The Citizens League of Minnesota

I am so disenchanted by the politics of today. In the UK, political life is dominated by “Brexit means Brexit” although no politician has shown any real understanding of what Brexit actually means. The Annual Party Conference season is upon us. The Labour Party is re-running its leadership contest where the likely winner does not enjoy the confidence of his parliamentary colleagues. Soon, the Conservatives will meet with the likely result that the debate on Europe will deepen the Party’s divide. Before the end of this year, both the Labour and Conservative Parties may split.

In the United States, the media is concentrating on the unedifying battle between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump. Accusations of lying, cheating and dishonesty abound, not to mention the gratuitous insults paid by Trump to his fellow citizens. In fact, it is more hatred than politics that emanates from both sides. It is the most negative of campaigns and there are still weeks more to go.

In Brazil, President Rousseff has been impeached and convicted. The Russian paraplegic athletes have been banned from the Paralympics in Rio because of state-sponsored doping. It seems that everywhere you look, there is disheartening political fallout.

Looking for solace, some positivity and simply to cheer myself, I have decided to write about the role played in Minnesota politics by the Citizens League. The League is a civic participation group, advocating good government policy in both Minnesota and the Metropolitan Area, which comprises the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, where approximately half the state’s population lives.

The League is an institution probably unique in American politics because it is run by its volunteer members, ably assisted by a small but effective professional staff. Both members and staff carry out research, write proposed policy recommendations and often help guide Bills through the Minnesota legislature.

The League’s central ethic is that people should participate as volunteers and seekers of public good, not merely as agents of special interests. The League is non-partisan, although highly active politically. Some might call it altruistic. I prefer the phrase, “enlightened self-interest,” where a group of people who believe that what is good government and good governing for the state is good for the majority of its individuals.

The League was founded in 1952 by a group of prominent Minneapolis businessmen and women, seeking to make their city a more attractive place for people to live and work. By the late 1970s, the League’s membership exceeded 3,250 but it dropped in the 1990s and now moves between 1,250 and 1,750. There are many reasons for the decline but changes in corporate civic engagement, competition for time and a generational switch to more single-issue groups account for some of the changes.

League membership is likely to be from elder generations who have time to do the work. The League could be accused of elitism because its members are drawn largely from the middle class but does this matter? The test of the League’s effectiveness is in the policy proposals and help they give to all classes of people.

In its 64 years of existence, The League has proposed numerous policies for the common good and seen them through to legislation. In 1966, the League listed seventeen functions and services not being provided adequately in the Twin Cities, including sewage disposal and public transportation. Reports were requested by public officials. Ultimately, based on League recommendations, a new, directly appointed Metropolitan Council took over these functions, re-organizing many aspects of local government and making them much more efficient in the process.

The League has a fine record in education. Its fiscal disparities policy negated the effect of wide discrepancies in property taxes in the poor and rich districts of the Twin Cities. Each district was then responsible for running and funding its schools. As a result, poor districts received far less money for education than rich districts. The League devised a formula that shared the growth in the tax base between wealthy and low-income communities. Statutory changes had the state provide the major part of funding per pupil. Accordingly, the same dollars-worth of education would be purchased equally and no school pupil would be disadvantaged financially.

The League championed the Metro State University, a college without a campus, similar to UK’s Open University. The League also pioneered a charter school policy for the state, giving schools more leeway in settling their curricula. The League’s rationale was that better educated children and adolescents would serve the expanding business and civic communities.

The League’s policy process is transparent and democratic. Members, all of whom are unpaid, elect a Board of Directors annually from within its membership. Members lobby Board members about topics they want investigated. Each year, the Board selects two or three of those topics for study in committee, which members and community stakeholders may join.

For a period of between six and twelve months, the committees meet twice a month, considering policy detail and taking expert evidence. Research is “hands on.” With assistance from the staff, draft reports are circulated to all interested parties, including outside institutions who will have an informed view. Once a report is settled, with minority reports attached, it is circulated to members for approval, as well as state legislators and the media.

Currently, the League is considering ways to reduce concentrations of poverty in the region and foster increased connections to social and economic opportunities. This includes the evaluation of existing transit routes, to ensure the best means to directly connect areas of concentrated poverty with job centres and high-growth industry clusters.

This autumn, the League is taking on the issue that ultimately blocked end-of-session legislation on taxes and infrastructure investment: how to fund transit improvements in the legislature. The committee has included a wide range of interests and political viewpoints, all seeking to find better long-term solutions to this problem.

Last year, the League convened a diverse task force to study metropolitan governance. It researched the Metropolitan Area Council’s performance against current stated goals, learn more about local concerns and examine the tensions between counties, cities, and individual Minnesotans. The task force has already made five recommendations, two of which were directed at the state Governor and the Legislature, seeking changes in Metropolitan Council member terms of office and improvements to the nominations process. The outcomes are awaited. To add to the breath-taking width of its policy interest, in partnership with the Twin Cities Public Broadcasting System, the League has launched a project called “Calling Home”, looking at “the home” as a starting place for conversations about aging and planning for the life changes that are inevitable for the elderly.

For those of us who believe politics should be a force for the good of all, the current national situation both in America and UK leaves much to be desired. Partisanship, name calling and point scoring does not amount to adult politics. I begin to wonder whether seriousness of the body politic is a thing of the past. Where I live, local politics is mired in corrupt councillors, over-rewarded executives and partisanship to rival the US Congress. How I wish I could join a local Citizens League that would rise above this kind of politics so I might help resolve some of the many issues that confront us. 

 

 

[For those who would like more information on the Citizen’s League, their web site is www.citizensleague.org]