Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak announced today that he will nominate Paul Aasen, the current commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, to be the next city coordinator of the City of Minneapolis. Mayor Rybak will make the nomination at the meeting of the City’s Executive Committee on Wednesday, May 2.

Mayor R.T. Rybak said, “Paul Aasen follows in the tradition of Steven Bosacker in bringing top-notch professionalism in public service to the critically important role of city coordinator. He brings a wide range of experience across many fields to a job that requires it. I’m also especially pleased that he brings a deep environmental background to a city with deep green values and proven results in enhancing our sustainability.”

Aasen will bring 25 years of experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to the job. At the State of Minnesota, he has served the public under three governors of three political parties.

• As commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for Governor Mark Dayton from 2011 to the present, he leads an organization of 925 employees and a $135 million biennial budget.
• As director of government relations and policy under Governor Jesse Ventura from 2000–03, he represented the Governor on all policy matters with the Legislature. In that role, he reported to former Minneapolis City Coordinator Steven Bosacker, who then served as Governor Ventura’s chief of staff.
• As assistant commissioner of the Department of Public Safety under Governor Ventura from 1999–2000, he managed finance, human resources and information technology, and played a key role in criminal-justice information (CriMNet) legislation.
• As director of the Division of Emergency Management under Governor Arne Carlson from 1998–99, he led the State’s effective response to the catastrophic spring storms of 1998.
• As executive director of the Minnesota Emergency Response Commission under Governor Carlson from 1992–98, he managed the staff and budget of a 22-member commission under the Department of Public Safety that helps communities deal safely with hazardous chemicals.

Paul Aasen has also worked in the nonprofit and private sectors. In the nonprofit sector, he served as executive vice president of Global Volunteers from 2004–07 and as advocacy director of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy from 2007–11. In the private sector, he was principal of Independent Strategic Consulting from 2003–04.

He began his career in 1986 as an environmental scientist at the Metropolitan Waste Control Commission. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota, the latter from the School of Public Health.

“Commissioner Aasen has done a superb job leading a state agency with critically important responsibilities,” said Governor Mark Dayton. “Our loss will be Minneapolis’ great gain.”

City Council President Barbara Johnson said, “Paul Aasen is a proven performer. He comes extremely highly recommended and will additionally help us strengthen our ties with many levels of State government. He will be a great fit for the City of Minneapolis.”

Council Vice President Robert Lilligren, chair of the Committee of the Whole to which the City Coordinator reports, said, “The work of the city coordinator often takes place quietly behind the scenes. In Minneapolis’ system of government, it is the Coordinator’s challenge to see that all the work of the city’s departments act in harmony to maximize our taxpayers’ dollars. I believe Paul Aasen’s wide range of experience in so many different areas will have a positive impact on our residents’ quality of life.”

Commissioner Aasen said, “I’m very much looking forward to working with Mayor and City Council to build on Minneapolis’ strong foundation and make it a world-class city where everyone has opportunity and everyone enjoys a high quality of life.

“This starts with two important pieces: efficiency and partnerships,” he continued. “We need to make sure that City government operates at its absolute best, so that residents get the value they deserve. And recognizing that the City never operates alone, we must continue to forge and strengthen partnerships, alliances and friendships with all Minneapolis’ stakeholders.”

If confirmed by the City Council, Paul Aasen is expected to start as city coordinator later this month.

The Minneapolis city coordinator is a key advisor to the Mayor and City Council on strategic planning, budget development and policy decisions. The city coordinator drives the City’s results-management agenda, the cornerstone of which is Results Minneapolis, where ever City department sets measurable performance goals and then tracks and reports progress towards achieving those goals.

In addition, the coordinator is the chief administrator for Minneapolis City government’s enterprise operations and priorities, including the City’s finance operations, intergovernmental relations work, neighborhood and community relations, sustainability initiatives, communications and public affairs, human resources, and 311 and 911 operations.

One of the most important choices a mayor can make is a police chief, and I came to this choice without hesitation. For many years, I have seen Janeé Harteau make our city safer, including during some of our toughest crises. She has succeeded at every step: on the street, at the downtown command and in our top administration.

She is a smart cop, a savvy administrator and a natural leader. She is the logical next chief, and she will be an exceptional one.

As she herself describes it, Janeé Harteau “grew up” in the Minneapolis Police Department, joining the force as an officer in 1987, when she was just 22 years old. She has worked on the street in north, south and downtown Minneapolis, and has served in the narcotics, organized crime and license investigation units, among others.

From 2006–2009, she led the 1^st Precinct in downtown Minneapolis, where she helped start public/private partnerships that led to the very successful Downtown SafeZone Collaborative and Downtown Courtwatch program. In the same role, she also helped dramatically improve relations with the Somali community Cedar-Riverside and started the position of Somali Liaison Officer.

Chief Dolan named her deputy chief of the Patrol Bureau in 2009 and assistant chief in 2010.

She has served in community as well as in the Police Department, including on the boards of YouthLink, a nonprofit that serves homeless youth, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Downtown Improvement District and the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce.

I think it’s also important to point out that Janeé Harteau, who is of French Canadian and Native American background, will be the first woman to lead the Minneapolis Police Department, and one of only two women police chiefs of America’s big cities.

I will formally begin the process of nominating Assistant Chief Harteau as the next chief in January 2013, after Chief Dolan’s retirement becomes effective, at which time the City Council will begin the process of confirming the nomination.

Until then, Assistant Chief Harteau will continue to be part of Chief Dolan’s top command as they work together on a smooth transition. During this period, she will be reaching out and listening to our many internal and external partners and she sets her leadership priorities for continuing to improve public safety and public trust.

A final note about Chief Tim Dolan, who is taking a well-deserved retirement after 29 years as a Minneapolis police officer. He stepped in as chief in 2006 in the middle of a public-safety crisis and immediately got to work on a spearheading significant, multi-year decrease in crime. His success wasn’t an accident: we worked closely together for months and years on a series of smart strategies that engaged every community in our city and made every part of Minneapolis dramatically safer.

I’m especially proud of his innovative work in preventing youth violence, establishing effective public-safety partnerships with community, and boldly championing our fight against illegal guns.

Of course, Chief Dolan is not done: he has much good work left to do, but he deserves our deep thanks and gratitude for his years of exemplary public service and for making Minneapolis a much safer, stronger city.

That’s the message I delivered Wednesday at my annual State of the City speech, called “One Minneapolis, Growing North”, which I gave at the Capri Theater on West Broadway, the same place I gave my State of the City in 2006. The transformation of that beautiful facility into a regional destination is a great symbol of North Minneapolis.

It matters to all of us if North Minneapolis is growing: more people living in North Minneapolis means more property taxes that fund vital services that benefit everyone; more neighbors looking out for each other mean a safer city for everyone; and more customers for business mean more vibrant commercial corridors for everyone.

Unfortunately, North Minneapolis is not growing. While some parts of the city grew strongly in the last decade, North Minneapolis’ population declined by 11%.

So if we want to grow as a city — and we should grow into the city of a half-million residents that we were 60 years ago — the key will be North Minneapolis.

The recipe for growing North Minneapolis is straightforward: investing in safety, housing, jobs, connection and youth. We’ve made great progress on those fronts in recent years, and in order to meet the challenges we still face, I announced some exciting new initiatives.

Safety. Violent crime is down 45% in North Minneapolis since 2006. Some categories of crime are up this year, but we have fought too hard to make this city safer and will not be complacent.

Housing. We have helped stabilize North Minneapolis: we have helped prevent foreclosures, rehabbed hundreds of blighted properties, and attracted new homeowners to redeveloped homes. Foreclosures are dropping, down 50% last year compared to 2008.

I also announced plans for a new program called Green Homes North, a partnership with Minnesota Housing to build 100 new green, sustainable homes in North Minneapolis on vacant City-owned lots in the next five years, using local labor and locally-sourced green materials.

Jobs and economy. Minneapolis does more to train workers than almost any other city: since 2006, we have placed nearly 7,000 people in jobs, 40% of them from North Minneapolis. But our recovery is not evenly shared: while the City’s overall unemployment rate is now the lowest since the start of the recession, African American unemployment in Minneapolis stands at 20%.

We are doing more to become One Minneapolis: we are extending our RENEW program that has placed many people of color in green jobs, dramatically increasing the City’s goals for minority participation in City contracts, and beginning a new City internship program focused on college students of color.

Transit and reconnection. North Minneapolis must be better connected to the rest of our city and region. One step we are taking is to study a modern streetcar on West Broadway that will spur business vitality and new jobs on that valuable commercial corridor. And this year, we will see the construction of the Van White Bridge that will cross I-394 and connect Heritage Park to Lowry Hill.

Youth. Our STEP-UP summer jobs program has put nearly 12,000 young people in good jobs since 2006 — 45% of them from North Minneapolis — and we are keeping it up, employing 1,800 more youth this summer.

I also announced that nonprofit Emerge Community Development will soon break ground on a new, technology-focused, workforce center for youth and adults in the historic North Branch Library on Emerson Avenue.

My State of the City speech on Wednesday was the first since a tornado hit North Minneapolis last May 22, damaging 3,700 properties and killing two people. Amid the devastation, the tornado brought out the best in so many: thousands of neighbors doing remarkable things for each other, and thousands of volunteers pouring in to help. That was one North Minneapolis pulling together.

We are recovering: 2,800 repair permits have been issued, and I announced that we have secured a grant to reforest the neighborhood with flowering trees in honor of Rob McIntyre, a neighborhood resident who died while trying to help his neighbors clean up from the tornado.

North Minneapolis has made progress and while it still faces challenges, its greatest asset is its remarkably people. When they all pull in the same direction, they have done great things, and all of Minneapolis has benefitted. And there is much more to come.

First, good news about jobs in Minneapolis:

• From mid-2010 to mid-2011, 5,300 new jobs were created in Minneapolis.
• That’s the fastest rate of job growth in Minneapolis since 2006.
• What’s more, 2,300 more Minneapolis residents now have jobs.
• This growth means that Minneapolis’ unemployment rate has fallen to 5.3% — the level it was at in October 2008, when the Great Recession first hit.
• Minneapolis’ unemployment rate is the same as that of the broader metro area and lower than that of the state.

At the City of Minneapolis, we worked hard through the height of the recession, as now, to mitigate its effects, by helping Minneapolis residents train for and find good jobs.

Minneapolis is one of the only cities in the country that runs its own employment and training programs. As a result, we are more nimble and better equipped to meet the fast-changing needs of employers and get workers into growing careers. Even with tough budget cuts, we have not cut our employment and training programs because we know how important they are to getting families back on their feet.

This work continues to pay off. In 2011 alone:

• We placed 572 low-income workers into well-paid jobs.
• We provided career planning and skills training for 1,041 dislocated workers.
• We placed 339 dislocated workers into new, living-wage jobs.

One very successful employment and training program is RENEW. It’s a joint program between Minneapolis and Saint Paul–Ramsey County that trains and places workers who have faced tough challenges in finding work into highly-paid, green-economy careers. It was originally funded by President Obama’s Recovery Act.

• Through RENEW, we have trained 586 workers and placed 311 workers in their new fields.
• Steve Haslach is one worker who lost his job when the recession hit who sought training through RENEW and is now back in the workforce at Applied Energy Innovations, a Minneapolis company that does solar installations and sustainable construction. Watch Steve talk about his new career.

In addition, we continue to prepare the next generation for meaningful employment — which means growing our economy for the long term:

• In 2011, we placed 1,980 youth into high-quality STEP-UP summer jobs.
• Since 2004, we have placed 14,000 youth into STEP-UP.
• These youth are 86% from families of color, 93% from families living in poverty and 50% from immigrant families. They speak 100 languages and are the key to our future economic competitiveness.

There’s good news on the housing front, too.

• In 2011, foreclosures fell 25% compared to 2010.
• Foreclosures are down 50% compared to 2008.
• The City of Minneapolis prevented 388 foreclosures in 2011.
• Since 2008, the City of Minneapolis and its partners have prevented 1,428 foreclosures.
• Minneapolis continues to lead the region in new housing: in 2011, new units permitted rose 12% and the dollar amount of permit activity rose 36%.

This recession has been tougher than any since the Great Depression and we’re not out of the woods yet. Like everywhere in America, we have a ways to go before we recover all the jobs that we lost when the recession bottomed out in early 2009. And too many people are still losing their homes to foreclosure.

But like everywhere in America, we’re also benefitting from 23 straight months of private-sector job growth.

Unlike a lot of places in America, however, we have weathered the recession better than other cities because we have had the right mix of aggressive, pro-growth policies to mitigate its effects and keep growing Minneapolis’ economy for the long term.

We’ve had some great partners in the private and nonprofit sectors, as well as at other levels of government, including the Obama administration. Above all, we’ve had great partners in the residents of Minneapolis, who have survivved a terrible time. We know that for many people, “recovery” will not mean getting back everything that they lost, but we’re working to make “recovery” mean that everyone has the tools and opportunities that they need to succeed again. And we won’t rest until every Minneapolis resident has them.

To make this happen, we all have to get up off the sidelines and recognize that each of us has an obligation to play a constructive role.

Financial institutions must do everything they can to negotiate in good faith with homeowners to prevent foreclosure. We know that it costs $400 to prevent a foreclosure, but costs the public and the private sector up to $80,000 to put a home through foreclosure. It’s not only the right thing to do, it just makes sense. Banks and lenders need to do a lot more.

Local governments have a role to play, too, and in Minneapolis we have played it aggressively.  Since 2008, the City, working closely with nonprofits, has prevented 1,428 foreclosures — nearly a third of them in North Minneapolis. It’s not enough, but that represents a lot of people and families still in their homes.

We’ve done more. Working hand in hand with North Minneapolis neighborhood organizations and adv, the City sued a mortgage flipper that had been convicted of defrauding home buyers and sending their homes into foreclosure. We took 155 properties away from them and got them in the hands of responsible nonprofit partners and homeowners. We worked every step of the way with housing and foreclosure activists on that one.

We’ve taken many other steps to revitalize the neighborhoods that have been most heavily affected by the foreclosure crisis. We’ve purchased homes before speculators and unscrupulous landlords could. We’ve worked with nonprofit developers to revitalize properties and have hired disproportionate numbers of low-income people, women and people of color to do the work. And we’ve created incentives for families and community to people to buy them affordably.

This is work that we’ve been doing every day for more than four years. I wish we never had to it, but when the crisis hit, we responded.

Even with this work, the foreclosure crisis is bigger than all the resources that Minneapolis has to stop it. We simply can’t solve all the issues of the global economy in Minneapolis. We can, however, fight to close the gaps and level the playing field, and we will keep doing just that.

Every day, more and more people are unwilling to silently watch inequalities continue and watch the economy struggle more than it needs to as a result.  We must all ask more of each other and of ourselves.

A new stadium at the Metrodome site, with Vikings’ paying more than half of a $1-billion investment

The first part: We will build a new stadium Minneapolis at the Metrodome site — and the Vikings will pay more than half the cost.

It simply makes sense:  the site that has been the home of the Minnesota Vikings for the last 30 years will be its home for the next 30 years, on the lowest-cost site that takes advantage of the infrastructure already in place. Building the new Vikings stadium at that location has been the policy of the City for many years.

And it simply makes sense that the private contribution will be greater than the public contribution.

This new stadium is a $1-billion investment that will support 13,000 much-needed, union jobs during construction, at a time when unemployment in the construction trades is at a crisis level. It will also support another 3,400 permanent jobs after construction. The vast majority of these jobs will go to Minnesotans, with a significant portion of them going to Minneapolis residents, especially those from neighborhoods with high rates of poverty and unemployment.

This stadium will be owned by the public and open for non-Vikings events 355 days a year. It will be a world-class facility that will ensure that Minneapolis remains the #1 sports and entertainment destination in the upper Midwest — and that ensures business and good jobs for bars and restaurants both downtown and across Minneapolis.

Over the 30-year life cycle of the stadium, the Vikings will contribute more than half the cost — just over 50% — of building, operating and maintaining it. The City of Minneapolis will contribute less than a quarter — just 22.7%.

Target Center, Convention Center and property-tax relief

The second part: Just as importantly, the deal provides Minneapolis with the resources and flexibility to accomplish the #1 goal of the City Council, Council President Barbara Johnson and me: securing the future of the Minneapolis Convention Center, renovating Target Center and providing property-tax relief for Minneapolis residents and businesses.

For far too long, Minneapolis property taxpayers alone have unfairly borne the burden of Target Center debt. The reason that Council President Johnson and I have been at the table has been to win property-tax relief — and we’ve said all along that we would not agree to any stadium deal that did not do that. Yesterday, we won what we’ve been fighting for.

No new taxes

We will accomplish all of this — build a new $1-billion People’s Stadium, renovate the Target Center, secure a competitive Convention Center and above all, provide much-needed property-tax relief — with no new taxes. We will do so by using only existing, State-authorized sales and user taxes that are currently collected in Minneapolis, the so-called “Convention Center taxes,” that are paid by the 18 million people who visit, work or spend a dollar in Minneapolis each year. Not one dollar of property taxes. Not one dollar of income taxes.

The economics and politics of a good deal

Like a lot of people, I’m a fan of Minnesota’s professional sports — but I’m not a fan of the economics of professional sports. Despite that context, this is a very good deal for Minneapolis. For less than one-quarter of the total project cost, we will secure a $1-billion investment that will create tens of thousands of jobs, and that will give us the flexibility and resources to accomplish our top goals of lowering property taxes and ensuring the future of the Target Center and the Convention Center.

In the political context, too, this is also a very good deal for Minneapolis. As I’ve said before, the Legislature has the power simply to take away the Convention Center taxes — and legislative leaders made it clear that they might do just that, which would put an even greater burden on Minneapolis property taxpayers. But because Council President Johnson and I were at the table fighting for Minneapolis, those revenues —paid by 18 million people a year — will come in for three more decades. And for the first time ever, we can use them for property-tax relief.

Coming together in a great city

Now that the City, State and team have come together on this very good deal for Minneapolis, the City Council and the Legislature must approve it. The question they must answer is, what kind of city and state are we going to be?

Minneapolis is a great city because we have made big investments that have made it a great place to live. This deal builds on that tradition.

But Minneapolis is also a practical city, where our residents rightly demand that we look out for their wallets. This deal builds on that tradition as well.

In a great city that has accomplished great things, we can come together to approve this deal to create another great place for people to come together for the next generation.

Council President Johnson and I strongly urge you to contact your City Council member, State Senator and State Representative and ask them to come together to support it.

(Not sure who represents you? Find your Council member here and find your legislators here.)

Labor leaders announce agreements with Vikings to keep project on time and on budget by using union labor, retaining union jobs; City, Vikings in talks to set aggressive hiring goals

February 6, 2012 (MINNEAPOLIS) — Leaders of organized labor, City of Minneapolis leaders, business leaders and non-profit community partners, flanked by scores of Minneapolis residents who are members of or training for employment in the building trades, united today to say clearly that the top action the Minneapolis City Council and Minnesota Legislature can take to create jobs is to support a new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.

Estimates provided by the Minnesota Vikings show that the stadium would directly and indirectly generate 13,000 construction-related jobs and $300 million in payroll. It would also bring the total number of ongoing jobs at the stadium to 3,400.

Bill McCarthy, president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, said, “There is a jobs crisis in our city and our state, especially in the construction trades where unemployment is over 20 percent. We’re united today in proposing a solution to the crisis: building a Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.

“I thank Mayor Rybak, Council President Barbara Johnson and Governor Mark Dayton for their hard work to get the stadium built, and I thank the members of the Minneapolis City Council who already support it. I call on all members of the City Council and the Legislature to support the Mayor’s and Council President’s plan to build this stadium in Minneapolis,” McCarthy continued.

Mayor Rybak put it simply, “The number-one action that the City Council and Legislature can take to lessen the unemployment crisis in the construction trades and create jobs in our city and state is to build a Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. Labor, business and community partners in Minneapolis are united and ready to build a stadium using only Minneapolis’ existing tax dollars and no new taxes.”

Mayor Rybak turned to the scores of construction workers and trainees present. “Are you ready to get to work?” “Yes!” they roared back.

Referring to the workers, Council Member Diane Hofstede added, “This is the face of our community. These are the people we need to put back to work.”

City Council President Barbara Johnson pointed out that the Minneapolis stadium plan includes the opportunity to renovate the Target Center, another job-creating and revenue-generating facility of statewide significance. “The renovation of Target Center will create 1,100 more good construction jobs and 1,100 more full- and part-time jobs. The opportunity to create this many good jobs at once is one we cannot afford to miss.”

Mayor Rybak also pointed to the need to retain and add good jobs in Minneapolis’ hospitality industry, which generates $1 billion in payroll annually.

Business leaders present, including Sam Grabarski, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, and Todd Klingel, president of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, joined labor in voicing their support for a Minneapolis stadium and the jobs it will create.

McCarthy announced two jobs agreements between the Minnesota Vikings and labor unions:

• A project-labor agreement between the Vikings and the Minneapolis Building and Construction Trades Council, which means that unions commit to building the stadium on time, on budget and with no disruptions in exchange for the Vikings’ commitment to use only union labor. McCarthy said, “This is good news for all Minnesotans.”
• A letter of intent and a labor-peace agreement between the Vikings and UNITE-HERE, the union that represents concession workers at the Metrodome. These agreements mean that the Vikings will retain all the UNITE-HERE jobs currently at the Metrodome and will allow UNITE-HERE the opportunity to organize the additional concession jobs that will be created at the new stadium.

In addition, Mayor Rybak announced that the City of Minneapolis and the Vikings are in conversation about workforce agreements to set goals for hiring workers from communities and neighborhoods that have been particularly hard hit during the recession and have been historically underrepresented in the construction trades.

“We’ve had success with meeting and exceeding similar goals that we’ve set for other Minneapolis projects, such as Midtown Exchange, Coloplast and Amplatz Children’s Hospital, and we’ll do it again for a Vikings stadium,” Mayor Rybak said.

Louis King, president and CEO of Summit Academy OIC in North Minneapolis, which partners with unions in the construction trades to train workers from historically underrepresented communities, said, “We believe that the best social-service program is a job, but the young people that are our future need to have jobs to fill when they graduate. We are committed to being part of this project and to sharing in the benefits and the responsibility. If you build it in our community, our community will build it.”

Scott Gray, CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League, which also partners with unions to train workers, added, “This plan is right for our historically underserved community. This will be a true People’s Stadium, one that involves every community in building it.”

Lynn Littlejohn, director of community affairs at Mortenson Construction, told how Mortenson, which built Target Field, set and exceeded aggressive goals for local hiring and subcontracting, including women and minorities. She said that 95% of the labor and more than 90% of the contractors that they used were local. Over one-third of workers at Target Field were people of color and women, and 110 subcontractors on the project were minority- or women-owned businesses.

Why have we proposed this plan? Why is it worth the fight?

We’ve proposed this plan because it’s a good deal for Minneapolis taxpayers. And we’ve proposed it because without it, Minneapolis taxpayers could well end up with a raw deal.

That’s the difference between being at the table fighting for something — or walking away, not fighting and getting nothing, or worse.

3-for-1 plan for property-tax relief

I’ve said it over and over: property taxes in Minneapolis are too high. That’s why the City Council and I passed zero increase in the City’s property taxes for 2012.

We’ve worked hard to hold the line on property taxes in Minneapolis, despite drastic State cuts to our budget over many years: we’ve cut our own spending (now 9% lower than 10 years ago) and we fixed the broken closed-pension system that was the major driver of property-tax increases in recent years. In the process, we’ve paid down $183 million in debt and restored the City’s AAA credit rating.

But an ongoing drain on Minneapolis property taxes has been Target Center. Despite the fact that Target Center is a facility of statewide importance, only Minneapolis property-tax payers have been on the hook to pay off Target Center’s debt, to the tune of $5 million a year.

That’s just wrong. But despite the fact that the City Council and I have lobbied for years to get this burden off Minneapolis taxpayers’ backs, the State has not acted — and without a change, Minneapolis taxpayers alone will keep paying Target Center’s debt until 2025.

Now, for the first time — and only because Council President Johnson and I have been at the table fighting for a solution to the Vikings stadium — we have a realistic plan to move the burden of Target Center debt off the backs of Minneapolis property taxpayers and share it with all of the 18,000,000 people who visit and spend money in Minneapolis every year. And we can do it without raising any new taxes on anyone.

By keeping in Minneapolis existing, State-authorized sales and user taxes that are already collected here and currently dedicated to the Minneapolis Convention Center, we will not only lower property taxes on Minneapolis homeowners and business owners: we will continue to keep the Convention Center competitive, renovate the Target Center, and help find a solution for a new home for the Vikings. That solution includes a $1-billion new investment in our city that will create thousands of good jobs in the construction, service and hospitality industries.

What happens if we’re not at the table fighting for Minneapolis?

Some say that Minneapolis should just walk away from the table and not be part of this discussion. But this point of view turns a blind eye to reality — that the Legislature controls Minneapolis’ taxes and Minneapolis’ fate.

The existing taxes that Council President Johnson and I want to use for property-tax relief, for Target Center and the Convention Center, as well as for a new stadium, are ones that the Legislature has the power simply to take from Minneapolis at will.

If we were not at the table fighting to solve these long-standing stadium issues, the Legislature could — and in all likelihood, would — simply apply our taxes entirely to a new Vikings stadium, leaving Minneapolis homeowners out in the cold and still paying for Target Center debt. This would also leave the Convention Center and Target Center financially unsustainable, damage our strong hospitality economy and create even more of a burden for Minneapolis taxpayers.

That’s why we’re at the table, fighting for Minneapolis: because there, we can strike the best deal for Minneapolis taxpayers. If we weren’t there, who would fight for Minneapolis?

Our only choice: being part of the solution

When we face a problem in Minneapolis, we don’t walk away from it — we roll up our sleeves, listen to each other and try to solve it together. That’s the Minneapolis way, and that’s the way we’re working toward a solution to the long-standing property tax/stadium/jobs issue. But being part of the solution is Minneapolis’ only choice.

As we stay at the table and keep fighting for our city, I encourage you keep listening, ask questions and look closely at our plan to lower property taxes, build a stronger economy and keep Minneapolis taxes benefitting Minneapolis.

But before we get to that, let’s start with some indisputable facts: after inheriting an economic catastrophe, President Obama has delivered 22 straight months of private-sector job growth. Mayors like me across the country have benefited from his leadership in putting cops on the street, teachers in the classroom and unemployed workers back on the job — including in the auto industry, which made one million more cars last year because of the President’s bold leadership. He has also delivered critical investments in small business, including upgrades in homegrown energy, which have created hundreds of thousands of new jobs that didn’t even exist before. He’s made it less expensive to go to college, made it possible for millions who never had it to get on healthcare, and made it possible for millions more to stay on healthcare and not go bankrupt.

In short, the President’s leadership has delivered for America’s middle class.

The built-to-last economy that President Obama laid out tonight will keep leveling the playing field for the middle class. The President’s vision for America is one in which people who work hard, do their fair share and play by the rules will no longer be swimming upstream, but will actually get ahead.

That’s just common sense.

For years now, we have been firmly committed to making the Minneapolis Police department look like the communities that it works hard to keep safe, and our efforts are paying off: now more than 19% of Minneapolis police officers are people of color. While that still doesn’t represent the percentage of people of color in our city, which is more than 40%, it’s a higher proportion of police officers of color than we’ve ever had in our history. This is good progress that we can be proud of.

It’s also progress that one of the newly-rehired officers is a woman. Our force is now 16% women — and while that’s still not good enough, we also have more women officers today than we have ever had in our history.

We’ve made good progress on public safety in Minneapolis: violent crime has fallen by double-digit percentages for each of the last six years, and in 2011, violent crime fell to a 28-year low. While we have serious concerns — above all, that it’s far too easy to get and use a gun — and while even one crime is too many, our work in partnering with community to make everyone safer is paying off. Thanks goes to Minneapolis police officers, led by Chief Tim Dolan, and to the many unsung residents who work hard every day to make their communities safer.

Please join me in welcoming officers Bowen Barnard, Kong Moua, Abubakar Muridi, Christopher Reiter, Tou Thao, Lincoln Vincent, Jeffery Webb and Yolanda Wilks as they join the ranks of the men and women who work with our communities to make Minneapolis a safe place to call home.