Two things came to mind as I read today’s story about Speaker Kelliher being a finalist for Mpls parks superintendent.
Point One–she might be the best person for the job. Who knows? A big part of those jobs is politicing and engaging with the public. She has those skills in spades. I’m sure the parks board is full of bureaucrats who know the nuts and bolts of running park systems. Maybe they don’t need another one.
Is there some political patronage going on here? Sure. But, let’s face it–both in the private and public sectors, connections matter. If Eden Prairie had a park system which operated separately from the City i’d do all that I could to get my friend Gary appointed to the job. He has his fingers on the pulse of the city, as they say, and I trust his judgment. Those are important factors which shouldn’t be minimized.
Point two–why exactly does Minneapolis have a separate parks board? That’s the far more intriguing issue as I bet most taxpayers in Minneapolis don’t think of the duplication of administrative staff, police (yes, Mpls has park police) and equipment.
A few years back I used to run around Lakes Harriet and Calhoun in the winter. No matter how bad the snowfall the night before, if you could get the to Lakes on the city streets (which often proved very difficult) by 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning the paths around the Lakes were snow-free. As a runner, I sure appreciated that luxury, but it seems kind of silly in retrospect that those resources would be spent on paths when streets were still a mess.
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