A vote against the Vikings stadium didn’t keep Minneapolis City Council Member Lisa Goodman off one of the two new city committees that will implement the legislation.
One group will focus on the Vikings stadium, while the other will oversee remodeling of the Target Center.
Goodman, who chairs the Council Community Development Committee, was named by Council President Barb Johnson to the Target Center Implementation Committee. All of the other committee appointments announced so far have gone to council members who supported the Vikings stadium legislation.
“Her skills [Goodman] will be particularly appropriate in the negotiating arena that we’re going to be in for the works that needs to be done,” said Johnson, who said she is willing to appoint others who opposed the legislation to the committees.
“I wanted to open it up and have people tell me what they want,” said Johnson, noting there are no limits on the number of council members who can serve on the two committees.
Those named to serve on the Vikings Stadium Implementation Committee are Johnson, Mayor R.T. Rybak, and Council Members Kevin Reich, Diane Hofstede and Sandy Colvin Roy. All voted in favor of the stadium legislation.
Colvin Roy was originally slated for the Target Center Committee but was moved to the Stadium Committee because of the transportation issues involved. She chairs the council’s Transportation and Public Works Committee.
Citizen members who will serve as co-chairs of the stadium committee are: Tom Fisher, dean of the School of Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota, and David Wilson, with Accenture Consulting. Chuck Lutz, deputy director of Community Planning and Economic Development, will serve as the city staff for the committee.
The Target Center Committee, in addition to Goodman, will include Council Members Don Samuels, John Quincy and Meg Tuthill, who all voted for the stadium legislation. City staff for that committee will be Jeremy Hanson Willis, director of Community Planning and Economic Development.
Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis will be seeking $27.5 million from a new state program to rebuild Nicollet Mall, the city’s No. 1 priority for the state’s bonding bill. The project did not make the final list.
The new program is administered by the Department of Employment and Economic Development.
In a compromise move, the governor and Legislature established the $47.5 million grant program to fund other projects for cities and counties. The legislation requires a matching grant at least equal to the amount of the DEED grant.
Minneapolis would use a matching grant from the Downtown Council.