Met Council makeover

This could be the year of big changes for the Metropolitan Council. At least that is what two southwest Minneapolis legislators are hoping for.
Later this month, State Senator Scott Dibble and Representative Frank Hornstein, chairs of the transportation committees in the Senate and House respectively, plan to introduce legislation that would overhaul the 7-county regional body to make it more independent. Under their proposal, its 17 members would be elected directly by voters instead of appointed by the governor, as has been the case since its establishment in 1967. Additionally, the elected members, and not the governor, would select the chair.
Although past efforts to make similar changes have been unsuccessful, including a similar bill last year, Dibble believes there is enough support to get a new bill passed this year.
“I do think we have a good chance of getting a bill passed this year,” said Dibble, noting a widespread bipartisan frustration over the Met Council’s handling of Southwest Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the feeling among legislators that the council lacks transparency and accountability.
“It is jacketed and ready to go,” he said about the new bill. “I am waiting for the right moment to roll it out.”
“I’m a huge fan of regional government and I want a Met Council that is in a better position to advocate for the region,” Dibble said. “It needs to be elected because that’s the true measure of accountability and so it can be representative and deliver on its vision.”
The current structure creates confusion, he believes, leaving people to wonder, “is it a local unit of government or a state agency?”
The agency by design is insular,” he said. “The whole thing is run by bureaucrats.”

WHAT IS THE MET COUNCIL?
As established by the state legislature in the 1967, the Metropolitan Council is a regional policy-making body that includes Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties. It was created in response to a growing region and – what a Citizen’s League report called at the time – a growing number of “independent single-purpose districts, each with its own policy council, taxing authority and administrative structure.” The Council was granted planning, coordinating and taxing authority to help guide the metro area, and provide essential service and infrastructure to the areas over 181 cities and towns.
Initially it was proposed to take over the functions of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, Mosquito Control District, Metropolitan Transit Commission and Minneapolis-St. Paul Sanitary District. It’s services now include Metro Transit’s bus and rail system, Metro Mobility, Transit Link, wastewater treatment services, regional parks, planning, as well as affordable housing, and economic development efforts. Their funding comes from a variety of sources, including user fees for wastewater treatment and transit services, state and federal funds, and a 7-county property tax.

WHAT ABOUT electing members?
The idea of a directly elected council is not new. In fact, it was first among the original 1967 Citizen’s League recommendations that resulted in its creation. “We recommend,” the report said, “that the 1967 Legislature create a Metropolitan Council, directly elected by popular vote of the people, to solve the pressing areawide governmental problems of the Twin Cities area in a coordinated manner.”
The 1967 legislature did adopt the League’s recommendation to create the Metropolitan Council, though with more limited powers than the Citizens League had proposed. However, they did not approve having its members elected. Amendments at the time to have an elected Council failed on a 62-66 vote in the House and a 33-33 tie vote in the Senate. Some legislators concluded, the league wrote in a subsequent report, that “if the Governor appointed members, as opposed to an election process, it [the Met Council] would be able to focus on issues 10 to 30 years ahead.”
It is unclear how much opposition there may be to this today. The governance structure has been studied since 1967 and an elected Met Council has not been recommended since in the more formal studies.
The Citizen’s League’s own 2016 report called for some changes to the Council, including adopting fixed four-year, staggered terms for members, but did not recommend that they be elected.
More recently, in December 2020, a committee created by Governor Tim Walz examined the structure and services of the Metropolitan Council and recommended that the Council members remain to be appointed.
Last term, a similar bill that was introduced to change to an elected membership, failed to get through the legislative process.

WILL THINGS BE DIFFERENT NOW?
While this bill will likely be very similar to last year’s, Dibble and Hornstein are hoping that the results will be different.
“We are in a key moment right now,” said Dibble, citing concerns about the Southwest light rail project and a general perception at the legislature that the Met Council needs to be more transparent, accountable, and collaborative.
Concerns have also been raised about the council’s taxing authority and their authority to override local government decisions on land use. The arrangement could be considered unconstitutional, and certainly is open to criticism as being taxation without representation.
Elected members would put the Council, said Dibble, “in a better position to advocate for the region” and make it more “unifying, legitimate, engaging and transparent.”
Beyond the governance, Dibble is also concerned about the council’s capacity, and the wisdom of giving it the authority to manage and oversee massive construction projects, like light rail transit (LRT). The first Hiawatha/Blue Line LRT project was planned and approved by the Met Council but was built by the state Department of Transportation (DOT).
Dibble says that there has been frustration with a lack of accountability and transparency among both Republican and Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislators for some time, but especially over the Met Council’s handling of Southwest LRT project.
In response to a series of well-publicized delays and cost overruns, last March the state legislature directed the Office the Legislative Auditor (OLA) to “conduct a special review, program evaluation, or a combination of the two, of the Southwest light rail transit project.”
In the first in a series of reports the OLA is making in response to that directive, last September they reported that since 2011, “the Metropolitan Council has increased its estimate of the project’s cost several times.” The projected budget for the line went from $1.25 billion in 2011, with service expected to start in 2018, to $2.74 billion in March of 2002 with a 2027 opening date.
The next OLA report on the project is scheduled for release early this year.
To address this Dibble said, “We may also want to move some of the responsibility to state DOT, especially these larger projects.” He plans to introduce that as a separate measure. Under his proposal, any project costing $100 million or more would be managed by the state, and not the Met Council. As proposed, this would apply only to future projects.
But even if this measure fails, Dibble believes that the change to make the Met Council more independent with members directly elected will be successful.
If approved by the legislature, he is also confident that the law will not be vetoed. “The Governor says he will sign it if it gets to his desk,” Dibble said.