I am reporting to you as one of the two “public members” of the newly established Task Force on Metropolitan Governance, created last year by a nearly unanimous vote of legislators alarmed by the Met Council’s management of Southwest LRT construction. This legislation to reform the Met Council was authored by our own Rep. Frank Hornstein and Sen. Scott Dibble.
For readers new to this issue, SWLRT, originally pegged at $1.2 billion, is now pushing $3 billion, and is at least four years behind schedule.
In my view, the problem to be solved by the task force is how the council can be reorganized — perhaps into more than one agency — so that its vast and complex functions are discharged competently, with credibility and accountability.
Currently, the council is charged with planning metro-area transit, parks, affordable housing, water wastewater treatment, and coordination of municipal planning, while it also operates Metro Transit. All of its members are appointed by the governor and because of the complexity of these issues, the organization is staff-driven. This leaves residents thinking: where do our concerns enter into Met Council decision-making?
At the task force’s September 27 meeting, Dakota County Commissioner Mary Liz Holberg, who chaired Governor Walz’s 2020 Blue Ribbon Panel on the Met Council, put her finger on one reason reform is so important:
"The Met Council never goes to bat for the metro versus greater Minnesota. The Met Council goes to bat for the governor's agenda under this structure. And so, historically, lacking a metropolitan organization that's divorced from the governor, I think, over the years has been very detrimental for the area."
You can follow the work of the task force, and sign up for email notifications of its meetings at: https://www.lcc.mn.gov/mgtf/
Please watch the news for opportunities to testify or submit written comments to the task force.
