Hofstede Staff Timer, It's Been Awhile

Up until yesterday, it had been 680 days since the Diane Hofstede staff timer had been updated.  But the process of entropy had almost surely continued unabated during that time.  There just HAD to be staff members who were fired or left or were temps or all of the above, who would have reset the timer if I'd known about them.  Sort of like a Schroedinger's staff member who is neither hired nor fired until I find out about him or her, at which point they instantly lose their job.  Who can really know the state of existence of a Hofstede staffer?  All we know is that the level of chaos likely stayed the same or increased.

I heard rumors, of course, but nothing from a source who would even want to give me information off the record.  So the timer remained in that state until yesterday.  That's when multiple credible sources told me three very interesting things...

Political Speeches at Lowry Bridge Opening

Post and videos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

Every so often, I find myself turning into the north Minneapolis version of C-SPAN.  We have these great events, like the opening of the Lowry Bridge, and of course a parade of politicians have to have their say.  Most of the time, what's said is predictable (thanks to the community and the workers and the fellow politicians and the businesses and the children, etc.), although even in this set of speeches we have a few surprises.

In any case, these are our community leaders, and what they have to say at an event like this should be recorded and readily available.  That's where this blog comes in.

Several of our speakers touted the new bike lanes, and there was that surprise...

How to Have a Stadium Referendum in North Minneapolis

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Top document from the city of Minneapolis, bottom image from the Daily Norseman blog.

The Vikings Stadium bill is moving along in the state legislature, and morphing too often and too quickly to keep up with on this blog.  But one key provision that our mayor and seven council members have turned their back on is the fact that the Minneapolis city charter specifically calls for a citywide referendum on any stadium funding greater than $10 million.  At the city council meeting that produced a 7-6 vote in favor of the stadium (Rybak calls that strong support), the city's chief financial officer was asked what the total cost to the city of Minneapolis through 2046 would be for this stadium proposal.

$675 million.

Now I might not be as smart as these people, so I pulled out my calculator to double-check a few things.  And just to be sure I didn't get mixed up with all these newfangled smartphone calculators, I used one that's fifteen years old and only goes up to eight digits.  $67,500,000 minus $10,000,000 equals $57,500,000.  I know I'm missing a zero in there somewhere, but I'm not too good at math and can't figure out where to put it.  Anyway, as best as I can figure, we're allocating far more than ten million in city resources under this proposal, and yet eight of our Minneapolis elected officials are ignoring the referendum requirement.

As an aside, the city attorney has issued a verbal opinion, not a written one, and that this is okey-dokey because the state collects these taxes and gives them back to the city or lets us use them or converts them into unique monetary units that only the Vikings faithful can see, or something like that.  We don't really know, because this is a VERBAL opinion and not written out.  In my opinion, the mayor and city attorney are selling the gang of seven short.  I find it extraordinarily flimsy for a $675,000,000 decision to be made on verbal guidance alone.  If there were a written opinion, then the support that the seven CM's gave would have more weight at least.

So if there's going to be no referendum, what do we do in north Minneapolis?

Goodbye Again, Diane Hofstede

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, John Denver video from Youtube.

The Star Tribune blog reports today that another aide to 3rd Ward Council Member Diane Hofstede is set to resign.  Within minutes of that article being posted, calls were coming in that the Hofstede Staff Timer needed to be reset.  With that task taken care of, the only question was what would be the lead photo or video for the corresponding blog post?  "Another One Bites the Dust" was the obvious choice, but that was already taken on the Issues Forum, and I needed something more original.  I went with "Goodbye Again" by John Denver primarily because this particular video inexplicably opens with Denver gazing at a hawk.  It seemed apropos.

The question on people's minds now is whether we'll see aide number 30 by Christmas.  For the sake of the third ward, let's hope not.

The Hofstede Staff Timer

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photo from Johnny Northside.

An anonymous comment came in on the most recent blog post since I installed the latest widget on this blog.  In the observance of what I call "threadiquette," I'm creating a new post where a discussion around the issue of Hofstede's staff turnover (and my treatment of it on this blog) can take place.