Session Weekly Magazine February 2, 2007

SESSION WEEKLY A NONPARTISAN PUBLICATION MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES • PUBLIC INFORMATION SERVICES VOLUME 24, NUMBER 5 • FEBUARY 2, 2007 RHYMING LINES A WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT STATE’S DRIVE TO EXCELLENCE HF367- HF568 SESSION WEEKLY Session Weekly is a nonpartisan publication of Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services. During the 2007-2008 Legislative Session, each issue reports House action between Thursdays of each week, lists bill introductions and provides other information. No fee. To subscribe, contact: Minnesota House of Representatives CONTENTS Public Information Services 175 State Office Building 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. HIGHLIGHTS St. Paul, MN 55155-1298 Agriculture • 5 Energy • 8 Higher Education • 12 (651) 296-2146 or (800) 657-3550 or the Environment • 9 Minnesota Relay service at 711 or Biosciences • 5 Local Government • 13 (800) 627-3529 (TTY) Bonding • 6 Family • 10 Metro Affairs • 13 www.house.mn/hinfo/subscribesw.asp Consumers • 6 Game & Fish • 10 Safety • 13 Crime • 7 Government • 10 Taxes • 14 Director Education • 7 Health & Barry LaGrave Employment • 8 Human Services • 11 Editor/Assistant Director Lee Ann Schutz Assistant Editor BILL INTRODUCTIONS (HF367-HF568) • 19-23 Mike Cook Art & Production Coordinator Paul Battaglia Writers FEATURES Nick Busse, Craig Green, FIRST READING: Managing state’s water resources is complicated • 3-4 Stephen Harding, Sonja Hegman, Patty Ostberg, Mia Simpson AT ISSUE: Consolidating services could save state dollars • 15 Chief Photographer FEATURE: State needs a poet “free to write rhyming lines” • 16 Tom Olmscheid Photographers PEOPLE: New members profiled: Anderson, Benson, Faust and Laine • 17-18 Andrew VonBank, Sarah Stacke LATE ACTION: Freedom to Breathe Act on its way • 23 Staff Assistants Christy Novak, Joan Bosard MINNESOTA INDEX: Water and watersheds • 24 Session Weekly (ISSN 1049-8176) is published weekly during the legislative session by Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services, 175 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Periodicals postage paid at Minneapolis, Minn. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Session Weekly, House Public Information Services, 175 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Printed on recycled paper which is 50% recycled, On the cover: After testifying, Rashlin Robinson, takes a picture of the members of the House E-12 30% post-consumer content. Education Committee and the House K-12 Finance Division while Qsashu Black, right, testifies about the LifeLine Youth Off Street Ministry, part of Community Justice Partners. Legislators took part in a joint hearing at the Glover-Suddeth Community Center in North Minneapolis Jan. 30. Raven Shambley, left, Starletta Leslie, back left and Latanza Freeman, the ministry’s president and CEO, also came forward as the other testified. —Photo by: Tom Olmscheid FIRST READING Watershed trouble In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, managing water resources is complicated PHOTO BY ANDREW VONBANK BY NICK BUSSE from which water drains into a single stream wiss cheese” is how Rep. Morrie Lanning (R-Moorhead) or lake,” serves as a kind of basic, fundamental describes Minnesota’s system of managing its water unit for managing the state’s water resources. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified “Sresources. 84 major watersheds in Minnesota, which it “We’ve got holes all over,” Lanning said. further breaks down into approximately 5,600 According to a new report from the Office of the Legislative minor watersheds. The responsibility for managing watersheds Auditor, he’s right — and the state’s top water management falls primarily to a complex, often overlapping watchdog, the Board of Water and Soil Resources, is leaving and sometimes competing network of 46 more holes than it should. watershed districts, 23 water management organizations, 91 soil and water conservation Better known by its acronym, BWSR more directly accountable to, the governor, districts and 80 Greater Minnesota counties. (informally pronounced “BOW-ser”), the as well as expanding the board’s oversight Don’t even bother asking who does what; board is responsible for supporting and responsibilities and increasing its statutory it’s complicated. In fact, that’s part of the overseeing watershed districts, soil and water powers. problem. conservation districts and other local entities “To meet the challenges of the future, we “I think most of us who go in and, that work to protect and improve the state’s think BWSR’s governing structure should for example, vote for our soil and water more than 13 million acres of lakes, streams be changed, and with that change we will conservation commissioner don’t have any and wetlands. have a stronger, more effective and more idea what we’re voting for or what their At least, that’s what those organizations are accountable watershed management system responsibilities are,” Nobles said. supposed to do. Sometimes they don’t, and in Minnesota,” Nobles said. Generally speaking, responsibilities that’s when the board is supposed to step in. But in the course of his testimony, Nobles associated with managing watersheds include But according to Legislative Auditor James touched on the larger issue of watershed monitoring and reducing pollution and Nobles, the board has been neglecting its management in general — an inherently preventing flooding. Somewhat ironically, oversight duties. complicated undertaking involving some 14 watershed management largely involves “While some watershed management state and federal agencies as well as 11 different governing land use practices, which often organizations are effective, some are not,” types of local government organizations and determine where water flows and what Nobles said, adding that BWSR has been “too nonprofits. pollutants it picks up along the way. The slow to act, and sometimes reluctant to get “There’s a real mixed up and complicated trouble, according to BWSR Executive involved” when those organizations struggle system out there,” Nobles said. Director John Jaschke, is that every watershed or become inefficient. In fact, the biggest challenge in protecting, is different and requires a relatively unique Nobles presented the key findings of the preserving and restoring water quality for the approach. watershed management report Jan. 25 to the state’s 11,842 lakes and 69,200 miles of rivers “There really is no one-size-fits-all House Environment and Natural Resources and streams might be simply bringing order approach,” he said. “Each watershed, its Committee, which took no immediate to a system that some describe as chaotic. issues and solutions require a customized action. application of policy and science.” Charging that BWSR is “controlled by local The bigger picture interests,” Nobles recommended making A watershed, defined by the Department its executive director appointed by, and of Natural Resources as “the total land area First Reading continued on page 4 February 2, 2007 Session Weekly 3 First Reading continued from page 3 BWSR for not taking action earlier, even issue with the gubernatorial appointment neglecting to make the district submit its recommendation. A lack of oversight annual report. “We, the board, feel that it’s essential that Whether citizens understand what their “In 20 years, they had submitted one the Board of Water and Soil Resources hire the local watershed district or water management report,” Severson said. “BWSR had the executive director,” Kramer said, adding that organization does is one issue; whether the responsibility to make sure that those reports the board used a rigorous selection process for people who run them do is another. were filed; it didn’t happen.” executive director candidates. The report states that the performance In another example cited in the report, Some committee members were also o f w a t e r s h e d the soil and water skeptical of the recommendation. Rep. Dennis orga n i z at ion s i s “I think most of us who go in and, for ex- conservation district Ozment (R-Rosemount) wondered aloud “mixed,” with some for Hennepin County, whether BWSR’s problems were less an issue of successfully improving ample, vote for our soil and water conserva- t h e H e n n e p i n governance than one of a lack of resources. water quality and tion commissioner don’t have Conservation District, “It’s my opinion that BWSR has been reducing the risk of any idea what we’re voting for or what their fell apart due to drastically under-funded,” Ozment said, floods while others responsibilities are.” “internal turmoil,” noting that the board was hit hard during flounder, struggling with board members recent budget shortfalls. to implement basic -- Jim Nobles, Legislative Auditor suing each other. The Nobles agreed that BWSR had limited management plans county withdrew its resources, but disputed Ozment’s notion that and “move beyond funding for the board in 2003, but BWSR funding was the primary problem. general administration and planning tasks.” continued doling out grants to the district even “We think, just philosophically, that as an In fact, there is such a thing as a watershed after it had become “essentially dismantled.” executive branch agency, that there ought to horror story. Rep. Dan Severson (R-Sauk be more direct accountability to the governor Rapids), who showed up to the Jan. 25 meeting Fixing BWSR and to the Legislature — not to a board that is with a group of angry constituents in tow, The recommendation to change BWSR’s dominated by local interests,” Nobles said. described how the South Two River Watershed governance structure so that its executive Lanning, meanwhile, offered a larger District collected some $800,000 in taxes over director would be appointed by the governor perspective, arguing that the state needs a a period of 20 years and did not have “even one and confirmed by the Senate became a point more comprehensive overall approach to project completed.” of some contention.

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