The Elk River paper, Star News, reports:
[O]n October 1, area officials, leaders and veterans hope to learn a little more when U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., comes back to the Elk River American Legion to host another CBOC discussion.
The meeting starts at 2 p.m.
Elk River City Administrator Lori Johnson said since those interested in submitting bids didn’t need to get city approval, she’s not positive on who actually submitted bids.
The city offered letters of support on behalf of contractors and companies, but isn’t sure if the bids were ever submitted to the VA.
“We were in contact with about eight companies, she said, “but again we don’t know if they actually submitted,” said Johnson.
Bob Kircher, Anoka’s city community development director, said at the last city council meeting members reacted to developer Ryan Companies’ four bid proposals.
The Anoka County Board was also in on the action and endorsed Ramsey for the clinic months ago.
Throughout the entire CBOC process there have been a lot of unknowns.
It all started in 2004 when the comprehensive plan, called CARES, Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, specifically named Elk River as an optimal site for the new clinic.
However, since then “Elk River” was changed to “northwest metro,” leaving lots of area veterans in the dark about where the new clinic would end up.
Then in May, Bachmann arranged for Steven Kleinglass, the director of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, to come to the Elk River American Legion and give veterans, along with county and city officials, some of the awaited information.
From that discussion it was learned the clinic would end up along the Highway 10 corridor between Anoka and Elk River, and rumors about a pre-selected Maple Grove location were somewhat put to rest.
A follow-up meeting also happened in July, where Kleinglass gave the same information, once again confirming the perimeters.
Italics added. Playing favorites that way is yet more reason for Anoka County voters to reject Bachmann's reelection effort. And there certainly is cause for Ramsey officials, if they care to be reasonably inquisitive, to contact the Bachmann congressional office for a public explanation of what she has against Anoka County and City of Ramsey - why she is playing favoritism games during difficult real estate market times. Has she some kind of grudge? Is she that close to Mary Kiffmeyer and Mark Olson, fellow GOP uber-rightwing Sherburne County politicians?
What's up?
Mayor Bob, Administrator Kurt, are you there? Are you sleeping at the switch? Don't you care about this apparent unfairness? With two politically arranged past meetings in the competing area, and now a third one in Elk River with VA officials, but none in Anoka County, it sure appears as if something's afoot.
________UPDATE_________
An earlier version of this update is rewritten.
I spoke by phone to City of Ramsey mayor Bob Ramsey. One thing he said is he is positive the VA clinic planning and commitment has been years in the making, dating back to the Bush presidency years, and is not tied to stimulus bill spending.
I had written based on the premise that the VA outpatient clinic timing was related to stimulus policy.
After getting an email from Bob - identical to the comment he left to this post - things look more promising than my thoughts in the original post considered as a worse case situation. My hope that the City of Ramsey was on top of things proved true. Also the suspicion that there might be some Michele Bachmann motive in favoring Elk River with multiple meetings not held elsewhere was quelled, via a simple explanation.
Because some readers skip comments I am elevating Bob's text into an update:
Eric,
I can find no evidence that the Congresswomen is playing any favorites. The reason that the meetings have been, and still are held, in Elk River is that they have an American Legion, which is considered neutral ground, and the meetings started there.
Believe me, we are not asleep at the switch. The city of Ramsey is well positioned. I am very happy with our chances in getting the clinic in Ramsey.
Thanks,
Bob Ramsey
It appears from what the mayor wrote and from the phone conversation that the VA staff is being allowed to make a professional decision based on its best discretionary judgment without politics too much at play.
I had thought the clinic spending - now - probably was tied to and the result of the Obama stimulus bill, and since Congresswoman Bachmann opposed that and voted against it I did not think it proper if six months from now she steps up and claims credit for something she did nothing of substance to fund. Her doctrinaire post-Bush intransigence against "earmarks" is well known; and a local VA clinic is precisely the kind of thing "earmarking," at its best, seems to achieve. Yet she apparently has not claimed to have been instrumental, either way, in the VA decision to site a clinic in the north metro. Nor was it earmarking. It was a VA agency decision based on demographics and having larger facilities in Minneapolis and St. Cloud without any more convenient outpatient care in between.
I think wrongly taking credit would be error and insult. And it would particularly be so, if a siting decision is made in six months and there is a groundbreaking ceremony where mere months before the election for Sixth District representation in Congress, Michele Bachmann were to step up and then loudly claim credit. Yet now, from the evidence I have, it appears unlikely that Congresswoman Bachmann is now claiming credit nor planning to later do so.
Ideally, without political pressures about siting behind the scenes and with each bidding site being judged entirely on the merits, and with the Ramsey officials vigorous in seeking a fair politics-free decision, the hope is that whatever site is chosen will be what's best for area veterans. And this appears to be the case.
If Bachmann supporter or ideally Bachmann staff insiders read this and have contrary evidence that Bachmann effort somehow was substantially more instrumental in clinic decision making within VA and in gaining clinic funding, I hope to receive an email or have a comment promptly added.
A hat tip again to Mayor Ramsey for clarifying details.
And if Congresswoman Bachmann is only impartially facilitating siting a clinic somewhere as the mayor's statements imply, and not playing favorites or looking to claim inordinate credit, a hat tip to her also for impartiality and restraint.
Given that there is current blog writing about naming one significant bill or other accomplishment Bachmann has done for the Sixth District since first going to Congress, I believe it is important that I clarify things as best as I understand them - that Bachmann has not been instrumental in funding or siting decision making by the VA in deciding to establish a north metro outpatient site somewhere in the north metro suburban area, but that she has acted to facilitate information flow via multiple meetings between concerned local communities, their public and their officials being able to converse with officials from the VA; and that this was done with local impartiality by facilitating arrangements for meetings at a convenient and proper venue in Elk River.
It appears my three concerns, that City of Ramsey officials were inattentive, that favoritism vs. impartiality might exist, and that Ms. Bachmann was poised to claim undue credit, have each been satisfied as not actually being the case.
My further understanding is that earlier there might have been premature VA indications that Elk River was closer to having the clinic than may be the case at present, with experiences the VA had in the Duluth area leading the agency to be more cognizant of wanting to hear all voices and to weigh all proposals before final siting; and that with differing persons within the VA having management oversight over time it has been a fluid and changing thing and will remain so until final decision.
It appears this was all internal to the VA and hinged on assessment of service needs and budgeting over time, since 2004 [as the quoted news report mentions], and the final decision and earlier decision making was and will be uninfluenced by local Sixth District politics. Nor should anyone outside of the VA claim any undue political credit for things.
Congresswoman Bachmann did oppose stimulus action, and has been vocal post-Bush about earmarks, however, this entire range of VA clinic decision making, from the evidence I have after speaking with Bob Ramsey, was never tied to the stimulus spending nor was it ever an earmark project.
BOTTOM LINE AS I UNDERSTAND IT: Veterans qualifying for VA care can thank the agency itself, independent of the Obama administration and those in Congress willing to pass stimulus spending or those opposing it, and veterans can thank Bachmann only so far as she may have impartially helped speed information flow in advance of final siting consideration and decision. But they should be thankful for that step.
................
I hope my blog troll posts something about not wanting to be taxed so that veterans can get healthcare - since it is consistent with all else she's put into comments.
Should I expect such consistency, or is it time for the troll to wave a flag?
Flag waving is something she does frequently, whenever convenient to her. Yet opposing publicly funded healthcare for specific earmarked groups is the position that would be consistent with her anti-tax, anti-government services worldview.
She cannot have it both ways, not in a consistently sane decision making world.
To the extent earlier speculation differs with this update, my reliance on information from the mayor, and its hanging together and making sense, makes me believe I had to rewrite this update, which I did promptly on learning what Bob had to say.
__________FURTHER UPDATE________
It would be remiss of Bachmann staff to not have a Google Alert set for "Michele Bachmann" and "Bachmann" and to comb the web for commentary and reporting to know what is there. The Bachmann campaign staff, locally, has to know what I have posted, this paragraph in particular:
If [a] Bachmann supporter or ideally Bachmann staff insiders read this and have contrary evidence that Bachmann effort somehow was substantially more instrumental in clinic decision making within VA and in gaining clinic funding, I hope to receive an email or have a comment promptly added.
My guess is the Congresswoman and staff will understand that there's no advantage to making any later excessive claim for undue credit beyond facilitating meetings and information flow assistance, which is not to be marginalized, but also is far from asserting there would have been no clinic but for Bachmann effort.
Should undue credit be claimed, it probably would be easy for the DFL challenger at that point to promptly and decisively debunk the notion, by press release and/or in debate. I would expect the DFL would pin down the VA history, with VA officials, well in advance of the final months of campaigning. I would expect nobody at VA would want to see the thing politicized, or to be politically used.
The Bachmann campaign has to already understand they lose credibility by overstatement.