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conflict of interest
is this project's middle name. Smith Parker, officially listed
as "Project Manager" for the 35W Access Project is only
the centerpiece of a vast tangle of unethical, undemocratic, and
one would hope, still illegal practices that have moved this project
forward from its inception.
what is Smith Parker? - or - conflict of interest
#1
Smith Parker is law firm whose claim to fame is their expertise
at lobbying and public relations. They are not engineers, or architects,
or urban planners, or economic development consultants, or even
landscape architects - they're LAWYERS AND LOBBYISTS. But they have
been designated as project managers for just about every major transportation
and land use project in the area, from the 35W Access Project to
the upcoming Lake Street Repaving - even though they also happen
to be legal
counsel to the biggest corporations, land-owners, and eventual
beneficiaries, of these projects and their outcomes.
conflict of interest #2
Tom Johnson, a Smith Parker employee, has since 1998 been the project
manager for this whole endeavor, supposedly acting on behalf of
the citizens and taxpayers of our city, our county and our state.
His prior job, as a consultant with Abbott Northwestern Hospital
and Allina Hospitals and Clinics was to make sure that the hospitals'
new ramps at 26th and 28th streets,
got built: "that is all we wanted to do. That was our project."
(an actual quote - read
the story here) - He is still doing that for them, but guess
who's picking up the tab?
Want proof? How come the 28th Street flyover is still part of the
project? has any neighborhood requested the construction of a NEW
highway off-ramp to 28th Street?
conflict of interest #3
Besides being legal counsel to all the major corporate players
in the area (including Allina Health System, Children's Hospitals
and Clinics, and Wells Fargo), Smith Parker is also counsel to their
non-profit behemoths who like to claim altruistic motivations for
their self-benefitting initiatives (Phillips
Partnership, Midtown
Community Works, etc.).
Because this city is run by sold-out Democrats, this association
with "do-gooder" corporate institutions provides convenient
cover for the politicians while still allowing them access to the
corporate dough and assorted favor$$$ they crave.
You don't believe that our political representatives would be so
stupid, or so compromised, or both, that they would give power over
major transportation and land use decisions to a law firm that also
happens to represent the
biggest big boys affected by those same decisions? - don't take
our word for it, just go visit their website and see
their list of clients.
conflict of interest #4
Who made the decision to continue with OSM Consultants when the
privately funded Abbott Northwestern
Transportation Study (of 1997) somehow morphed into the Phillips
Partnership's Access Project? After Smith Parker and other project
lobbyists secured federal funding - was there any public bidding
process for design services or was the project simply given to OSM?
what about when OSM went out of business and some of their staff
went to work for SEH - was the project then simply handed over to
SEH? - was there even polite pretense of any public bidding process
then?
conflict of interest #5
Smith Parker knows that their clients want
the ramp to 28th Street built. So when the DOT told them that
they would get no ramp unless they also accommodated new lanes on
35W (a $40 million addition to the project cost), Smith Parker did
not hesitate to force
a hurried vote to include this absolutely huge increase in project
scope and cost - Mn/DOT basically played its cards right, knowing
that Smith Parker could be counted on putting its clients' interest
ahead of the expressed wishes of the same Minneapolis neighborhoods
that less than ten years earlier had mobilized against this same
proposal. Even then-Mayor
Sharon Sayles Belton, herself a Partnershipmate, was opposed to
this - nonetheless, Smith Parker put the interests of Abbott
and Wells Fargo ahead of that of the citizens who are footing the
bill.
How can they get away with it?
Very easily - they know all the right politicians and are not shy
about using their influence. Among their bedmates, you can find:
- Hennepin County Commissioner Peter
McLaughlin, who promised to do "upfront bonding"
of up to $25 million from the County to ensure the project gets
built even if the Legislature does not set aside the $98 million
that is Mn/DOT's share but that (surprise !) the DOT does not
have. According to the geniuses at the County, the Legislature
will then have no choice but to reimburse them.
- former Metropolitan Council chair Ted Mondale, who recently
designated Smith Parker as the
Metropolitan Council's "Smart Growth" counsel, overseeing
transportation and land development intitiatives throughout the
state - not a bad start for what could be the "begining of
a beautiful friendship" for the future Democrat king and
his corporate connection facilitators !
- US Representative Martin Sabo, who as chair of the House Appropriations
Committee has been busy laying golden eggs for his Smith Parker
buddies. He continues to authorize the federal moneys that pay
the bills for Smith Parker and their handpicked consultants.
So is Smith Parker the devil?
Although there's room for disagreement
on this, we're not saying that the people of Smith Parker are
all bad - we're sure that some of them are even liked by their pets.
But it's just that their goal is not the creation of honest public
processes or fostering genuine public participation - that is simply
not their job. They are a law firm whose aim is to move forward
initiatives that benefit their clients. Period.
And if our idiot politicians
have put them in a position where they are now able
to form and direct public policy, well, shame on us for electing
the fools, and shame on them for thinking we won't care.
So should I just give up and move to Portland?
No, of course not. You can do plenty to help stop this project
and the type of undemocratic
privatization of government functions that it represents.
You can help us by:
... and by telling your friends to do the same, because together
we can stop this - Remember, NO BUILD IS AN
OPTION !
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