9/21/12
Three weeks ago, Hennepin County held an informational meeting about their new trail project. Talking to some who were there, it was well attended by residents of a few cities in the Shorewood area. Interestingly, all of Shorewood's council attended along with Sundberg and Sylvester (council candidates) and some City staff.
At the 9/10 council meeting, County Board member Jan Callison (Minnetonka) spoke about some trends at the county level and mentioned the trail project (see: http://lmcc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=674 for the video of this near the beginning of the session). Of course, Callison is running for re-election and her appearance at the council meeting was nothing more than a chance to get local visibility.
Watching the video, one can see that Lizee, Zerby, Hotvet and Siakel fall all over themselves praising the county for the trail project and the meeting about it. Then, Woodruff asks the hard question about why the project is exclusively walking trails and no bike trail needs are being considered. Amazingly, Callison says she didn't know this was the case and would look into it.
So, how can a $250,000 trail project study get funded by Hennepin County and voted for by Callison without her knowing it's only for walking trails? Also, why didn't one of the other Shorewood council members ask the question before Woodruff? Maybe they were so busy making nice to Callison, they forgot?
Happy Reading!
The Isnider
Why do these people even run for office? What's the point?
ReplyDeleteDoes running for re-election automatically make Comm. Callison guilty of something? If so, what? Why the tone towards her? Instead of remaining silent as you do so often when asked a question, Insider, it's time for you to explain.
ReplyDeleteInsider, perhaps you and I watched different meetings. Comm. Callison's main objective appeared to have been that of bringing Council up to speed on HC's 2013 budget process, and other HC studies such as potential changes to emerg. dispatch services which could cost cities money.
ReplyDeleteCallison didn't initiate the trail study conversation. She commented after Zerby brought it up, and all council members, including Woodruff, commented about it being a good workshop. And, her response to that not so tough question was she would have expected bikes would be included and would follow-up.
She never mentioned she was running for re-election.
But I'm sure she'll be glad you're reminding people she's on the ballot.
You're off base on this.