MINNEAPOLIS — There's no doubt about it. Twin Cities metro area cities and counties want more control of the Metropolitan Council.
Figuring out exactly how to get there is the mission of the Metropolitan Governance Task Force, which has spent several months endeavoring to come up with new visions for who should run that regional planning agency.
"Those of us who've worked on this for years have all evolved on this topic, and that shows that time’s up and we want change because we need it," said Washington County Commissioner Karla Bigham, who first started raising this issue during her time in the state legislature.
"It's a frustration, and the responsibility is great on delivering these projects. Whether it’s been Southwest Light Rail, or in the East Metro dealing with housing and water issues, just the ability to have accountability and transparency is so vitally important."
The regional planning agency is in charge of Metro Transit, wastewater treatment, subsidized housing and land-use policy in the seven-county metro area. The governor appoints the chairperson and all the members who represent different districts that each have roughly the same population.
When lawmakers created the Metropolitan Council in 1967, they were okay with the idea of the governor picking the members. But the governor's office has been held by Democrats since 2011, which has prompted Republicans to complain they're underrepresented on the board.
Others have complained that the council has no statutory obligation to respond to complaints and concerns, the way they'd have to if they had been elected directly by voters.
One idea for revamping the board is to replace it with a Council of Governments, a group made of elected city and county officials or people they appoint to serve on the board.
"The work of the Met Council really affects counties and cities. They are tasked with implementing the priorities that come out of the Metropolitan Council, so they should have a seat at the table in making those decisions," Sen. Eric Pratt, a Prior Lake Republican who serves on the task force, told KARE 11. "I think having a locally elected official serving on the Met Council we're going to get better collaboration, better agreements."
Opponents of the Council of Governments model point out that Met Council members can spend between 10 and 20 hours a week on the agency's business, which would be a huge time commitment for locally elected officials.
Rep. Ginny Klevorn, a Plymouth Democrat who serves on the task force, said she understands the frustration people have felt with cost overruns and disruptions during the Southwest Light Rail project. But she said that one problematic project shouldn't make it necessary to take down the current board structure.
"It doesn’t necessarily mean governance needs to be thrown out, but there needs to be a way where people know they’re heard, they’re seen, and their concerns are met and addressed," Rep. Klevorn said.
"I want people to know we see them, that we hear them, but we also have to have this regional planning district. And just because we don’t agree with the decision doesn’t necessarily mean the governance model is correct or incorrect."
Katie Topinka, the City of Minneapolis' director of intergovernmental affairs, urged the task force to keep in mind the agency's other functions.
"Questions and controversies around the Met Council have often surfaced around transportation planning and funding," Topinka wrote in a letter to the task force. "But the Met Council carries out many other functions such as wastewater treatment, helping to address the region's housing needs, and maintaining regional parks."
She pointed out the U.S. Government has designated the Met Council as the regional transportation authority.
"We ask the Task Force to be mindful of circumstances that may trigger federal redesignation of the Met Council," she said.
One of the reforms floated by task force members is the separate Metro Transit from the Met Council, but not everyone agrees with that notion.
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