Mayor R.T. Rybak and the Minneapolis City Mayor and City Council appoint residents to Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission neighborhoods’ process yet-to-be-determined
Council took actions on February 6 to formalize the appointment of seven members of the city's newly formed Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission (NCEC). An additional eight appointees, to be selected by Minneapolis neighborhood organizations, will likely join the commission during the first half of 2009. The Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program Policy Board agreed on November 24 to help facilitate neighborhood meetings to discuss the process for making appointments to the NCEC if at least 60 percent of neighborhoods responded affirmatively. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board had earlier appointed Ami Thompson to represent it on the commission.
The February 6 council meeting debate on the appointments was at times sharp and emotional, with discussion about geographic, gender, and age diversity among the commission members identified as finalists. During a debate lasting 45 minutes, the full council voted 8-5 against an amendment by Council Member Schiff to remove the name of a male finalist in favor of another female finalist. The council later adopted by voice vote a Council Member Hodges amendment that directed the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department (NCR) staff to forward a request to the NCEC to "develop and recommend recruitment strategies for NCEC board member selection for both the city and neighborhood appointments that promote racial, ethnic, gender, age, and geographic diversity on the NCEC board." View City Council proceedings at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/ council/archives/proceedings/2009/2009.asp.
Appointed to 3-year terms by the council were Tony Anastasia, Ward 1, Audubon Park neighborhood; Jeffrey Strand, Ward 4, Shingle Creek neighborhood; Ed Newman, Ward 7, Loring Park neighborhood; and appointed to 2-year terms by the council were David Crockett, Ward 6, Stevens Square/Loring Heights neighborhood; Breanne Rothstein, Ward 11, Windom neighborhood. Mayor Rybak's appointee for a 3-year term was Crystal Johnson, Ward 5, Near North neighborhood; and his appointee for a 2-year term was Matt Perry, Ward 13, East Harriet/Farmstead neighborhood. Perry served as co-chair of the Community Engagement Task Force that issued recommendations in November 2007.
Council Vice-President Robert Lilligren, who had successfully shepherded much of the NCR and NCEC process through the so-named NRP Working Group and the Committee of the Whole, restated the need for community engagement reform contained in the City's Framework for the Future because of the December 31, 2009 sunset of state legislation that has funded the NRP, along with the expiration after December 31, 2011 of the NRP Joint Powers Agreement. NRP Policy Board Chair County Commissioner Gail Dorfman and NRP Director Robert Miller have communicated planning information to neighborhood organizations concerning a February 21 facilitated meeting that is "an open meeting that welcomes attendance by any person interested in helping develop the process for selecting the neighborhood representatives" to the NCEC. The NRP letter indicated that neither NRP nor City staff will attend the meeting. Only the registered representatives from the neighborhood organizations will be permitted to vote on the process to be used for selection. Although 68 percent of the neighborhoods affirmed their intent to participate in the February 21 meeting, as of February 13 there were 16 neighborhood organizations that had not submitted name(s) of a registered representative to the NRP in order to have a vote.
Once the full complement of appointees has been named to the NCEC, North Minneapolis resident David Rubedor (appointed in December 2008 by City Coordinator Steven Bosacker as the senior project manager for the NCR) will be responsible for managing the transition and working with Minneapolis neighborhoods, elected officials and staff, the NCEC, and city residents to develop the future of neighborhood and community engagement programming and planning in Minneapolis.
Editor's Note: Jeff Strand is a City Council appointee to the Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission and also an elected 2009 Protection Neighborhood Representative on the NRP Policy Board.