Dateline Minneapolis: Sympathetic voice of City Hall is silenced

Today's column remembers a City Hall fixture, welcomes a young comer there, points to a familiar name among sheriff's foreclosure sales and finds consistency in a politician.

The people were her supervisor

For more than 14 years, if you called the Third Ward office at Minneapolis City Hall, the warm voice of Lorna Hanson answered. Council members came and went in the ward, but Hanson was a touchstone for ward residents until her death on Feb. 3.

"I don't think anybody really supervised Lorna," said former Council Member Joe Biernat, who hired Hanson in 1994 as the first of her three council bosses. Rather, she worked for the residents of her ward, one of the most difficult in the city to serve given that the Mississippi River divides it into North Side and East Side portions with differing personalities.

"She was the voice of City Hall when people called. People wanted to know that City Hall had a heart," Biernat said at a memorial service last week. He made a deal with his office staff that he'd bring in bagels whenever their work was complimented at a community meeting. "Lorna cost me a lot of bagels," he added.

Hanson held an ace when it came to dealing with callers. Sometimes ward residents would rant about livability issues and tell her she just didn't understand. "Sir, I live at 29th and Knox Avenue North," she rejoined.

Tucked out of sight

If you keep an ear cocked to the work of the City Council and its committees on the Web or cable, you might have wondered about the occasional whimper you thought you heard last fall as the 2009 budget was hammered out. Those whimpers came from Cecilia, not a lobbyist whose pet project had just been axed.

Mother Elizabeth Glidden is the first Minneapolis council member to give birth during her term in office since Jackie Cherryhomes in 1997.

Glidden stayed home for a few weeks, coming in briefly for a committee meeting when needed, working by phone or e-mail during Cecilia's extended naps. But her seat on the Budget Committee mandated an all-day appearance during the climactic budget markup in November, and Cecilia spent much of the day tucked out of sight behind the council dais by Glidden's chair. That accommodated their nursing schedule, a duty at which father Eric Pusey couldn't sub.

"I'm really fortunate that people were so accommodating and kind at the council," Glidden said.

The council is fortunate that Cecilia maintained council decorum.

Almost lost in the mass of more than 3,000 foreclosures last year in Minneapolis was one bearing a familiar name. A condo association early last year foreclosed on a riverfront townhouse owned by former Minneapolis schools Superintendent Thandiwe Peebles to enforce its lien for her delinquent payments. In the latter stages of her Minneapolis tenure, Peebles owned three houses in as many states. At last word, she was working as a consultant for the Paterson, N.J., School District in 2006-2007. She was paid at a rate of $1,400 per day, or higher than the state-run district's superintendent, for work on a district curriculum, according to the Passaic County Herald News.

At least he's consistent

Some folks just can't buy a break. Take Dick Franson, now running for mayor. The fax-o-matic candidate has a 23-election losing streak in running for public office since he was elected a Minneapolis alderman in 1963. Dateline Minneapolis learned recently that Franson's losing ways extend beyond that arena.

A few months back, Franson ran fourth in a four-person race for the executive committee of the Minneapolis Municipal Relief Association, a political and legislative arm representing most retired city employees. He's also run losing races for association officer posts and for its legislative committee.

Dateline Minneapolis likes consistency in a political candidate.

"It's almost like a law school exam question: Would the courts have the ability to dictate what our government is in the meantime?" -- Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal, discussing what could happen if a court invalidated a ranked-choice voting election for Minneapolis after the terms of the mayor and council expired.