WHAT A WIMP!
R.T. Rybak campaigns with a pledge to make city hall more accountable and ethical, but when he needs to make a tough decision, he forces his ethics board to make it for him.
What a wimp.
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Rybak turns to ethics board for advice
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak turned Thursday to the city's Ethical Practices Board for advice on how much to reimburse taxpayers for his controversial $42,556.41 newsletter.
"We're asking them to advise us about the issue of repayment so there's a third-party opinion," Deputy Mayor David Fey said.
In a letter to ethics officer Burt Osborne, an assistant city attorney, Rybak asked the board to issue an advisory opinion and recommendation of the amount to be repaid. "I will abide by the recommendation you make," he wrote.
Last month, state Auditor Pat Anderson cited as illegal use of taxpayer funds the newsletters of Rybak and three City Council members: Lisa Goodman, Gary Schiff and Paul Zerby. She said they all ought to reimburse the city for a portion of the letters. Anderson said again
Thursday that the amount should be determined by the city attorney's office and approved by the City Council.
In a memo issued Thursday, City Attorney Jay Heffern wrote: "It appears the purpose of this statute is to prevent public officials from utilizing publicly financed mailings for self-promotion."
"I recommend that publications prepared and distributed at public expense not include pictures or pictorial or graphic devices which might tend to attribute the publication to an elected official or group of elected officials rather than the city of Minneapolis," he wrote.
Anderson agreed with Heffern's legal analysis.
Anderson had been critical of Rybak's glossy eight-page newsletter sent from his office in January with five photographs of himself and titled "Minneapolis news from Mayor R.T. Rybak." She also faulted the newsletters of Goodman, Schiff and Zerby.
Goodman had not seen the memo and could not comment, an aide said Thursday. Schiff said asking the board to determine an amount sounded fair to him.
Anderson said she would accept the board's decision provided it determined a "reasonable" amount -- "not zero or a dollar."
Of the elected officials, Zerby has expressed the most distress over the assertion he broke the law. On Thursday, he said, "I threw my checkbook in my suit jacket and said, 'To hell with it, I'll be done with it today.' "
But after reading Heffern's memo, he still has questions about what is appropriate reimbursement for the four-page letter with one picture that he sent at a production and mailing cost of about $1,500. He pondered paying one-fourth, to account for the page with the picture, but he's still trying to figure out what's right.
"I frankly would like to be done with this," Zerby said. Source: Star Tribune, February 24, 2005
What a wimp.
##
Rybak turns to ethics board for advice
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak turned Thursday to the city's Ethical Practices Board for advice on how much to reimburse taxpayers for his controversial $42,556.41 newsletter.
"We're asking them to advise us about the issue of repayment so there's a third-party opinion," Deputy Mayor David Fey said.
In a letter to ethics officer Burt Osborne, an assistant city attorney, Rybak asked the board to issue an advisory opinion and recommendation of the amount to be repaid. "I will abide by the recommendation you make," he wrote.
Last month, state Auditor Pat Anderson cited as illegal use of taxpayer funds the newsletters of Rybak and three City Council members: Lisa Goodman, Gary Schiff and Paul Zerby. She said they all ought to reimburse the city for a portion of the letters. Anderson said again
Thursday that the amount should be determined by the city attorney's office and approved by the City Council.
In a memo issued Thursday, City Attorney Jay Heffern wrote: "It appears the purpose of this statute is to prevent public officials from utilizing publicly financed mailings for self-promotion."
"I recommend that publications prepared and distributed at public expense not include pictures or pictorial or graphic devices which might tend to attribute the publication to an elected official or group of elected officials rather than the city of Minneapolis," he wrote.
Anderson agreed with Heffern's legal analysis.
Anderson had been critical of Rybak's glossy eight-page newsletter sent from his office in January with five photographs of himself and titled "Minneapolis news from Mayor R.T. Rybak." She also faulted the newsletters of Goodman, Schiff and Zerby.
Goodman had not seen the memo and could not comment, an aide said Thursday. Schiff said asking the board to determine an amount sounded fair to him.
Anderson said she would accept the board's decision provided it determined a "reasonable" amount -- "not zero or a dollar."
Of the elected officials, Zerby has expressed the most distress over the assertion he broke the law. On Thursday, he said, "I threw my checkbook in my suit jacket and said, 'To hell with it, I'll be done with it today.' "
But after reading Heffern's memo, he still has questions about what is appropriate reimbursement for the four-page letter with one picture that he sent at a production and mailing cost of about $1,500. He pondered paying one-fourth, to account for the page with the picture, but he's still trying to figure out what's right.
"I frankly would like to be done with this," Zerby said. Source: Star Tribune, February 24, 2005
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