Thread by @WedgeLIVE

Tomorrow: another meeting of the Charter Commission's Government Structure Work Group, where they continue pursuit of a strong mayor system of government.

They produced a report based on conversations with unnamed former elected officials. But how am I supposed to assess their opinions if I can't know who they are?
lims.minneapolismn.gov/Download/File/…

Like, are these 2008-era elected officials talking about how great a job they did with their crisis compared to today's crew of feckless council members? It will remain a mystery.

This comes after last month's report summarizing conversations with department heads.

https://twitter.com/WedgeLIVE/status/1338559380757864452

This is exactly right. Don't trade away responsiveness and transparency so you can have a strong leader who cuts out all the disagreement and divisive personalities.

None of the former elected officials like the idea of giving the mayor a line item veto, which is something the Charter Commission's work group is considering

As long as we're asking them about the mayor's catch phrases, how do they feel about policy for breakfast?

Here's an argument: give the mayor more power and it will attract better mayors.

Former elected officials giving political advice to the charter commission: if you want to diminish the power of the council to strengthen the mayor, don't give it a name that tells people that's what you're doing.

I'm still puzzling over this one. We were all focused on the mayor's direct authority over a corrupt and abusive police department. Then the charter commission decided to have a different conversation about giving the mayor that authority over all the rest of the departments.

It would have to go on the ballot to be approved by voters.

https://twitter.com/MeesterGibbs/status/1346251541112504320

It's not a "strong mayor" charter amendment, it's about making city government work like Star Trek. In this analogy, the public works department is an alien civilization.
lims.minneapolismn.gov/Download/File/…

This commission decided to preserve a 60 yr old relic of police union politics (minimum MPD staffing), when most of them thought it had no place in the charter, bc that's just how it's always been. But we go 3 yrs without Council President Barb and it's time to pull the rip cord.