Questions arise within group investigating Met Council reforms

The work of a state task force examining the powerful reach of the Metropolitan Council was disrupted this week when questions surfaced over a commission member's involvement in two lawsuits suing the regional planning body over its affordable housing practices.

It all started at the Metropolitan Governance Task Force meeting on Wednesday — a body created by the Legislature earlier this year to study the Met Council's current structure, which consists of 16 members and chair appointed by the governor.

At the meeting, task force member Myron Orfield, a University of Minnesota law professor, aggressively questioned top Met Council officials about the body's legal structure.

Orfield was interrupted by Rep. Ginny Klevorn, DFL-Plymouth, a task force member who said she recently discovered he was involved in two lawsuits against the Met Council.

"I want to make sure that any questions that are being asked are being asked in the purview of this committee and not to further any other cause or event," she said.

Orfield assured her that his questions were "for the purposes of this hearing." He later called Klevorn's question a "slanderous attack."

But another task force member, Rep. Jon Koznick, R-Lakeville, chimed in: "It looks like a conflict of interest to me when you're grilling the Met Council — and I'm no fan of the Met Council." He said Orfield should have disclosed his involvement in the anti-council litigation to the task force. "This doesn't pass the smell test," he said later.

Late Friday, the chair of the task force, Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, informed members that he had consulted with state ethics experts who said there are "no ethical concerns or conflicts of interests" regarding Orfield's legal work.

With a $1.2 billion annual budget, the Met Council has vast oversight of the region's public transit and wastewater systems, affordable housing, local planning and regional parks.

Over the years, it has been criticized for its perceived lack of accountability and, more recently, its handling of the $2.7 billion Southwest Light Rail line, a project beset with cost overruns and delays, as well as crime issues on the region's light rail lines.

Orfield is a vociferous critic of the council — even after he helped create its current structure while serving in the Legislature in the 1990s. He and other members of the task force have called for council members to be elected.

In 2014, Orfield was involved with a complaint filed by the Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing and several suburban cities with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that charges the Met Council with housing discrimination. He said last week he withdrew from the case, which is pending.

A more recent case involving Orfield was filed in August by the Stairstep Foundation, a Black-led faith and civil rights nonprofit based in Minneapolis. The lawsuit, which is pending in Ramsey County District Court, accuses the council, the state and its housing finance agency of racially based housing discrimination.

Orfield said his role in both cases is advisory and that he was not paid for his work.

In a formal response submitted to the task force Thursday, Orfield noted there are no conflict-of-interest laws governing state legislative commissions. He further claimed that Klevorn had been "discussing this putative conflict for months, with other members of the Legislature, the press, and the public."

Klevorn did not respond to the Star Tribune for comment. A Met Council spokesperson declined to weigh in on the matter.

Some of the Met Council's most vocal critics are members of the state task force, including Mary Pattock, who has long opposed the Southwest light rail project. Pattock, who lives in the Cedar-Isles-Dean area of Minneapolis, is a member of an organization that sued the council in 2014 to stop the Southwest project, which will link downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie when it begins service in 2027. The suit was dismissed in federal court.

Pattock said last week's dust-up was a distraction, and she remains confident the task force will craft sound recommendations for the Legislature by its Feb. 1 deadline.

"At this point we need to decide what our goals are for metro governance," she said. "What do we want it to look like, and based on what? Right now, a lot of people, including those concerned about Southwest light rail, think the Met Council isn't competent, accountable and credible."

Said Hornstein: "I don't see any conflict. I don't see anything untoward going on here. We're moving past this conversation and transitioning into a broader conversation about what we want to see coming out of this task force."