By Cristof Traudes

People who have attended public meetings in Minneapolis probably have seen Michael Katch. He’s the guy often found sitting through the lengthiest and widest variety of meetings, sometimes sneaking in conversations with public officials and visitors. When he’s not there, he’s probably still watching.

Katch, who lives Downtown, feels he’s got his thumb on the pulse of his community and his neighbors, largely because he makes it his goal to step out and meet people. He’s involved himself in numerous volunteer opportunities, joining Mad Dads, the organization that fights crime, and for three years sitting on the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee.

“I’m into [volunteering] up to my eyeballs,” Katch says.

He feels it’s his civic duty. People need to know what’s happening, he says, and as a City Council member, his hope would be to be that information provider. He’d also be a listener, he says, because the council needs to better hear its constituents and do more than just play into developers’ hands.

He wants the city to be less predatory on code inspections. He wants a more streamlined city government and a City Council that makes more common-sense decisions. (Putting a green roof atop the Target Center — not common sense, he says.)

“There are local issues that really need to be talked about,” Katch says.

His campaign will get those out there, he hopes.

ABOUT MICHAEL KATCH

Age: 48

Occupation: futures trader, citizen journalist

Family: married, Peggy; daughter

Neighborhood: Downtown West

Governmental/personal experience: frequent attendant of meetings; reports on government budget and finance for MPLSmirror.com; 1st Precinct block captain; three years on Citizens Budget Advisory Committee; social action committee, Families Moving Forward at Temple Israel

Endorsements: Republican Party, Independence Party

Website: under construction

Phone: 332-1108

E-mail: michael.katch2009@gmail.com

By jake weyer

By jake weyer

By Jake Weyer and Dylan Thomas