1 A Finance Director is named after a national search and there was no mention of process or finalists. 2 A Finance Director is named who has had extensive experience with public funding of professional sports facilities. 3 It is revealed that the city is indeed considering giving away precious community assets to wealthy team owners and players to fund a new stadium which is not in alignment with what the community wishes to see happen. What conclusion do we think most people will draw? Many concerned citizens have not only political differences, but also process differences with City Hall. I believe that is why we end up yelling at each other sometimes without hearing the other side. Many people like Carol (and I do appreciate her many detailed posts, thank you) may be working very hard, but if there isn't either political or process agreement at a minimum, those efforts can be undermined quite easily. And we are at a crossroads where many of us believe that the process is flawed and that the political outcome is not what we desire, the two are linked right now in way that portrays that there is the potential for intentional deception. It seems to me it is human nature to assume that scenario even if it might not be true? I don't think there is any surprise here that people think the system is flawed and perhaps even corrupt no matter how unintentional. After we've had a revolving door with Northwest Airlines, the Mayor's office and the Planning Commission and an MCDA head who helped give city money to a developer and then jumped ship to work for them, we are all a little skeptical about the boundaries and, yes as Timothy said, the lack of transparency in this city about process. With this history, it is easy to see why people are concerned about fairness in our system and that they can easily become enraged about another back door/insider arrangement. Sometimes hearing the passion behind a message is just as important as hearing the message. But alas, that is hard to do. On face value, it seems both the process and the pre-determined political outcome are questionable in the Finance Director/Sports Stadium Scenario that is being discussed. There might not be outright corruption, but there is a need to step back and see our system for what it is. If we do step back and look at the three points I started out with, there should be a lot of questions. That is what we are seeing here. Unfortunately many of them go unanswered because the silence from City Hall is deafening. That is what makes this even worse than it might be. Russell W. Peterson Ward 9 Standish R U S S E L L P E T E R S O N D E S I G N "You can only fly if you stretch your wings." Russell W. Peterson, RA, CID Founder 3857 23rd Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55407 612-724-2331 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
