Posted: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 10:30 am
by John Diers
“We recommend that the 1967 Legislature create a Metropolitan Council directly elected by popular vote of the people, to solve the pressing area wide governmental problems of the Twin Cities area in a coordinated manner. The council would be responsible only for those area-wide functions and services, which cannot be handled adequately by municipalities and counties and which are specifically assigned to the council by the Legislature.”
The 48-year history of the Metropolitan Council began with this paragraph in a 58-page Citizens League recommendation calling for a new level of metropolitan governance, but is the council, today, what the league intended in its 1967 recommendations? Read the paragraph again, and then carefully consider the following: