Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Two ABC Newspaper online items, one giving notice of an adult health survey to be conducted in Anoka County.

First, there is Sakry's report of the Elvig trial resulting in a jury guilty verdict, here. As usual with Sakry's reporting, it is tightly written but detailed. Have a look. No excerpt needed.

The one aspect of the report that I will digress on, Sakry reported Elvig's defense attorney to be "Richard Malacko" and while I could not track down a specific business website for him, it appears from contact info given here that he is affiliated with noted Twin Cities defense attorney Earl Gray.

Everyone should know of a defense attorney, if ever needed, and if in custody and/or subjected to any police questioning where self-incrimination is even a remote possibility, nobody should do anything but exercise the Constitutional right to counsel, while declining to say anything beyond making the request for counsel, until counsel can be contacted and then you follow what the lawyer says, as he/she knows more of what's best than you do. Some police personnel might prefer you do otherwise, that being something that can make their job easier, but others - I cannot say most vs a minority - have due respect for the rights of every citizen under our Constitution, including those such as Miranda warnings, need for probable cause to arrest or search, etc.

County Adult Health Survey. It appears the survey will be by randomized selection and mailing; detail reported online, here. The report states

The survey will be mailed to approximately 3,300 households starting the third week of April and asks questions about residents’ access to health care, nutrition, physical activity, tobacco use and other social, physical and mental health-related issues.

Results will provide specific data on health risk behaviors and the overall health status of adult residents in the county.

All households have an equal chance of being sampled [... and] information gathered from individuals will be confidential.

Wilder Research, based in St. Paul, will be conducting the survey on behalf of Anoka County Community Health and Environmental Services.

Okay, that last paragraph put me on point - can any reader help, is Wilder Research a generic survey firm, or one having a past history of political survey work for one of the two major parties in Minnesota? The process of choosing a survey consultant piques my interest as much as detail of what will be surveyed and how the data will be used.

So, is there any crony or partisan dimension to the choice or Wilder Research, or not? I know nothing of the firm, and have no cause to believe partisanship/cronyism at play, but it is something we, as citizens, should always be aware of as a possibility, since our vigilance can lessen likelihoods of partisan abuse.

For those interested, there is a Wilder Research web presence suggesting it to be a fully professional operation; e.g., here, here, here, and here listing staff. If any of those staff names ring any reader's partisanship bell, please leave a comment.

Online, the only political thing I found, a Wilder employee exercising personal rights, in a pro-DFL manner; but one person does not prove any trend.

The foundation publishes an online financial statement, and is noted here, for awareness of 501(c)(3) cautionary awareness, per listed publication 7, "Avner, Marcia. The Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations, (Amherst H. Wilder Foundation)."

With the present county board having a Republican majority, and with a Wilder Foundation awareness of the rules, it looks to be a squeaky clean choice of consultancy. No local legislator on the consultancy payroll sort of stuff; and with but one individual actively supporting DFL candidacies being all I found. It is no GOP hotbed being favored by a GOP dominated county board, or at least that appearance seems wholly absent, which is good. Reader comment is welcome.

UPDATE: One further Wilder publication listed as a reference re "Strategic Planning and the Public Sector," here, "Barry, Bryan W. (1997). Strategic planning workbook for nonprofit organizations. St. Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation." Photo caption, hosting a debate, here. It all looks sound and fully above board, crony free, and that's great. That being said despite a strong bias and skepticism about the general efficacy of planners and planning. Having objective survey based data on adult health parameters in Anoka County before any policy decisions about county adult healthcare only makes sense. Otherwise policy is set in a vacuum.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
PiPress publishes on the Elvig trial outcome, adding no real substantive detail beyond what Strib and ABC Newspapers already have online.

GROUNDHOG DAY in Ramsey Minnesota.

Original online photo - Shoreview MN - here


While there is no alarm clock radio playing Sonny and Cher, brewing morning coffee and looking out the backyard window, fresh April snowfall, deer tracks around the bird feeder stations and foraging in the yard, there is this day repeating itself too frequently mid-April. Enough already.

Putting out the backyard rain gauge is what did it. The rain gauge saw its shadow.

Bird migration season overlapping continued snow falls means the flocks will be thinned this year by winter but that keeping the feeders freshened means more now than usual in terms of helping the over-wintering birds and those moving north to summer habitat.

photo credit, this link - click to enlarge and enjoy
On top of the Groundhog Day dimension of continually waking into the same fresh snow day, the one cable channel last night as a late evening feature film ran Fargo. Not the best of weather to be trying to run a wood chipper, but that's apart from my deja vu regard for the snow into July prognosis.

All those people with their riding lawnmowers, waiting, watching ...

Monday, April 22, 2013

Ramsey - This one leaves me puzzled. I have guesses, informed guesses I can make, but I expect there may be a reader out there more informed to help make sense of things.

Here is the screen capture - a notice from Blogger of a comment offered and queued up for blog author moderation (click it to enlarge and read):


This is a comment offered hours ago, for a post from October of last year????

That is, with the comment of Ryan Bakke responded to months later, so, why now?

Helpful reader comment, even speculative in nature, is welcome.

I have a guess, only a guess, and I will defer to anyone wanting to speculate, especially if going on record in the comments to this post, name given vs. anonymous.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Putting out the trash. UPDATED - piling on and hints with innuendo.

... and when did she know it?

Screenshot below, from Des Moines Register, online, this link.

click the image to enlarge and read

MinnPost, here, and lead Glean item, here.

Readers can do a web search = Michele Bachmann Andy Parrish

It will return links with more than anyone really might want to know.

Big Question

When will voters in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional district put out the trash?

_____________UPDATE_____________
Piling on. Things get curious. Strange winds blowing ...

Who would you ever expect to dump a load on Michele Bachmann ... and who shows up?

dumpbachmann.com has gone offline for general readers.



So, who is to pick up the guantlet, to suggest back-handledly or directly that Michele Bachmann is past her shelf life pull date, and should be treated accordingly?

And with whatever motives?

(Besides me, since I did put up this post.}

Come on. Try a guess. No? Okay --

http://www.anokacountywatchdog.com/

At this link, the Taxpayer League's Chairman unloads:

IS BACHMANN OK?

It's time the conservative family had a conversation.

Since we're in regular contact with thousands of freedom loving folks across this great state, we know what you're thinking.

And you're thinking that Michelle Bachmann may be in trouble for 2014.

You're thinking that she has taken on water and may be taking on more, instead of bailing out the boat.

There's nothing wrong with having that conversation.

In fact, now is that time to start that conversation.

Silence masquerading as party loyalty is downright disloyal and is a form aiding and abetting our political opponents.

That kind of thinking has produced the disastrous candidacies of Tom Emmer, Kurt Bills, and Allen Quist (pick any campaign since 1983).

Look, this piece isn't some diatribe against Bachmann or an opinion piece that reaches any conclusions other than that the family would be well served to think long and hard about who is the best candidate to keep the Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota in Republican hands.

Losing the district would be a severe embarrassment and would represent the third election cycle in a row in which the GOP suffered a humiliating black eye.

We say this because there will be many harsh and irrational responses demanding that conservatives all shut up and pretend nothing is wrong.

There will be responses blaming Bachmann's problems solely on the media, George Soros, and the Viet Cong.

The facts are simply that in the last election, Bachmann woefully underperformed the district, especially for an incumbent.

Legal problems continue to mount regarding her failed presidential campaign, with a former loyalist and trusted lieutenant coming forward to corroborate allegations of campaign finance law violations.

Constituent services continue to be a major problem, with many people who live in the Sixth District telling us that she and her office continue to have big issues with basic constituent services.

And it doesn't help that with a major liability being the charge that she ignores her district, she has spent to no small amount of time this week bragging about a trip to England for Margaret Thatcher's funeral.

Hey, it's a cool deal to be there to send off the Iron Lady, but the good people of England don't vote in Minnesota's Sixth District.

Moreover, there is trouble ahead with Jim Graves stepping forward for a rematch.

Make no mistake, Graves is a successful businessman who doesn't undertake any big project without excellent due diligence.

The Watchdog has spoken with a person who has knowledge of the Graves decision to run for re-election. That source tells the Watchdog that the data suggests that Graves has a strong chance of winning next year, at least as things stand today.

The bottom line is that now is the time to consider this situation and deal with it.

Let the discussion begin.

[italics emphasis added]. Harold Hamilton's MO has been to be at the unseen operator end of the puppet strings, not the stage dancer. So, no, I do not expect the gentleman to be personally conducting a primary challenge against Michele Bachmann (although it would be a major big-time hoot, especially expecting glowing endorsement words for it in the Anoka County Record).

So, who's Hamilton's surrogate hope here, his Krinkie to run? Krinkie? Perhaps, but can anyone see any real tractor-pull strength from that direction?

So, who? If the gentleman were less coy, he'd speak his mind and not leave us guessing. But he is who he is, so, my early-on guess of Harold Hamilton's candidate to undercut the incumbent, it is based on more Iron Lady stuff from the micro controller man, from here:

Greetings from Saint Paul, Watchdogs. As the days tick down towards the constitutionally mandated adjournment date of May 20, the full scope of DFL rule is coming into focus.

It's a comprehensive and breathtaking plan to grow government, diminish liberty, increase government dependency, and eliminate the concept of personal responsibility.

The goal is clear: addict people to government and thereby empower government and those who run government.

How sad that we are realizing the full scope of this tragedy at the same time we celebrate and remember the life and leadership of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady (not to be confused with Anoka County's own Iron Lady, Rhonda Sivarajah, who is very much alive and very much leading the county in the right direction).

This week, both the governor and the House released their capital investment bills, popularly known as "bonding bills" because they are financed by selling bonds.

[...]

Okay, it is only a guess. There is Michelle Benson, and it would be nice to see Michelle with "two l's" vs Michele, with only one. If not that, who?

Reader guesses in comments are more than welcome. And remember, you can nominate yourself, or anyone in-state because having a CD4 resident Republican presently representing CD6 proves that true. So, statewide thinking is okay - indeed, there even is a gentleman residing in New Hampshire and presently not holding office in CD8, so have at it, readers.

And just so you don't think me too focused on dog droppings, the woofer is not the only one presaging a Night of the Long Knives for dear Ms. Bachmann, although I cannot get the True North site to work now while typing (I get an "unable to connect" error message), there is this. Another GOP propaganda mill outlet like Watchdog, floating the same rumor. There is this. Stebbins does not live in CD6, but then neither does Bachmann. Will these alluders step into the sunshine and name names? The coyness of the neuvo-DumpBachmann natterings nabobs is quite bothersome, absent somebody with courage enough to step forward and name a name or three.

I'm not in that GOP tent, instead outside pis looking in, but already I've named five, as gender balanced a list as an odd number permits: Hamilton himself, Krinkie, Sivarajah, Benson, and Stebbins.

Matt Look? He'd fit. Matt Dean, pick your Matt?

In closing, there is Hamilton's sentence, "We say this because there will be many harsh and irrational responses demanding that conservatives all shut up and pretend nothing is wrong."

I admit, that's exactly what I'd say, "stop this independent thinking putsch against GOP entrenched orthodoxy, and stop it now," instead of saying, "Have at it Harold, Dump Bachmann full-bore, and let me hold your coat." Harold has Krinkie at TPL for coat holding without need for me to volunteer.

_________FURTHER UPDATE___________
With "Andy Parrish" now a name in the news, some people may have trouble telling who the players are (except Bachmann), without a scorecard.

This may help. Parrish is being represented by attorney John Gilmore. Is that helpful information?

_____________FURTHER UPDATE_______________
The True North server is not inaccessible now [4:19 PM 4/22/2013] and readers can see the previously linked item links to Roll Call, here, which concludes by stating:

Bachmann could also face competition for the state GOP endorsement and in the primary, according to Marianne Stebbins, a supporter of former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and chairwoman of the Minnesota delegation to the Republican National Convention last year.

Assuming she wins the GOP primary, Bachmann’s spending advantage is unlikely to be as great as in 2012. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recruited Graves to run again after making almost no investment in the district last cycle. In a meeting with reporters last week, DCCC Chairman Steve Israel of New York highlighted the race and said he thinks Graves will run again.

Minnesota Democrats are also planning to target the race and have taken notice of Bachmann’s new media approach.

“Since her election, she has kept her head down,” said Corey Day, executive director of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the state affiliation of the national party. “I think she saw the results from her district and hasn’t put her head out of the peep hole too much lately.”

Bachmann’s new low profile is also an indication to Minnesota Republicans that she has no interest in challenging Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who kicks off his re-election campaign without a major opponent. Still, Bachmann’s name graces the list of potential House GOP members who have yet to rule out a run for the seat, which was held by a Republican just five years ago.

[St. Paul-based GOP consultant Ben] Golnik said that attending Saturday morning coffees in her district with small groups of people “is not a sign” of someone preparing a bid for statewide office and that he’d be “surprised” if she did run. [Former Minnesota GOP Rep. Vin] Weber concurred, saying he’d be “stunned if she considered running for the Senate.”

Bachmann dropped her presidential bid on Jan. 4, 2012, after placing sixth in the Iowa caucuses. As part of her effort in the state that abuts Minnesota to the south, Bachmann made hay out of the fact that she had been born in Waterloo, Iowa. She also uttered things such as “Everything I need to know, I learned in Iowa” — comments that could have turned off voters in her district.

“There’s a lot of people throughout political history who you can point to who have seen national leadership backfire on them in their home state or district,” said Weber, citing his friend, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who lost re-election in 2004.

“Most places in the country just want their member of Congress or their senator to pay attention to local concerns.”

So, Weber and Golnik, gurus that they are of far right of center politics, are discounting the Iowa loser; being "surprised" if not "stunned" if she were to think to get in the way of others wanting a shot at Franken. Small in-district weekend courting of CD6 GOP-base folks finds the two pundits unimpressed.

Is it standard post-election losing side navel gazing? Or is it yet more inner party knife sharpening? If it is the latter, for whom, and why? Whose toes got stepped on?

The appearance is a range of voices questioning Bachmann's gravitas as a boss Republican mover/shaker; including Stebbins' liberty wing, Parrish's Jesus-loves-my-politics bloc, and Hamilton's tax-hating cohorts. What next? Who else? Norm Coleman piling on? Mark Kennedy recalling his good times in DC, now missed?

My hope - an assault against the Bachmann seat by - who else but - Big Lake's finest;

Ms. Mary Kiffmeyer.

THAT would be great fun to watch, so join me in hoping.

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
The hope is Harold Hamilton, in between supervising the manufacture of widgets, takes time to read this post and is enamored of the Kiffmeyer suggestion - much as ALEC's take-your-marching-orders minions doubtlessly will be. That way, if I can get Hamilton on board, the Kiffmeyer primary challenge idea can be featured in Anoka County Record along with Taxpayer League editorials and reports on Republican legislators doing little beyond licking wounds and carping over DFL leadership. That hope, from one opinionated website for another. Join me in hoping Harold likes Mary, and all the while Anoka County Union reports news fair and balanced, in a form your caged bird can appreciate.

Ramsey - Sakry of ABC Newspapers reports of our town's unwinding situation with its former Town Center consultant, Lazan/Landform.

Photo: earlier ABC coverage, here.
Divorces are always messy to a degree. Sakry's detailed report, here, on this divorce:

Ramsey negotiates with former development manager
By Tammy Sakry on April 18, 2013 at 7:05 am


According to City Administrator Kurt Ulrich, Landform president Darren Lazan, who was the city’s contracted development manager for the COR project, agreed to give the city intellectual property, including plat files and GIS mapping when his two-year contract ended March 31, but that has not happened.

After receiving a couple of letters in January, one anonymous, about whether the city should be paying Landform for all of its work, including some potential brokerage work the company was not licensed to provide, the HRA had the contract reviewed by an outside attorney as well as its HRA attorney, Tom Bray.

In reviewing the role the city staff played in the sale of land and what Lazan did, Lazan was the primary contact for prospective developers, Bray said.

The development proposals involved the sale of land and it is fair to say there were brokerage activities done by Lazan, he said.

The HRA could do one of four things, Bray said.

[...]

Again, this link.

As made clear over time, the editorial opinion here is the cost-benefit balance of Lazan's taking city money was super-humongo on cost, low to nil on benefit [other than benefit to Cronk-Flaherty interests, apart from what might or might not be best for Ramsey].

If city-paid documents and property continues to be withheld, as indicated in Sakry's reporting, I would favor drafting and filing court papers first, and negotiating as part of litigation settlement, but with the clock running in the City's favor.

But what do you claim, if filing? That the prior council using Heidi Nelson as intermediary gave the man the equivalent a stream of blank checks, and he gladly filled in amounts? Can you really put fault for that upon Lazan alone, apart from city decision makers, back then? And they had the authority.

Judgment, they appear far short on that, but authority was there, from the very first Landform contract when "Senator Jungbauer" might be able to procure some favorable water project grant while being on Landform's payroll, as Matt Look noted in City minutes back in 2009. And with Jungbauer - Landform fingerprints on things even before the closing date of  the city's purchase of the distressed vacant land balance from Minnwest Bank's foreclosure:





Whatever more may be paid Landform will be public money, paid by taxpayers, and council members had and have a fiduciary duty to not spend such money wrongly or wastefully. I doubt Lazan wants to litigate.

I doubt Matt Look wants that, nor Mike Jungbauer.

__________UPDATE___________
In the wrap-up section of Sakry's report, she stated

The city also received a letter from local attorney William Erhart expressing concerns on the same issue.

According to Finance Officer Diana Lund, the city has paid Landform $1.454 million since 2009, which includes the original COR 2010 contract [...]

Were it me, I would have written it as "... a letter from Ramsey taxpayer and local attorney William Erhart ..." because the man has every right as any other Ramsey citizen to question how tax money is spent when he is paying a substantial share of it on, if memory serves me correctly, a residence in town on the Rum River.

Beyond that, roughly one and a half million of city money down that money sink hole should have Darren Lazan so happy he'd be shouting "Praise Jesus" hosannas for such past levels of largesse instead of delaying an overdue city property transfer where the goodwill shelf life of the intentionally withheld work depreciates exponentially.

There is good faith, and bad faith, and brokering land without a license is a breach of law. The entire Lazan thing was excessive.

... the city has paid Landform $1.454 million ...

Ramsey - Randy Backous submitted a comment to an earlier post, which inspired me to reply.

Randy's point was well taken in a sense, although it reaches to the question of what should local papers report, and in what detail; which is a question having First Amendment reach.

And I admit, my responses to Randy did digress a bit, this link to start at Randy's comment, and I apologize for the typos in my writing there.

Ramsey - Paul Levy of Strib wrote an April 19 report of the David Elvig - E-Street Makers trial result.

This link. The gist of the item as it relates to Ramsey's governance, is:

The convictions on two counts of felony theft followed a weeklong trial before an Anoka County jury and a lengthy investigation spurred by the U.S. Department of Labor. The case did not involve Elvig’s work on the City Council, and it is unclear how it will affect his future there.

[...] Elvig was first elected to the Ramsey council in 2002 and is its longest-serving current member.

The Ramsey city charter says council members convicted of felonies must vacate office. However, Elvig’s future with the city may be determined by the sentence he receives from Judge Spencer Sokolowski at a hearing scheduled for June 17.

[Hennepin County Deputy District Attorney Susan] Crumb said she will ask the judge that Elvig pay restitution — about $28,000, which includes money employees paid because of insurance issues.

“If the sentence is more in line with one associated with a gross misdemeanor, we’ve been advised that his conviction could be viewed as a gross misdemeanor and he could remain on the council,” said Ramsey City Administrator Kurt Ulrich.

“I don’t believe anything like this has happened before in Ramsey. This is new territory for us.”

Trial was in Anoka County, but prosecution was by an adjacent county's legal staff:

To avoid a conflict of interest in the case decided Friday, the state requested that Elvig’s case be prosecuted outside of the Anoka County attorney’s office.

It is a routine thing to transfer handling outside of a county where political dimensions exist, and at a guess Anoka County Attorney Palumbo was more than satisfied with the case being handled outside of his office, as one who would value avoiding any second guessing or rumor mongering had his staff handled the case. There is absolutely no bad reflection against Palumbo or his staff by resort to outside prosecution in a case such as this. Again, it is the regular practice to do exactly what was done.