Mark Sanford and John Ensign Should Resign

My beautiful wife and I just returned from a great weekend get-away to Baltimore for our 16th wedding anniversary. On the flight home today I read several newspapers; each one having a story about the GOP “brand” being further tarnished by those Republican officeholders who just can’t seem to keep their pants zipped up.

These stories – stemming of course from the recent admissions of infidelity by Sen. John Ensign and Governor Mark Sanford – force the following question: What should a party of values do about public officials who cheat while in office?

Bottom line for me, if you can’t keep your marital vows while in office, you should resign.

The lead story tonight on Fox9 was Tom Lyden’s coverage of Minneapolis’ decision to spend $180,000 to market tap water to its residents.  Tom apparently couldn’t get the Mayor or anyone from the city council to talk to him, so he called me.  I was happy to oblige.  Great story:

Writing on The Mayor Blog, Jeremy Hanson, Mayor Rybak’s Communications Director and Press Secretary, has posted an entry entitled “In Defense of Artistic Drinking Fountains” in which he takes issue with Governor Pawlenty’s criticism of the $500,000 Minneapolis recently spent on artist-designed water fountains in Minneapolis.  I posted on this issue last week.

In the post, Hanson claims the following:

The drinking fountains in question are funded with dedicated revenue streams that are completely separate from the City’s General Fund and have nothing to do with the amount of local government aid (LGA) the City gets from the State.

Rybak complains while spending $500,000 for artsy drinking fountains in Minneapolis

Governor Pawlenty today announced his unallotment decisions.  Among his comments was an admonition to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (who is predictably incensed by the cuts to local government aid) that he should start setting priorities for the city budget and stop funding  ”$50,000 artistic drinking fountains.”

I had completely forgotten about those fountains, but amidst the cries from Rybak and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman that LGA cuts would threaten public safety and force their respective cities to cut even further into bone, I decided to refresh myself on last year’s decision by Rybak and the Minneapolis City Council to spend $500,000 on artist-designed water fountains (ten fountains at $50K each) to be placed throughout the city.

A Star Tribune story last year described this expenditure as a “continuation of the city’s ongoing public arts program, which has brought the city projects ranging from an oversized bunny sculpture at East Minnehaha Parkway and Portland Ave. S. to artist-designed manhole covers.”

Another good story from Tom Hauser, this time about the garbage burner landscaping that received last week’s Golden Fire Hydrant:

Just a note: The shots in the story of the trashy building and littered street are not shots of the garbage burner property; they are pictures taken down the street from the garbage burner.  The actual garbage burner property is currently very neat and clean and already has landscaping in place (just not the gold-standard landscaping that the taxpayers are about to fund).

County Spends $700,000 on Landscaping at Garbage Burner

The Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (“HERC” a.k.a. “the garbage burner”) is a hulking complex in Minneapolis next to the new Twins stadium that can often be seen billowing smoke on a cold winter morning. It’s not a bad looking place (as far as county garbage burners go). It’s clean, neat and tastefully painted in pale tan with chocolate brown accent walls. “Not bad-looking”, however, just doesn’t cut it anymore for the HERC, at least not now that higher class neighbors are about to move in.

Last month, the county board approved a $1.95 million project to make the HERC look and smell a little better. 

Friday’s Star Tribune carried a story by Mary Jane Smetanka regarding this blog and its effect on the Hennepin County Board:

New member skewers Hennepin County Board
MARY JANE SMETANKA, Star Tribune

After being on the losing side of budget votes more often than he expected, new Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson has started a blog that takes some light-hearted pokes at projects that he considers wasteful.

Johnson’s blog features the same image of a surly looking bulldog that was on the “Taxpayer Watchdog” campaign literature that helped him win the Seventh District board seat last fall. On the blog, Johnson awards “Golden Hydrant” awards that figuratively lift a leg on projects he dislikes.

Tom Hauser of Channel 5 started out with a story on the solar energy rally at the Capitol Thursday, but it turned into something quite different.  Watch it here.

Minnesota Finance & Commerce published a front-page story about this blog and our first two Golden Hydrant awards yesterday, including a response from Hennepin County Board Chairman Mike Opat.  It was a balanced and fair assessment:

Hennepin County Commissioner Johnson takes his budget scrutiny online

by Bob Geiger Staff Writer

After being on the short end of many 6-1 votes, Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson has launched an Internet weblog to help police fiscal spending by the seven-member board governing Minnesota’s most populous county.

Johnson, a former Republican House member who in 2008 succeeded Penny Steele election in the county’s sprawling Seventh District, is criticizing excessive or wasteful spending in his Hennepin County Taxpayer Watchdog blog.