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Council member charges untoward coercion on
I-35W ramps
printed 11.15.02
online at http://startribune.com/stories/462/3433190.html
by Steve Brandt
Star Tribune
The debate over a proposed Interstate Hwy. 35W access project
in south Minneapolis took a volatile turn Thursday night when a
City Council member alleged backroom deals and political pressure
by project backers.
Council Member Robert Lilligren alleged that, despite a facade
of public participation in project decisions, heavy pressure is
being put on opponents to support corporate interests favoring the
$153 million effort, which would add ramps at Lake Street and shift
others.
Lilligren has been a neighborhood representative on a project advisory
committee since before he was elected to the council. The project
would take half of his block.
The proposal is headed soon for formal consideration by city and
Hennepin County elected officials.
Lilligren, speaking at a public meeting at Phelps Park, told of
two instances in which he said project backers made offers to try
to gain support. In one case, he said, Jim Graham, a Phillips neighborhood
representative on the advisory committee, told him he'd voted for
the project because project managers said they'd support his proposal
to create developable space over the freeway using concrete decking
at Franklin Avenue and improve freeway access at Franklin. Another
former committee member, Antonio Rosell, verified that. Graham said
he'd made serious consideration of those things the price of his
vote, but there are no promises that either will happen.
In the other case, Lilligren said he was told by a reliable source
that a neighborhood developer had been offered $2 million in assistance
for his Lake Street project in exchange for project support.
Both charges were flatly denied by Tom Johnson, an employee of
the Smith Parker law firm that has managed development of the freeway
access proposal for several years for Hennepin County. He said that
there have been conversations with developers but that no deals
were offered.
Lilligren also alleged that pressure had been exerted to serve
corporate interests such as Abbott Northwestern Hospital, which
initiated the traffic studies in 1997, Honeywell, and later Wells
Fargo, which bought Honeywell's Phillips neighborhood complex.
He said that at one meeting this year, Hennepin County Commissioner
Peter McLaughlin urged officials to support the project, saying
there had been a "handshake deal," an obligation to corporations
to make the project happen.
McLaughlin, who spoke at Thursday's meeting after Lilligren, didn't
directly respond. But he said afterward that Lilligren keeps changing
his account of what McLaughlin told him and "is just making
the stuff up."
Lilligren also alleged that Mayor R.T. Rybak and Council President
Paul Ostrow pressed him to sign a letter seeking state funding for
the project when they attended a Virginia emergency preparedness
meeting early this year. He said he was told that several council
members wouldn't sign unless he did.
Lilligren said that when he refused, Rybak told him "commitments
were made," and Lilligren replied, "Not by me."
Rybak called Lilligren's allegation of pressure ludicrous. He added,
"For many months I've been trying to get a sense of where Robert
is at on this very complicated project. When he's backed into a
corner, he tends to make comments that don't have a lot of root
in reality, so I'm not sure what he's talking about."
Said Ostrow: "I did not pressure him."
-- Steve Brandt is at sbrandt@startribune.com or 612-673-4438.
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