| |
|
|
By Jake Weyer
After roughly 40 years of living and working in Minneapolis, Meg Tuthill, best known for her family-run balloon business at 25th & Hennepin, is making her first run for public office.
The 60-year-old Lowry Hill East resident and co-owner of Tuthill’s Balloon Emporium launched her campaign for the Ward 10 City Council seat in early December. She said she hopes to bring “better representation” to constituents.
“I love this place. I live here. I do business here,” Tuthill said. “I don’t just weekend here or evening here — I live and work in Minneapolis, so I see a lot of stuff going on, and what the city does and doesn’t do affects our daily life a lot.”
What the city isn’t doing as well as it could, Tuthill said, is focusing on local issues. She said she worries that City Hall is often “wasting its time” on too broad of issues, such as a resolution to end the war in Iraq or a ban on circus animals — both issues current Ward 10 Council Member Ralph Remington has introduced.
“[A City Council member’s] job is to look at local issues, things that affect the day-to-day living in the city of Minneapolis,” Tuthill said. “Issues that should be handled at the state and federal level should be handled at the state and federal level. Things we can have some impact on should be handled at the City Council.”
Tuthill said her campaign focuses on improving safety and environmental sustainability, getting the foreclosure crisis under control and making the city’s budget more transparent. Improving how the budget is managed is another priority, she said.
“One of the things that’s important is I bring a business background to the City Council, and they haven’t had a business background in a long time,” Tuthill said. “I know from being in business for a long time that we make a lot of tough decisions on money.”
Tuthill has lived in Minneapolis since she was 19. She and husband Dennis started out in the dairy business and eventually moved on to the balloon and party-supply operation they run now. They have always lived nearby.
“It just made sense to work where you live,” Tuthill said. “Before anyone was talking about energy shortages, it just made sense to us to not commute.”
She has a long history of community activism: She served several times on the board of directors for her neighborhood association, led efforts to clean alleys and preserve area homes and parks, and has participated in city development processes. She has also spent much of her spare time volunteering in Minneapolis Public Schools.
ABOUT MEG TUTHILL
Age: 60
Occupation: co-owner, Tuthill’s Balloon Emporium
Family: husband, Dennis; three grown children, Carmen, Mitch and Matthew
Neighborhood: The Wedge
Governmental/personal experience: founding member, Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association; frequent neighborhood voice at City Council committees; 30-year volunteer at Minneapolis Public Schools; founding member, South Hennepin Business Association
Endorsements: DFL, DFL Feminist Caucus, Stonewall DFL, Minneapolis Building and Construction Trades Council, Teamsters Joint Council 32 DRIVE, Sierra Club, Minnesota Women's Political Caucus, WomenWinning
Website: www.megtuthill.com
Phone: 377-3123
E-mail: megfor10thward@gmail.com
Updated July 27
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Civic beat // Mayor’s 2011 budget
By jake weyer
Safety, streets top mayor’s 2011 budgetPolice, potholes, paychecks and pension payments were the priorities of Mayor R.T. Rybak’s 2011 budget proposal, delivered Aug. 16 to a standing-room-only crowd in City Hall. Noting that the city faced tremendous challenges in the midst of the “great recession,” Rybak said his budget focused on the basics, but his speech also lauded the city’s history of overcoming obstacles through responsible stewardship and forward thinking. His address drew on the story of Earl Bakken, who created the first transistorized heart pacemaker during the Great Depression in northeast Minneapolis. His company evolved into Medtronic, one of the world’s largest medical-technology
Full Article
|
|
|
|
|
City council actions // Technology contract
By jake weyer
Aug. 6 meeting Council approves extending technology contract
After a heated debate, the City Council at its Aug. 6 regular meeting narrowly approved a three-year, $33.9 million contract extension with its technology services provider, Unisys Corp.
The council voted 8-5 on the measure, with advocates saying the company — responsible for the city’s computer network and related services — has done a good job and the extension would save the city roughly $1.5 million. Opponents said the city should seek other bids, especially in a field that is growing faster than anything else.
City staff initially recommended a four-year, $45 million extension, but Council Member Betsy Hodges (13th Ward) truncated the
Full Article
|
|
|
|
|
Voters turn out for hot, early primary
By Jake Weyer and Dylan Thomas
Primary participation highest since 2000With a DFL gubernatorial race as hot as the weather on the line, voters surpassed primary predictions Aug. 10, migrating not to their cabins but to the polls in numbers not seen in a decade. The unofficial tally from the Secretary of State indicated that out of 3,806,763 eligible voters, 589,814 (15.5 percent) showed up at the polls statewide. The last time a primary drew such a crowd was in 2000, when 602,690 voters (17.19 percent) cast a ballot. That’s despite worries that the early primary, moved up a month to give overseas absentee voters more time to submit a ballot, might stifle voting. It didn’t, but some voters, including Terry Crouchet, who cast her ballot at Linden Hills Recreation
Full Article
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
