| | The Daily Digest for August 21, 2019 | | Posted at 6:34 a.m. by Bill Wareham |
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Good Wednesday morning. Here's your Digest. 1. AFSCME investigates top leader. The top official at one of Minnesota’s biggest labor unions has been placed on leave pending an investigation into unspecified allegations, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 5 said Tuesday. In a statement, the union said it has brought on a temporary leader while the inquiry into executive director John Westmoreland proceeds. “Last week, the executive board learned of allegations regarding staff at AFSCME Council 5. The board made a decision to conduct a thorough investigation of these allegations,” the statement read. During his absence, former labor leader Peter Benner, who has deep AFSCME ties, will run the union. The unsigned statement said no further information will be provided to protect the privacy of the parties involved. AFSCME Council 5 is a power player in Minnesota Democratic politics, with more than 43,000 members across state and local government. (MPR News)
2. Warren stances on Line 3, mining put her at odds with unions. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren waded into a pair of controversial environmental debates in Minnesota this week by saying she opposed a copper-nickel mine planned in Superior National Forest and an oil pipeline that would cut through the Mississippi River headwaters. In a tweet ahead of her rally Monday in St. Paul, Warren said Enbridge’s Line 3 project would threaten water and lands important to several tribes, and pledged in a short video statement to “stop all mining on federal public lands, including the Minnesota Boundary Waters.” While mining is already banned within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the video was filmed to support an environmental advocacy group that aims to stop Twin Metals Minnesota from building a mine just outside the protected area — and within its watershed. Warren is the third presidential candidate to come out against Line 3, a $2.6 billion project that has received most major permits for construction. (MinnPost)
3. Builders seek return of housing fees. Cities, counties and townships that charge building fees on new homes banked $75 million more than what they needed for inspection costs over the last five years, a study released Tuesday, Aug. 20, showed. The fees are supposed to offset the cost of the inspection expenses at the municipal level. But affordable housing advocates and state lawmakers worry that gap could be a key factor in why the cost of a new home has become out of reach for many Minnesotans.Under state law, municipalities are allowed to collect building and plan review fees that are "fair, reasonable, and proportionate to the actual cost of the service for which the fee is imposed." But several communities appeared to run afoul of that, the Roseville-based Housing Affordability Institute found, tacking on thousands of dollars of additional fees that go beyond offsetting the cost to the city of conducting building inspections. And in several cases, those excess fees funded general fund expenses, including the construction of a new City Hall in Corcoran, a northwest suburb of Minneapolis. Those communities, along with others that might be charging more than the bare minimum to cover inspections and staff time, should be on notice, Republican lawmakers and housing industry officials said. (Duluth News Tribune)
4. Lewis ready to run? The 2020 U.S. Senate field is coming into sharper focus as one potential Republican candidate decides not to make a run and another appears ready to kick off his bid at the Minnesota State Fair this week. Former U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis tells FOX 9 that he’ll be at the Minnesota GOP’s State Fair booth at 10 a.m. Thursday – opening day of the fair – to greet supporters. Lewis is widely expected to launch his Senate campaign at the fair, though he has not made any plans official.
Lewis has changed his Twitter handle to JasonForMN. His Twitter handle previously reflected Minnesota’s second congressional district, which he represented for two years. (Fox9)
5. Walz spares some change. If you shake hands with Gov. Tim Walz, don’t be shocked to find something left in your palm. Lately, the first-year DFL governor has been giving out specialty coins bearing his name, autograph and symbols of Minnesota. They’re called ‘challenge coins’ — a concept that took hold as something of a backslap in the military and grew into a fad in American politics. Members of Congress carry them. So do governors and presidents. “Maybe it’s the member of Congress-governor Pokemon collections,” Walz said in a recent interview. “You want to try to get them. They all tell a story.” Walz began putting his coins into circulation in June. (MPR News)
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