly vetted nevertheless also said they shouldn't disappear.

The commission voted 12-3 against a referendum on the most controversial proposal, to make the semi-independent Park Board an advisory body, shift its powers to the City Council, and make parks a city department. Commissioners cited overwhelming public testimony against that, although some argued that was manufactured by park officials. "It ought to go on the ballot when there's more homework done," said member Barry Lazarus.

But commission chairman Jim Bernstein disagreed: "I don't think a blue-ribbon commission will come back with anything."

The proposal to centralize the management of departments under a single person failed on an 11-4 vote after eliciting the most substantive discussion of the evening. "Our charter in many ways leaves the city rudderless," argued Commissioner Todd Ferrara, citing the current system of department heads reporting to 13 council members and the mayor.

Rybak aide Peter Wagenius helped derail the administrator proposal by arguing that it would lead to confusion about whether some department heads, such as the police chief, are answerable to the mayor or administrator. "This is not yet fully baked," he said.

Wagenius said afterward that the mayor approves of all three ballot decisions the commission made, and will help get the study of park and administrator efficiencies launched. Shifting the financial functions of the Board of Estimate and Taxation to the City Council, which was approved 13-2, instills more transparency and accountability in financial decisions, he said.

Voters this fall will choose whether to continue the current board, which consists of three council members, a Park Board member and two members elected directly by the public. It sets the city levy, deciding how much is allocated to parks and general city government, authorizes city bonding and directs the city's self-audits. Ostrow's proposal shifts those powers to the City Council.

Supporters of that change deride the board as an anachronism. But supporters argue that the board mediates allocation of parks money, allows directly elected citizens to have a say in the levy, and keeps auditing from being directly solely by those being audited.