Sunday STrib slams Mpls gov't

[GAspnes]

I was a taken aback by the concerted attack on the Minneapolis City Council and general governmental structure published in the STrib today. (http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5118124.html, under the more general Opinion Page rubric "Who's in Charge?")

As a life-long city resident with only brief stays in Roseville and Vadnais Heights, I'm not quite sure how to react to the criticisms. I've always preferred complex, slow-moving government -- there tends to be more input to the process, and more compromise. The suggestion that Minneapolis needs a weakened City Council and a strengthened mayor to serve as "... a single spokesman who can talk for it" is particularly reprehensible in my view. Minneapolis doesn't have a single voice, no large organization does, and I worry about voices being lost with the implementation of a 'single spokesman'.

My contact with city government over the years has been slight, so I'm starting from a position of ignorance. Does anyone here work for the city or have experiences that I can learn from?