I'm with Jan that we should take a very serious look at eliminating the Park
and Library Boards; concentrating the decisions under the city council.
Along with the obvious cost savings, it would force the city council to help
make the tough decisions about how to balance these various needs.
Here are two quick examples of how this could change two hot topics:
1. The library: One reason this project has floundered for so long is that
it is in the hands of a board that has very little authority and
visibility...so it sits like a wallflower in the corner while all the fancy
megaprojects get asked to dance. If the city council was responsible for
libraries, we could finally have the very-needed debate about whether this
is a higher priority than the many other developments the council has funded
ahead of it. In private Library Board members complain that the council
hasn't done enough, the council complains that the Libary Board hasn't done
enough....Put the decision in one place so voters know who to credit and/or
blame.
2. Stadium. Ask yourself how much energy has been spent talking about a new
stadium over the past decade. Now ask yourself how much you hear about the
critical state of playing fields in the city. While we spend days and days
focused on the Twins, thousands of kids are playing on substandard soccer
fields with dangerous draingrates at midfield and rock hard baseball
diamonds that are laughed at by the teams that come from the suburbs and St.
Paul. Large sections of the city have almost no organized team
sports....which is a disgrace. Again, coordinating these functions under
the city council would force the same debate about priorities.
I don't think anyone has taken a hard enough look at what would actually be
saved if you fully merged the complete organizations, which may or may not
make sense, but at the very least the decision-making should be in a single
place.
R.T. Rybak
East Harriet
