McGaughey: "Rybak... pretends that we don't exist – that there isn't a campaign this year."

Carney: "We're raising the issue that he is not presenting himself, and addressing grievances that are raised by Citizens of Minneapolis..."

An informal transcript of the news conference follows this news release

The full text of the Petition follows this news release

An archive of news releases on the "non-coverage" of the "non-campaign" is also available at www.republicancontract.com

Contact: Bob Carney Jr.
bob@republicancontract.com
cell: 612-803-9084

A growing chorus demands: hold Mayor Rybak accountable to the Petition of Citizens for a redress of grievances

Over a dozen Mayoral and City Council candidates are demanding Mayor Rybak answer to the Citizens of Minneapolis in broadcast Mayoral Forums.

Seven City Council candidates have joined the demand that Mayor Rybak participate in a televised Mayoral Forum.  The City Council candidates are: Dave Bicking (9th Ward), Kris Broberg (13th Ward), Matthew Dougwillow (10th Ward), Melissa Hill (3rd Ward), Michael Katch (7th ward), Rick Nyhlen (12th Ward), and Charley Underwood (12th Ward).

A total of seven Minneapolis Mayoral candidates have now demanded Mayor Rybak participate in a broadcast Mayoral Forum(s) with other Mayoral candidates.  Of these, five candidates who have agreed to the Petition -- Bob Carney Jr., James Everett, Al Flowers, "Papa" John Kolstad, and Bill McGaughey -- constituted the entire panel at the October 7th Mayoral Forum. 

Streaming video of an October 7th Mayoral Forum, broadcast live from MTN studios (channel 17), is available at www.mtn.org.  Mayor Rybak had been invited to that event, but chose not to participate.  The event was co-moderated by, Allen and Terry Yzaguirre, editor of the MPLS Mirror.

The announced November 2, 2009 MPR Midday forum is criticized as unfair, and possibly Unconstitutional

Christina Schmitt, whose position title is "Public Relations Manager for MPR", and who appears to be indirectly an employee of American Public Media, a non-profit 501(c) organization, identified on www.mpr.org as "Minnesota Public Radio's parent organization...", provided a statement to Carney regarding an upcoming Midday program.  Two Minneapolis Mayoral candidates, Mayor Rybak and Kolstad, have been invited to participate in a forum, or debate, on Midday, the day before the November 3rd election.  Both are reported to have accepted.  Schmitt's statement is as follows:

“According to the Midday radio producer, hearing eleven male voices on radio would be hard to distinguish. MPR news needed to narrow the field. We chose to invite the candidates endorsed by the major parties in the state, the Republican Party, the DFL, and the Independence Party. This way the audience will at least be able to hear the incumbent DFL Mayor, and the person endorsed by the other two major parties.”

Lyden asked the candidates: "Are you all going to be participating in the MPR debate?"  Everett responded, saying this to the Citizens of Minneapolis: "The issue is at this time... the order has to be coming down from a higher place... Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the fact that we're a full DFL city, and state, they have made a decision to not make RT Rybak look bad. Because of the fact that he's running for Governor, they say 'well let's not get him involved in anything. More important is not the debates that he didn't show up to, it's the fact that no one's scheduling debates,..."

Flowers criticized MPR's policy:  "I currently have phone calls in to MPR, and they have not returned the calls. They said they were trying to go with two candidates 'Papa' John Kolstad, and Rybak the endorsed candidate, and that's where we have a problem. Because of the new Ranked Choice Voting system, that's what Ranked Choice Voting is for... the endorsement process meant nothing, I was at the Democratic convention, and I spoke at the convention, and I said we were going on... you don't have to get endorsed to run... that's what Ranked Choice Voting is all about.... and the Mayor must admit..."

Carney responded to Lyden's question: "On the Forum on MPR, there is a Supreme Court line of cases, called the Public Forum doctrine. If a Government establishes a Forum, and of course, they do receive Government funding, then there can be no content restrictions on that Forum. I may be raising legal issues there."

Carney is proceeding to research these legal issues, and will issue a further news release in the next day or two.  After the news conference and Petition delivery event concluded, he offered this further initial reaction (emphasis added): "I am beginning to see an emerging nexus of coordinated suppression, in Minneapolis and in our state, of independent minded political activists, and of Citizens' demands for the redress of a whole range of very serious grievances.  As noted, American Public Media is a non-profit 501(c) organization, and what this organization is trying to do here may be a part of this pattern.  My Political Contribution Lawsuit was launched to defend my right, your right, our right -- as taxpayers -- to receive a refund for contributions made to Minnesota political candidates and political parties, including the Green Party and the Independence Party.  As Al said, we have a new situation in Minneapolis -- ranked choice voting -- where individual citizens can present themselves to the Citizens of Minneapolis on a General Election ballot.  This is a fundamentally different situation from the one that has traditionally justified excluding minor party and non-party candidates from the most visible and accessible forums for a discussion of the issues and grievances of citizens.  For an organization such as American Public Media to attempt to effectively suppress the right of Citizens of Minneapolis to freely and intelligently choose among a wider group of candidates, including candidates that aren't hanging on big money hooks, is unfair at best.  It may be an Unconstitutional violation of the Public Forum doctrine.  My suspicious nature is further agitated by the fact that American Public Media is grouped by the IRS with "independent" organizations like the one that paid for the Swift Boat ads -- and I should mention that the same Texan who financed those ads also spent half a million in attack ads against Attorney General Hatch in the 2006 Gubernatorial election.  Beyond this, a group of Minneapolis Mayoral candidates have formed our own nominating circle -- we have agreed on an "A team" comprising six candidates, and I assure you we all have very distinguishable voices.  I think we can probably work something out that will allow all the candidates who participated in the Forum broadcast on Channel 17 to also participate in the upcoming Midday Forum.  We might be able to structure the forum so that Mayor Rybak can speak with us one on one -- sequentially -- as we go down the list of grievances we have presented to him in our petition.  I wouldn't object to Papa John being allotted more time due to his party endorsements.  And I wouldn't object to Mayor Rybak being allotted about half the total time -- he'll need it to answer to all the grievances we've brought to him.   But I have to tell you: this may be called the 'Midday' Forum by SoBeIt Citizens, but some of us may be calling it the High Noon forum instead."

In an October 19th phone conversation with Carney, Kolstad indicated he thought that it appears those who have subscribed to the petition represent, as Kolstad put it, the "A team" of challengers to Mayor Rybak. 

Carney concluded: "Every one of the candidates I've worked with in this effort is on the ballot for a good reason.  The motive factors and efforts at suppression that I believe I've witnessed are nothing personal -- they may look like they're aimed at us, but we're really just in the way -- they're aimed at why we're on the ballot."

Carney videotaped the news conference and the delivery of the petition for inclusion in his "RT and me" series.

<end>

Informal Transcript of the October 21, 2009 City Hall news conference
 

Opening statements

Carney: My name is Bob Carney Jr., one of four Mayoral candidates for Minneapolis Mayor

We're here to present a petition for a redress of Grievances, that represent Grievances that have been stated at a televised Mayoral Forum on October 7th, that was broadcast on Channel 17. Mayor Rybak was invited to that, and choose not to attend. We're raising the issue that he is not presenting himself, and addressing grievances that are raised by Citizens of Minneapolis, and saying what he's going to do about them in the next term if he were to be re-elected.

Everett – At this point, the police are out of control, they're making CNN news for beating on folks, and not being held accountable. I believe our city is under martial law,... Our housing market is completely in shambles. It's not in shambles just because of the market as it is, it's also in shambles because of the regentrification that has been done... the reason the Mayor is not speaking is because he's making a bid for Governor,... and he doesn't want to get balled up in the issues that he has to be held accountable for at this point in time.

Flowers – I just issued a press release on Tuesday, talking about how undemocratic the system is. I have complaints about the media, so I'm glad the media showed up here, because the issues that we're trying to talk about is issues we've been arguing about for the last 4 to 8 years, this administration.

The reason the Mayor will not come out is because he cannot answer questions to the issues, whether it's the empowerment zone, whether it's the civil rights department, whether it's about housing, the mayor cannot answer these issues, and the Mayor being ranked as one of the future governors, that's why he's not coming out, he's disrespecting the Citizens of Minneapolis by not telling them what his vision is, because he doesn't have a vision for them, his vision is to be governor.

Therefore the Citizens of Minneapolis are paying for a Mayor who thinks he don't have to say anything, that can walk right back into the Mayor's office, and then turn right around and run for Governor, it's outrageous, it's disgraceful, that we can't petition our Mayor to come out and say what he's going to do for the next four years, but it can happen if the Citizens don't wake up and tell him, no you can't do this, and I'm asking all the Citizens of Minneapolis to be aware that this Mayor is not telling people how ranked choice voting will be important when they go out to the polls.

Some people don't even know what ranked choice voting is, they put no money behind it, this is a disgrace for democracy in the United States of America, and for Minneapolis, supposedly a democratic city, to be doing the Citizens like what they're doing to us, want to debate with only one person, so he don't have to tell the issues. He knows that we know the issues, this campaign here, Al Flowers, Truth to the People, know the issues of this city, and he won't answer them, disrespectfully, so we're going to keep fighting until we get in the door? [Garbled]

McGaughey – I think my issue is, we're looking at possibly looking at, what, 11%, 15% increase in property taxes, now I know not all of that is the city's fault, we're in a recession, but we've got to look at the budget. What I object to is the destruction of the tax base in this city by demolishing buildings for police purposes. A number of us were demonstrating at the site of Uncle Bill's Food Market, which was torn down about two weeks ago, taken off the tax rolls because people said it was a magnet for crime.

It's this type of thing – the city council's closed down convenience stores, bars, any number of businesses, shifting the blame from themselves to these business establishments. We've got, probably, four or five lawsuits, major lawsuits, right now, against city council members, involving tens of millions of dollars. We can't afford to blow the budget on this type of thing. We've got to treat people respectfully. Now, Rybak is not treating us respectfully. He pretends that we don't exist – that there isn't a campaign this year. I have one question for Mayor Rybak – if you are re-elected Mayor this November, do you pledge to serve your full four year term? I'd like to hear that for starters.

Yzaguirre, were you invited to go before the Star editorial board?

Carney – to paraphrase, yes, also Everett and McGaughey

Flowers – If I'm supposed to be there tomorrow, I have not had any confirmation. If I don't get confirmation, I won't be there, I don't want to get in any trouble in this campaign. [NOTE: Al told Carney later that day, over the phone, that he had not been invited, said, to paraphrase: Carney should go ahead, let them play their games.]

Everett – He has a [unclear] hands off policy with Mr. Rybak at this point in time, which is kind of strange to me, being that the Star Tribune has lost over 30% of its worth over the last ___ years, from having biased news. You would think that they wouldn't go into the hole, as a matter of fact, it would make more sense to cover everything – you'd sell more papers. If something doesn't make sense, look for the lie, because the truth is never confusing.

Lyden – How many debates has the Mayor... his campaign says he's only been invited to two, that's what they say, missed the one you had, and, the one he's going to is the one, the MPR debate the night before the election. Is that right, or are there other debates that I don't know about?

McGaughey – There's another one too (Lyden – oh, when?) Well that's already been held, it was the property rights group. (Lyden – OK) It was back in August, he was invited to that, he choose not to attend.

Lyden – And is there another one besides that?

Carney – Don Allen of Independent Business News Network has one hour of time available, I think it's October 30th, at the Channel 17 studios. So he said he would make that time available.

Lyden – How many debates has the Mayor passed?

Flowers – I know the property rights, and the MTN debate, he definitely, I just seen the e-mail about the one the MPLS Mirror put on, and so I'd say two, for sure: The MTN and the property rights (Lyden: ok)

McGaughey – There was one Waite Park, the Neighborhood Association, he didn't attend that either.

Lyden – Was he invited to those?

McGaughey – He was invited. And Harrison is coming up, we'll see if he attends that.

Lyden – Are you all going to be participating in the MPR debate?

Carney – Not that we know of.

Flowers – I currently have phone calls in to MPR, and they have not returned the calls. They said they were trying to go with two candidates “Papa” John Kolstad, and Rybak the endorsed candidate, and that's where we have a problem. Because of the new Ranked Choice Voting system, that's what Ranked Choice Voting is for... the endorsement process meant nothing, I was at the Democratic convention, and I spoke at the convention, and I said we were going on... you don't have to get endorsed to run... that's what Ranked Choice Voting is all about.... and the Mayor mus admit,... The Mayor is very afraid of what my campaign has to say. And I say the Citizens of Minneapolis should pick someone... I don't care if it's me, I think they should pick someone else... someone that's going to lead them for the next four years... cause he's not going to lead 'em, he's going to be Governor... he wants to be Governor, and I think that's going to be a hard job... and then he wants to come back and be Mayor of Minneapolis, which... you aren't going to be very happy if you run for Governor and lose.

Everett – The issue is at this time... the order has to be coming down from a higher place... Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the fact that we're a full DFL city, and state, they have made a decision to not make RT Rybak look bad. Because of the fact that he's running for Governor, they say 'well let's not get him involved in anything. More important is not the debates that he didn't show up to, it's the fact that no one's scheduling debates, but we have seven debates for a ward... we have seven debates for 5th ward, but there's no debates for the Mayoral position. And I think that's what should be looked at, more importantly.

Carney – On the Forum on MPR, there is a Supreme Court line of cases, called the Public Forum doctrine. If a Government establishes a Forum, and of course, they do receive Government funding, then there can be no content restrictions on that Forum. I may be raising legal issues there. The League of Women Voters has not scheduled a debate – they say that they can't get moderators, so... we've got to be able to come up with some League of Women Voters moderators, this seems like a very implausible statement.

McGaughey – How about you Tom, would you be a Moderator?

Lyden – Sure.

The following is the Petition that was delivered to Mayor Rybak's office at city hall on October 21, 2009

A Petition of Citizens of Minneapolis for a redress of grievances, as stated by candidates for Mayor of Minneapolis

The following statement has been agreed to by candidates for Mayor of Minneapolis listed below:

The First Amendment of our Federal Constitution establishes: “...the right of the Citizens peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

On October 7^th, five of us participated in a live televised Mayoral Forum at MTN, channel 17. This petition consists entirely of statements made by candidates at that forum. Mayor Rybak was invited to participate, but chose not to. He has not participated in any of the candidate forums this year. Mayor Rybak has chosen to ignore the grievances of Citizens of Minneapolis. This is contrary to the First Amendment right of Citizens to have their Grievances both addressed, and redressed when appropriate.

As candidates for Mayor of Minneapolis, we do not necessarily all agree on all of the points made below. But we do all agree on this: it is Mayor Rybak's duty to present himself before the citizens, and to publicly respond to these grievances, as stated by and on behalf of Citizens of Minneapolis. We further agree it is the duty of the “Mainstream Media” to serve the public interest by reporting on both our demand for a redress of grievances, and the refusal of our elected officials to respond.

On behalf of the Citizens of Minneapolis, we demand that Mayor Rybak agree to three one hour televised Mayoral Forums. The Citizens of Minneapolis have a Constitutional Right to have our Mayor answer to these grievances – telling us, for each one, his view of what redress, if any, is needed.

Subscribed to by:

Bob Carney Jr.
James Everett
Al Flowers
“Papa” John Kolstad
Bill McGaughey

Note: two other Mayoral candidates, Dick Franson and Christopher Clark, have called on Mayor Rybak to participate in a televised Mayoral Forum, but have not at this time specifically subscribed to the Petition.

The Petition

The following are grievances for which Citizens of Minneapolis have demanded redress. They are organized into category headings, each followed by specific statements made by candidates who participated in the October 7, 2009 Mayoral Forum:

1. We have a Mayor who refuses to listen to, and answer to, the grievances of Citizens:

   1. “How come he hasn't talked about what's going on in the city? How can you ask for four more years, and you're not going to tell what you're going to do the next four years?” Flowers – opening statement

   2. “This has been really a great panel, and I really want to congratulate all of the candidates here for their intelligent and thoughtful responses to this. But just think, wouldn't it be great if we actually had the Mayor of the city here. Elections are about people who are in office to be accountable – to come to the citizens and come to the challengers, and to talk about what's going on in their city, and if they can answer those adequately, they should be re-elected. I think that there's really something wrong in the city about 'democracy.' That's what we brag about in America and in Minnesota – democracy, and about public process. You cannot have a public process when the elected officials will not come out. This is the fourth forum for Mayor, and he has not been to a single one of them. I think it's unfortunate.” Kolstad – closing statement

   3. “I said two years ago that if no one challenged Mayor Rybak that I would run. I didn't know no one was going to challenge him. I thought somebody would see that he was... it's democratic, this is a democratic process, and when I saw no one was going to challenge him, I had to put the issues I knew about on the table, I said I couldn't go four more years without telling the truth. That's why I brought this campaign – truth to the people, we're telling you the truth, you have to decipher it.” Flowers – closing statement

   4. “I'm very critical of RT Rybak, but also, he's a politician, not a pastor, and so some of the things he's got away with have been because we haven't been on our watch as citizens.” Everett – opening statement

2. There is a pattern of unconstitutional censorship of freedom of speech by the city:

   1. “I'm running as a Moderate Progressive Republican candidate for Mayor of Minneapolis. You probably won't see that on the ballot. I do have a lawsuit proceeding on that. The city will not let me use the word 'Republican' in a political principle. So you may see “Moderate Progressive Censored, that to me is unfortunate.” Carney – opening statement

   2. “I've won a first amendment case against the City of Minneapolis for trying to cut me off... from MTN... speaking to the people,... I sit here right now with a document,... a lawsuit filed against Hennepin County for this latest incident, and that's the way you have to do it, when you don't have a civil rights department in Minneapolis, you have to go to court...” Flowers – opening statement

   3. “My main contact with the Empowerment Zone was when I was demonstrating with a sign on Penn Avenue, and the director of the Empowerment Zone told me he would have me arrested. ... It was because Don Samuels had a peace rally, and I was questioning his commitment to peace if he was shutting down grocery stores.” McGaughey, question 3

   4. “In my own experience with the ballot dispute, one of the things that really surprised me about it was that I called them, and tried to talk to them, about seeing if we could resolve this without going to court. But this kind of a machine like mechanism just kicked in, they said 'no, you can't use this word, and now we're going to turn it over to the city attorneys, and no, you can't talk to the policy makers about it...' this is just a machine that's running... And I think that we have to kinda try to get away from that attitude.” Carney – question 1

3. There is unconstitutional usurping by Governor Pawlenty of Legislative power and responsibilities:

   1. “Another thing that I'm working on is to challenge Governor Pawlenty in his unallotment program. I have a lawsuit going on that, and there will be a hearing on that next week. I'm very upset about the unallotment, which I think is essentially an unconstitutional usurping of Legislative authority...” Carney – opening statement

   2. [Tangential but relevant] “One of the things that can be done by the city, and by the Mayor particularly, is they can lobby the state...” Kolstad – question 2

   3. “I intend to challenge the direction that the [Republican] party is going in... and I'm doing that, the lawsuit that I've got going right now on the Political Contribution Refund is an example of that...” Carney – question 2

   4. “What I'm trying to do is move the Republican party in Minnesota into a more Moderate and Progressive direction. As citizens of Minneapolis, I think we have an opportunity, if you elect me, to accomplish that, and to challenge some of the things that the Pawlenty administration in particular has been doing, that need to be challenged and that frankly are unrepublican.” Carney, closing statement

    

4. The city has harmful policies towards small business and neighborhoods:

   1. “I'm sitting in north Minneapolis, I've watched the corner stores closed, I've watched the ward issues, I've watched them try to turn north Minneapolis into 'Twinsville', actually, currently... If you look at the politics of the city right now, north Minneapolis is being set up to be a place for everybody that wants to go to the Twins games, a place for the Vikings stadium to be, and a place for the U. of M. to turn into a campus...” Everett – opening statement

   2. “Big companies and the city, state and federal government actually harm small business”, but that's where job growth comes from. “What Rybak is really doing, is he's killing all the small businesses that create the jobs. The Mayor's office does not create jobs. Small business, and business in general, creates jobs. And commerce generates jobs.” Kolstad – opening statement

   3. “We never seem to spend the money where the 'bang for the buck' is, because if you look at any study over the last 50 years, small businesses are the ones that created the jobs, provided the jobs, and have done the real economic recovery... and yet if you look at where does the money go, none of it was going to small business... Now there was a small business Bill of Rights that was offered at the State Legislature... if you're going to put money into a jobs creation program, then the money should be paid up to those who actually create the jobs...” Kolstad -- question 3

   4. “Take north Minneapolis. You said you close the corner stores because of the crime. But when you close corner stores, the apartment buildings that just need to pick up a little bit of milk, or some eggs and things, can't survive in that area. So everyone has to go a mile and half or maybe two miles to get to Cub foods. Which in turn, if the city's in a police state, nobody wants to go out of their homes. So people have to move out of the area. So... what happens was, Cub foods said, 'you know, we're not getting enough business.' And so they shut down the corner stores, and drove all the...” [interrupted by moderator, crosstalk] Everett – question 3

   5. “I really would put the emphasis on reducing taxes, you know, don't drive the people out, you know, it's not government helping people so much, it's driving them out of business. Empowerment Zone is fine, but why don't you lay off just ordinary people that aren't getting subsidies?” McGaughey – question 4

   6. “The city is actually harming the businesses... with not only the property taxes and also the fees and assessments. And James talked about construction, we just suffered through three years of construction on Lake Street, and revenues went down by over 40 percent, and there wasn't a single penny, not a dime for us.” Kolstad – question 4

5. There is a breakdown in the economy at the National level:

   1. “Capitalism has grown to consume us – we've had to bail it out.” Everett – opening statement

   2. “We need to know that after two quarters, you're no longer legally in a recession, you're in a depression. We're like in the fourth or fifth quarter. We're legally in a depression. The history books will tell that one day.” Everett – question 5

   3. [Regarding the housing crisis] “...the solution lies at a national level, rather than a local level, and it has to do with jobs policy, which is basically a national problem, with the regulation or deregulation of banks that led us into this mess.” McGaughey – question 5

6. We have serious budget problems and misplaced priorities:

   1. “There's not enough to keep the street lights on.” Everett – opening statement

   2. “Minneapolis is in deep financial trouble... Just as an example... $11 million it's cost the city in the last few years for police misconduct. I think that's a misnomer, I think that it's because the police have violated the law.” Kolstad – opening statement

   3. “The future, and where Federal money is going to be coming in, is for Green jobs, and for developing new kinds of things for the environment, this is a huge opportunity, and that's what we need to do, that's the future, that's where we should go.” Kolstad – question 4

   4. “City government needs to create an atmosphere of freedom, of minimal taxes, regulation, and helping people, the residents and city and businesses of Minneapolis.” McGaughey – opening statement

7. Our “political environment” is polluted, corrupted and oppressive:

   1. “City government needs to create an atmosphere of freedom, of minimal taxes [and] regulation, and helping people... the residents... and businesses.” [by inference, this isn't being done] McGaughey – opening statement

   2. “I was outraged by the demolition of a neighborhood grocery store in north Minneapolis... And basically, the Mayor ordered the fire department to find something wrong with the building, so they could condemn it... Neighbors were blaming this building for being a crime magnet. We need a new model of policing... if there is crime, you should presume that the business owner doesn't want it, and that the police should work with them in dealing with the problem...” McGaughey – opening statement

   3. “We've also had the situation, very ugly, of somebody going after one of our fellow candidates, Al Flowers... We've got all these rumors being planted by people in high places... we need clean politics...” McGaughey – opening statement

   4. “...you're asking for the Minneapolis Police Department to be put into receivership for so much brutality, over $14 million in lawsuits paid out,...” Flowers – opening statement

   5. “We need to remove the City Council, the City Council's been a miserable failure.” Kolstad – question 1

   6. “We've had the problem... of the city having unlimited legal resources, apparently at the control of some political person... the city attorney should represent the people of Minneapolis.” McGaughey – question 1

   7. “The Simpson's movie with the Cargill cameras inside the bubble is exactly what we're dealing with at this point in time...” Everett – question 1

   8. “In my own experience with the ballot dispute,... I called them and tried to talk to them about seeing if we could try to resolve this before going to Court. But this kind of a machine-like mechanism just kicked in... and now we're going to turn it over to the City Attorneys, and no, you can't talk to the policy makers about it,... this is just a machine that's running...” Carney – question 1

   9. “You can't even find a good lawyer. The law firms in this city are some 'busters', they're completely afraid to take on the city on many issues... Now there's a couple folks, I won't knock 'em...” Everett – question 1

   10. “My background as a landlord... leads me into the area of abuse of inspections, and the confusion of inspections with police work. I'd like to delve into that a little bit, talk to all the parties,...” McGaughey – question 2

   11. “I also think that we need to have people who are grateful for serving the city, who are the servants of the people...” McGaughey, question 2

   12. “One of the main functions of the Mayor is to be an advocate for the people of the city of Minneapolis; I think we've really had a failure in that respect...” Kolstad, question 2

   13. “The Mayor can push for an audit of where the money is going. That has not happened in this city in three years, that's a very, very serious problem, we need to know where the money is going...” Kolstad, question 2

   14. “...Make sure that by listening, being an advocate, that you're doing things that are helping the people of the city of Minneapolis, and not just a few inside players, which I think is what's going on inside the City right now...” Kolstad, question 2

   15. “...right now the city of Minneapolis is under, like a dictatorship, where this Mayor has taken over everything, he's took over the Neighborhood Associations, we've lost the library, and I would... give it back to the people,... as a Mayor I would give the whole city back to the people... You don't have to be the smartest person in the world if you tell the truth. And that's what's wrong with the politicians,... but you can't tell the truth when you're taking everything away from the citizens of Minneapolis,... there's great people in Minneapolis, great people in government, it's just the person on top is more of a dictator like, his style is you do it this way or he'll knock you out,... when you start speaking out, then they'll cut you down, they'll knock you off, they'll get rid of you, and that's a sad thing for the city of Minneapolis, to have a city council and a mayor, all of 'em doing it together to the citizens of the city of Minneapolis, and they're gonna pay for it...” Flowers, question 2

   16. “We have to be careful, we have to understand that the corporate powers can shut down anything, for instance how a Wal-mart opens up in your neighborhood, and it shuts down the local hardware store...” Everett – question 3

   17. “We're in a 'gangs of New York' situation here, everybody for themselves in the city. And the city council and the Mayor moved into a gangster position... the DFL has moved far away from the FL, there's only a D, there's no farms anymore, and there's no labor because we can't find jobs. And I think it's time to look at what's really necessary...” Everett – closing statement

   18. “I'm an apartment owner, I'm co-director of Metro Property Rights Action Committee, Charlie Disney's old organization. .... I guess what I could bring is the ability and the willingness to shake things up a little bit...” McGaughey – closing statement

8. There has been mismanagement and misappropriation of Empowerment Zone money:

   1. “...$29 million in Empowerment Zone funds since 1999, it's going to run out in 2009, they're gone. Where's the audit?... The state auditor, Rebecca Otto, asked any Congressman, State Representative, City Council official, to send her a letter and she would audit the Empowerment Zone that has damaged so many people under the median income...” Flowers – opening statement.

   2. [see small business comment] “If you're going to put money into an Empowerment Zone, you should be putting the money into those who are actually creating the jobs... I think what happens in the Empowerment Zones is that people come in and take the money and they run, they never create anything, and they leave behind a disaster, and we're probably worse off when we're done than when we started...” Kolstad – question 3

   3. “I've been arguing about this money that was supposed to go to the people of Minneapolis below the median income. It could have helped a lot of people, with business, education,... small business, job creation, it did none of that. They shifted the money to different areas of the city that didn't really need the money.... when you protest to the Civil Rights Department, they kicked it up to the City Attorney's office, and then they kicked it out... I'm asking the Congressional people, City Council, State Rep, somebody step up for the city of Minneapolis, and file a complaint with the State Auditor, and she says she'll take it up... ” Flowers – question 3

   4. “It's always been gangster from the beginning... and I can't wait 'till the book comes out about Minneapolis,... that's exactly what happened, the money got funneled to where people wanted it to go, and not to the people who needed it, but that's historically what happened...” Everett – question 3

   5. “The logical solution for Empowerment Zone money first, when you know businesses are struggling in this recession, when you're going to fix the road in front of the business, subsidize the small businesses to survive that space. That's common sense.” Everett – question 3

   6. “...about $25 million has been spent on direct money, there's also $130 million that was budgeted for borrowing, and that has not been spent. One of the problems is, this was a program that was targeted in geographical areas that were not doing well. And the reality is that with that amount of resources, you can't change the economics of what's going on in the area, with a relatively small amount of assets. You can with a very large expenditure, but I think it's more realistic to try to figure out where economic development is already going, and then try to build on that, that's one of the things I'm trying to do with the Sky-bi plan.” Carney, question 3

   7. “Bob, I just want to throw this in there, when you say about the $25 million, it was hundreds of millions of dollars leveraged against that $25 million, with banks around the city of Minneapolis, the State of Minnesota, the $25 million, you could take $1 in Empowerment Zone and go to the bank and probably get $10, each $1 would work $10. [Carney: “I've seen the numbers”... crosstalk] So when you added up the money, over hundreds of millions of dollars was spent using the Empowerment Zone from the Federal government, the $25 million came in, but if you use that money, you got hundreds of millions of dollars, and that's a fact, and you can look that up. [crosstalk] So it was a lot more than the twenty-five, or the hundred and thirty million dollars in bonds that they still have,... and the reason that the people won't use the $130 million in bonds is because the have to hire people inside the Empowerment Zone, and then 35 to 40 percent... [interrupted by moderator]” Flowers – question 3

   8. [spending remaining Empowerment Zone money] “My approach would be investing in a project we have called the Twin Cities center parts technology, which is based off of Manchester Craftsman's Guild out of Pittsburgh, with Bill Strickland... would create 5,000 jobs over the next four years around LRB light technology and wind turbine development... Juhl Wind... it's a Minnesota based company that's publicly traded, and actually, we have a plan on the table, to give to the city, to actually push the bond towards that, so I would create enterprise and move towards green energy...” Everett – question 4

   9. [spending remaining Empowerment Zone money] “During the 90's, I was on the Micro Loan committee, which was a most amazing project, because what we did – I was on the board – we simply [redacted]..., lent money to small business who were not bankable. And the results were enormous. And they paid the money back with interest, and these people succeeded, at least by and large.” Kolstad – question 4

   10. [spending remaining Empowerment Zone money] “The money now is going back into the general fund... It should go to help create small business, for new entrepreneurs. That's what you should do with the money. It's coming back in now. It's been going into the general fund over the time of the Empowerment Zone. Millions of dollars have been lost by the Citizens, by going back into the Minneapolis general fund, cause you don't never know where it's at. There's still loan money coming back in. Give it back to the citizens of Minneapolis. Create something where the citizens will be in control of it. That's what this is about. Giving it back to the citizens of Minneapolis. Flowers – question 4

9. The Mayor is running for Governor, and seeks to serve only one year as Mayor:

   1. “RT needs to go ahead and run for Governor, that's what he's doing, he don't care about you, he's just using you for the stepping stone that he needs...” Flowers – opening statement

   2. “...here you've got a Mayor who has not come and told you what his vision is for the next four years, cause one of em is to be Governor, that's why he's not here, you know, and we didn't know he was going to run for Governor.” Flowers – closing statement

   3. I've always liked R.T. Rybak. But I think I'm going to have to run for Governor to talk about the city of Minneapolis...” Kolstad – closing statement

10. The Civil Rights Department has been ineffective, and now is being moved to the State:

    1. “You have to remove the Mayor, because the Mayor is in charge of the civil rights department.” Flowers – question 1

    2. “If they find for you in a complaint, then they take it to the City Attorney,... who's really supposed to work for the Citizen, but he works for the Mayor, by appointment. So you have to put a fire wall in the Civil Rights Department.” Flowers – question 1

    3. “We need somebody there to represent the Citizens when their civil rights are violated... At the city level, it's very hard for someone to hire an attorney... I don't think you should have to afford to have an attorney just to have civil rights... We have the civil rights commission. I think it was grossly underfunded... There are too many cases of violations, and no resources for them...” Kolstad – question 1

    4. “If there isn't a commitment to the function, then it's not going to work... It should be adequately funded, and should function in a non-biased way...” McGaughey, question 1

    5. “The Community Relations service is a Federal mandate and a Federal position, that if we brought the Civil Rights Department under the Community Relations Service, it would push all cases to a Federal level...” Everett – question 1

    6. “Half the people on the Civil Rights Commission are city employees... you're not going to bite the hand that feeds you...” Everett – question 1

    7. “The issues of rights and justice go far beyond the courts. This is something where -- you have in the U.S. Constitution – 'establish justice' is one of the reasons for establishing the Constitution in the preamble. And that's not something that is just the department of the courts. When we're talking about economic development, when we're talking about housing problems in Minneapolis, when we're talking about foreclosures, all of this has to do with justice, so, you know, that's something that has to be at the level of community, and individuals, and city council, so it has to be covered in all of those ways. I think that's a very important point.” Carney – question 1

11. The city and the Mayor have failed to address the foreclosure crisis, more can be done:

    1. [spending remaining Empowerment Zone money] “This is something I'd like to extend beyond the Empowerment money, and it addresses the housing problem too, and the foreclosure problem. We have a good credit rating in Minneapolis, so let's use our ability to finance, to allow people, if you have a foreclosure issue, to defer your taxes, and to put that on the city's bond, I think that would be a good way to get out of this, and that's something that would benefit individuals, instead of developers. That would be my approach.” Carney – question 4

    2. “One of the things I would have done in the housing situation was, we saw it coming. I think we need to look at how it was managed while the recession was starting... [we're in a depression]. But during the first part of the foreclosures, we had inspections got real gangster man. Especially, I mean, you knew people were having a hard time paying for their homes, but in turning inspectors out to tell them if they don't fix their doorstep their house will be condemned, or they gotta pay $400. If they had $400 their doorstep wouldn't be broke, and they'd be able to pay their mortgage. So let's talk about how it was dealt with originally. Second, what we need to do now is make an investment in the youth. Especially in one of the highest foreclosure areas in north Minneapolis. One of my proposals was to take 25% of the homes, to turn 'em into group homes, foster homes, and youth based housing, and cooperative housing. That way, people who are from the neighborhood would not have to technically live there at that particular time, and could have an investment property that would bring up the property value in the area, it would also turn it into a commercial, it would be commercial/residential, we'd have an investment in the youth, we'd be able to use north Minneapolis as a feeder program for the U. of M. and other post-secondary education, Summit Academy, OIC, and the rest of the places...” [crosstalk] Everett – question 5

    3. “Mayor Rybak had a chance to do some of this prevention, he could, you know, early on,... when he was [not sure of word] on predatory lending, he was a supporter when he first went out, when he was running, and then, when they had the bill there, the Mayor refused, he didn't want it any more. Because that's when he was getting his housing, the housing start, where he put, he was putting people together, like gimmick, and they bought all these houses, and I'm working right now on giving housing back to the community, below the medium income. I'm doing the work now, regardless of what happens here, I'm doing the work right now to get people back in the housing,... [crosstalk] he could have prevented it, and he put money out with the advantage loan program. You put all this money into advantage loan, that citizens of Minneapolis couldn't access, hundreds of thousands of dollars you couldn't access, investors came in and invested in the houses in the neighborhood, and that's what's going on, that's what's going on in the city. The residents need to know what's going on in Minneapolis, the money is going out, it's not coming in. You should be, the citizens of Minneapolis should be the investors. You started investing in this and you'll get rich like the rest of 'em down at CP.” Flowers – question 5

    4. “The thing that's been going wrong is that we have too much of a development, and central planning mentality. And, you know, [points to Everett] you make the point that you've got the inspectors going out, and that's not the solution. If you have low income, you're going to need less expensive housing. And so the way to address that is to figure out how to, through regulation, to be able to have, for example, apartments in a house – to be able to defer property taxes if a person runs into a foreclosure problem. We've got to be able to direct the money to individuals that have got these economic problems. And the economic growth will come from there. But we have to get away from, frankly, a middle class model, where you assume that everybody's got to have an apartment or a house. We've got to start figuring out how to have people doubling up. And the reality is, in the short term, our economy's going to make that necessary.” Carney – question 5

    5. “I think that the people who set the property tax valuations, they kept forcing up the valuations, and I know because I sued them to get the information, they wouldn't provide it for me, but we ended up settling, so I never got the final figures, but they told me, 'it's simply a percentage,' so every year they added a percentage to the valuation, to force up the value, so they could get more money. Now my question is: how much did that contribute to this entire housing bubble? Because the people who are valuating, looking at the value the city is putting on it, and it's going back and forth. So the city actually became a part of the problem... The Mayor had the power, the Mayor had the bully pulpit – he could have said: 'before anybody is put out of their homes, we need to look at what did the mortgage brokers do? What did the banks do? And nobody's looked at the economic terrorists in New York. So I think there are a lot of places where there are problems, and the people in those homes are the victims of that, and the city has done nothing to help them, particularly the Mayor.” Kolstad – question 5

    6. “What I would say locally is that the city has tried to profit from this crisis [Everett: “oh definitely”] by adding fees to make it difficult for the people to turn over the properties, rehab them, and get them back on the market. The inspection sweep a couple years ago was a hardship for people in north Minneapolis [Everett: “caused a lot of foreclosures”], and it has to be looked at as a package – that people can't pay their mortgages if they're paying for inspection fees and the work orders that are imposed on people. So, basically, just leave people alone, but if you can bring jobs to Minneapolis, then you'll have people that can afford to pay the mortgage.” McGaughey – question 5