Star Tribune
Minnesota Legislature task force offers six recommendations for reforming Met Council
A group tasked by the Legislature with reforming the Metropolitan Council will wrap up its work Thursday — but has not settled on a single proposal for restructuring the regional planning board.
The Met Council — a powerful body with a wide range of responsibilities and a $1.4 billion budget — has long been criticized for lacking transparency and accountability, in part due to its members being appointed by Minnesota’s governor. The body oversees public transportation, wastewater treatment, land-use rules, affordable housing and public parks in the seven-county metro area.
The 17-member task force, which has been meeting since August, was tasked with analyzing various approaches to structuring the Met Council, including how its members should be picked. Task force members include legislators, citizens and nonprofit directors, some who have been critical of the Met Council over time and others who favor the status quo.
No single model or idea was favored by a majority of the task force, and the group is instead offering six separate proposals. The Legislature, which begins its session Feb. 12, will have the final say on what the council will look like in the future.
But the group did agree the Met Council has an accountability problem, said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, the task force’s chair.
“There is widespread agreement that the Met Council governance needs to be fixed — I think what we found is that there are a variety of approaches,” Hornstein, a former Met Council member who called the governance problems “far-reaching” and “regional.”
What’s the problem?
Several other groups have reviewed the Met Council in the past, including one organized by the Citizen’s League in 2016 and a blue-ribbon panel convened by the governor in 2020. The Legislative Auditor looked at the Met Council in 2011, suggesting its members be both elected and appointed.
Sen. Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, the task force’s vice chair, said the Met Council has done some things well, such as regionalizing the wastewater treatment system.
“But when it comes to housing and land use, there’s a discrepancy between the urban and suburban communities,” he said, adding that it’s seemed like Hennepin County and the Met Council have wanted to control how some suburbs grow.
This is the first time the Legislature called for an examination of Met Council governance.
Sam Rockwell, a task force member and executive director of Move Minnesota, a nonprofit advocating for environmentally-friendly transportation, said the latest wave of interest was largely prompted by debates over the Southwest light-rail line being built by the Met Council.
The project “really spurred the folks in the Legislature to say they want to see something different,” he said.
Met Council spokeswomanTerri Dresen said in a statement that the council appreciates the task force’s work and looks forward “to the continued discussion on how to best serve the region going forward.”
The Southwest light-rail project, which will extend the Green Line and link downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie, is a decade behind schedule and more than $1 billion over budget.
Mary Pattock, a task force member who lives near the proposed light-rail line and part of a group that unsuccessfully sued to stop it, noted that it is the most costly public works project in Minnesota history.
Her neighborhood has seen the fallout from the light-rail project so far, including the loss of hundreds of trees, she said. Cracks formed in the Cedar Isles condominiums’ hallway during the construction of a half-mile long tunnel in the narrow Kenilworth Corridor, and the condo’s underground parking garage flooded after a water main break in 2022.
“Over and over again, our neighborhood said the Met Council is not listening,” she said, adding that neighborhood residents predicted its problems.
New proposals
The task force’s restructuring recommendations fall into three categories:
- Making the Met Council an elected body
- Keeping it as an appointed body
- Restructuring it into a “council of governments” — a regional planning group comprised of elected city and county leaders
Five proposals, including two submitted by Pratt, called for substantial change. A model put forth by Edina Mayor James Hovland suggested keeping aspects of the Met Council the same but moving to staggered terms, adding more members to the Met Council nominating committee and requiring a public comment period after members are nominated but before they’re appointed.
Dibble’s proposal suggests the Met Council be divided into two separate bodies that share planning responsibility, one a civic council comprised of mostly directly elected members and the other a council of governments in which appointees are chosen by caucuses of their peers. The council of governments would be consulted on all civic council decisions, could require those decisions be reconsidered and may veto civic council decisions with a 2/3 vote. In turn, the civic council can override that veto.
Hornstein said he supports Dibble’s proposal because it combined multiple ideas. He hopes it “will carry the day at the Legislature.”
Hennepin County Commissioner Marion Greene offered a plan for a directly elected Metropolitan Council, with staggered terms.
Pattock suggests separating the Met Council and Metro Transit. The Met Council would be a council of governments appointed by the governor according to specific criteria and funded by the legislature. Metro Transit would be a “special district” governed by a board of directors, most of whom are elected and can vote. Of the 15 voting members, three would be from Hennepin County and two from each of the other metro counties.
Pratt created two different models, the first a 40-member council of governments model where each member would represent a proportional district and be picked by a committee. The group would hire an executive director and pick a chair.
“I want the Met Council representatives [to be] closer to the communities they serve,” Pratt said, adding that this plan takes partisanship out of the equation.
Pratt’s second idea also calls for a 40-member council of governments model, with members appointed by the governor.
Some task force members are optimistic the Legislature will make changes based on their report, while others are doubtful.
“What’s news is that we’ve given [the Legislature] a recipe for approaching the problem,” Pattock said.
Hornstein said lawmakers might have their own ideas on how to blend different proposals into something new.
“If I have one message, it’s that the status quo is not tenable and the governance of this organization has to change,” Hornstein said.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
ST. CLOUD – On Tuesday, St. Cloud voters will be asked to make decisions on a new fire station and moving city elections to odd years, and — for those who live in Stearns County — how to fund a new county jail.
Here’s a look at the three referendum questions that are on St. Cloud-area ballots this year.
Ballot question: “Shall Stearns County be authorized to impose a sales tax & use tax of three-eighths of one percent to finance up to $325 million, plus associated bonding costs, for the construction of a justice center facility, consisting of law enforcement, judicial center and jail? The sales tax would be used solely to finance construction, upgrades and financing costs for the justice center and remain in effect for 30 years or until the project is paid for, whichever comes first. These services and facilities are mandated by the state of Minnesota to be provided by counties.”
Stearns County officials are planning to build a new $325 million justice center complex that includes a 270-bed jail, a judicial center with courtrooms, and a law enforcement center that houses the Sheriff’s Office. In the summer, Stearns County board members voted to move those facilities out of downtown and to a new location with more space. That site has yet to be determined.
The question before voters is how to fund that center.
County Administrator Mike Williams said a common misconception he’s heard at recent town halls is residents think voting “yes” gives permission to the county to build the facility, and if they vote “no,” the county won’t spend the money to build it.
“People [think they] are voting on the project — and they’re not. They’re voting on how we are going to fund it,” Williams said.
If voters approve the ballot question, the county will impose a sales tax to fund the project. If they vote it down, the county can instead pay for the project with property taxes.