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CITY COUNCIL WARD 13 // voter's guide 2009

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By Cristof Traudes

In a city known for being awash in “blue” politics, Ward 13 is the closest thing to an anomaly. Sure, it’s currently represented by a DFLer — who has secured her party’s endorsement for a second go-around — but Southwest’s southwestern ward has been known to swing in a different direction. That makes this a race to watch, especially since the incumbent’s most vocal opponent is running on a familiar parties-separating platform: less taxes.

The incumbent is first-termer Betsy Hodges, a former development director at a legal non-profit and staff member for Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman. Hodges plays several important roles on the City Council, but key might be her position as chairwoman of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee. That job has her actively hopping between St. Paul and Minneapolis, sometimes Washington and Minneapolis, to keep the city’s needs on legislators’ minds. It also has made her an important middleman between the city and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, a position that puts her in the center of an ever-tense relationship.

She’s been a main spokeswoman for creating awareness of two pressures on taxpayers: the city’s ballooning pension fund obligations and the decreases in state-distributed Local Government Aid (LGA). Hodges has long advocated for pension fund reform, and she helped initiate an effort to research alternatives to LGA.

“I wish I could make promises about what the city will do in the next four years,” Hodges wrote in a letter on her campaign website. “I cannot.”

Opponent Kris Broberg, who is endorsed by both the Republican and Independence parties, was inspired by that dire tone. And while he said he agrees that the numbers are threatening, his belief is that first on the council’s financial to-do list should be to not increase property taxes.

Broberg said the city should go back to focusing almost exclusively on basic services, such as providing fire and police protection. The Community Planning and Economic Development department, for example, is too big, he said. And maybe the city should consider filing for bankruptcy, he said — at least before bankrupting its citizens.

His views come from a personal hope: to be able to continue affording life in Minneapolis. More property taxes, he said, are unacceptable.

“People can’t afford that,” Broberg said.

Joseph Henry, another newcomer, said there’s been too much complaining about taxes. His issues lie more with what he said Minneapolis seems to have lost, a culture that supports small businesses and the like. He said he understands that financial times are tough and that the answers aren’t easy, but he added that he’s willing to look for a new approach. A nine-year veteran of the Army Reserve, he said he learned a valuable lesson while deployed in Iraq.

“We didn’t always have the tools. And if we didn’t have the tools, we’d make the tools,” Henry said.

In Baghdad, that meant improvising a shower. In Minneapolis, that means coming up with a new thought process to stay a viable city, Henry said.

One idea he has: a $10,000 pay cut for each council member. That would open up $130,000 for other uses. Maybe, he said, the city would be able to hire more police officers.

Ward 13’s neighborhoods include Linden Hills, Fulton, Armatage, Kenny, Lynnhurst, West Calhoun and part of East Harriet.

THE CANDIDATES

Kris Broberg
Age: 38
Occupation: manager
Neighborhood: Linden Hills
Experience: concerned citizen; previously a City Council candidate in Robbinsdale, Minn.
Endorsements: Independence Party; Minneapolis Republicans
Website: krisbroberg.org
Phone: 432-8848
E-mail: kris@krisbroberg.org

Joseph Henry
Age: 31
Occupation: manager overseeing installation technicians for telecommunications company
Neighborhood: Armatage
Experience: nine years in U.S. Army Reserve
Phone: 730-0549

Betsy Hodges
Age: 40
Occupation: City Council
Neighborhood: Linden Hills
Experience: one term, City Council; former development director, Minnesota Justice Foundation
Endorsements: DFL, Stonewall DFL, Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, DFL Feminist Caucus, DFL Latino Caucus, Minneapolis Regional Labor Foundation, and more
Website: betsyhodges.org
Phone: 919-5327
E-mail: betsy@betsyhodges.org

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What price loyalty?

By Fredric Markus, October 31, 2009

Many discerning voters may have discovered by now that I've lent my name and my long-time political affiliation with the DFL in support of Kris Broberg, who runs for this office with the support of both the Independence and the Republican Parties.

Kris is making his first run for political office in a highly charged atmosphere. He has a fondness for limited government that might not be so salient were it not that we are entering "the seven lean years" episode that has begun to darken the economic horizon far beyond the capacities of our municipal government.

The incumbent city council has taken good care of Ward 13, especially in that we have been coasting along in the roseate glow of "the seven fat years". These good times actually began to falter some time back but it takes a while for changing market conditions to become inescapable.

The incumbent city council has been struggling with budget shortfalls that will become much more insistent in the time ahead. Facile consent agendas and well-nigh automatic green lights for developers will not continue to be the norm. LGA is likely to vanish because of chronic conditions at the state level no matter who becomes governor. Federal stimulus money will likely continue to flow from Washington in the short run but that too will falter for Minneapolis as other more challenged states and metropolitan areas compete for these dollars. The dollar itself is looking a bit anemic lately and that too is significant and beyond the control of a mere municipal government.

The incumbent city council has had a fairly easy time protecting the usual sources of economic wealth but that isn't going to be the case for the next city council, however populated. Brand loyalty - translated as routine acquiescence in the DFL's recipes for municipal success - will not be helpful when the usual atmosphere of government largesse vanishes beyond local and even regional recall.

In this situation, it's pretty hard to have a serious dialogue about cutbacks and achievable efficiencies when only one political voice is speaking. That's an argument for setting aside uncritical loyalty to the regime in power. That's an argument for introducing voices and personalities who are better aligned with the "bottom-line" mentality that prevails in market-based analysis.

I'm not sympathetic with the Milton Friedman school of economics that has been debunked by events. I am, however, keenly interested in seeing conservative approaches given their due respect in our city council and unthinking loyalty to the DFL movers and shakers doesn't countenance this. IMHO Kris is passionate about his beliefs, willing to learn from others, and shrewd enough to see past such persiflage as the DFL-sponsored attempt to corner the market on municipal financial planning by eliminating the Board of Estimate and Taxation.

This is not a good time for sheep. Being driven over a financial cliff by shepherds who are rigidly hierarchical is not a good idea, especially if those shepherds have ulterior motives that are much more fruitful for shepherds than they are for the hapless sheep.

By Fredric Markus, October 31, 2009