April 20-21, 2015
Apr 20 01:45 Kleis bests Potter on land swap Apr 20 11:43 President Potter's incompetence Apr 21 01:28 The case for MnSCU reform, Part I Apr 21 02:31 St. Cloud Times' bad advice Apr 21 03:45 Wild wins, lead St. Louis series 2-1 Apr 21 12:23 President Potter's dirty deed Apr 21 12:41 The Totalitarian Left's intimidation Apr 21 23:50 The case for MnSCU reform, Part II
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Kleis bests Potter on land swap
Land Swap Is A Bad Deal For SCSU - What Else Is New!
by Silence Dogood
On April 17, 2015, this St. Cloud Times article announced a proposed land swap between the city of St. Cloud and St. Cloud State University. The article states: "The city of St. Cloud plans to swap three pieces of land with St. Cloud State University for the 50-acre park. The St. Cloud City Council will vote on the land exchange Monday." The city property to be swapped is shown in blue in the following satellite image:
The property owned by SCSU to be swapped is shown in red in the following satellite image:
The scale in the two images is not the same. The following satellite image shows the two properties at the same scale. Clearly, the 50-acre parcel owned by SCSU is much larger than the combined three parcels owned by the city:
According to the article: St. Cloud owns three pieces of property near Fourth Avenue and 15th Street South that the university wants. Those pieces of land are worth $294,000. The park land is worth $328,000. From just the valuations stated in the article, SCSU is coming up on the short end by $34,000. However, if you look closely at the blown-up images of the properties, the city is clearly coming out way ahead!
Just by way of a historical reminder, the last time the city and SCSU worked out a deal it was for the "5th Avenue Live Project." There's no other way to say it. That deal was a complete failure and was cancelled after stage one. Unfortunately, as part of the project, SCSU entered into a lease with the Wedum Foundation and has lost $6,400,000 in the first four years of the project. It is on track to lose another $1,300,000 this year to bring the total to $7,700,000 lost in the first five years of operation! Since the lease runs for a minimum of an additional five years, SCSU may lose an additional $6,000,000 bringing the total amount lost to nearly $14,000,000 in the ten years required in the lease!
Since there has not been any discussion on campus of a potential land swap, it is not possible to know exactly why SCSU wants the city property. One might guess that it is to add parking spaces for students. In the satellite photo in the article, you can see the picture was taken during the winter while construction of the ISELF building was underway:
Clearly, classes are in session when the satellite image was taken because the faculty parking lots are fairly full. However, the student parking lots are clearly less than half-full! So much for needing additional parking. Also, since this picture was taken, the enrollment at SCSU has declined by over 20% so the argument that SCSU might need additional parking is simply a joke! In fact, SCSU has two mothballed high-rise dorms that have a total capacity of approximately 900 students. There is even discussion about demolishing one of them! Clearly, SCSU is not expecting these students to return.
In the satellite image, if you carefully examine the land SCSU is getting in the swap, it is pretty hard to see a lot of value in the storage yard where the city stores vehicles and stuff that it considers of such little value that the city chooses not to store it at the indoor storage facility in East St. Cloud.
Just for fun, let's do a mental exercise. Let's pretend that SCSU owned the three parcels of land south of the campus and the city owned the 50 acres of woods and quarries. Would it be a good deal for SCSU to accept an even up trade of its small three parcels of land for the 50 acres of woods? The answer is obviously YES! Not only would SCSU be getting a more valuable piece of real estate, it would be getting something that had the potential for development.
In fact, rather than the land swap, what if SCSU simply put the 50 acres up for sale to see if some developer might want to develop the property? While being adjacent to a maximum-security prison might not be the most desirable location for high-end homes, the city certainly thinks it's a good location for a park. No matter what the use, SCSU might be able to sell the property for more than the valuation of $328,000, then buy the three parcels of property from the city and make $34,000 or more on the deal. SCSU is currently in the process of cutting $12,000,000 from its budget for FY16. While $34,000 might not make a lot of difference to a $12,000,000 deficit - every little bit helps! That $34,000 might even cover another trip to China for President Potter and his entourage.
The St. Cloud City Council is going to vote on the land swap on Monday evening. I'm going to bet that the vote approving the land swap is going to pass! I might even take bets about the outcome and be willing to give odds. In fact, it is hard to imagine that the vote by the City Council won't be unanimous! It really is hard to think anyone on the City Council won't vote in favor of the land swap. In my humble opinion, once again, the City of St. Cloud has stuck it to President Potter, SCSU and ultimately, the taxpayers.
Based on the recent history, I really wonder what Mayor Kleis has against President Potter and his alma mater. First, he got SCSU to buy into the "5th Avenue Live Project," which will ultimately cost SCSU $14,000,000. Second, he got SCSU to pay $720,000 for three police officers over a three-year period to patrol the area around the SCSU campus. Lastly, he got SCSU to agree to a land swap that certainly looks like a pretty good dealfor the City of St. Cloud!
The only hope for SCSU is that the MnSCU Board of Trustees will say no to another bad deal for SCSU. However, this is the same board that recommended hiring Earl Potter as President of SCSU in the first place and then extended his contract. I guess there isn't much hope for sanity prevailing.
Posted Monday, April 20, 2015 6:57 AM
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President Potter's incompetence
Thanks to Silence Dogood's article, we have a better perspective on President Potter's incompetence. When it comes to managing SCSU's finances wisely, President Potter would get an F. That isn't to say that he's gotten everything wrong. It's saying that he's gotten a bunch of important things badly wrong, starting with the lease he signed with the Wedum Foundation. That's on track to lose $7,700,000 in its first 5 years in existence.
Despite losing millions of dollars on that initiative, President Potter publicly insists that the initiative is a success. It's impossible for honest people to insist that something that's lost millions of dollars a year from its start is a success. The good news for President Potter is that he isn't honest, which makes it easier for him to make statements like that.
Another example of President Potter's incompetence is the $12,000,000 deficit SCSU is expected to run for this fiscal year. Last June, SCSU announced that they would have a deficit. Back then, the deficit was only projected to be $3,000,000. At one of the first Budget Advisory Committee meetings last fall, that deficit was revised upward to $9,000,000. Now it's estimated to top $12,000,000. Thankfully, FY2015 is almost in the books.
I'm tired of watching incompetents like President Potter foolishly spend the taxpayers' money on frivolous things. The things listed above don't represent a comprehensive list of President Potter's financial transgressions. A comprehensive list of President Potter's mistakes would require a ton more bandwidth.
Then there's President Potter's futility in turning around enrollment. When the subject comes up, President Potter's response is that all MnSCU universities' enrollments are down, which is fairly close to true. What President Potter hasn't admitted is that SCSU's enrollment decline isn't just 1 or 2 years long. It's been dropping since FY2011. It's now FY2015. FY2016 starts on July 1, 2016. There's no end in sight.
What's especially frustrating is that MnSCU's Board of Trustees haven't notice SCSU's calamity. Few politicians have either. The MnSCU Board of Trustees haven't given parents and other taxpayers much to hope about. Their indifference towards SCSU's financial mismanagement signals that they don't take their oversight responsibilities seriously. If the Trustees, especially high profile trustees like Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, the former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and Phil Krinkie, the former chairman of the Taxpayers League, won't take this mismanagement crisis seriously, then there's no reason to think that they'll take anything seriously.
Anderson-Kelliher never took financial oversight seriously so I'll give her a partial pass on President Potter's mismanagement. It isn't like the DFL has set the bar high in terms of protecting the taxpayers' wallets.
Krinkie, on the other hand, initially set the bar high. Since getting defeated in 2006, though, he's been indifferent about being the taxpayers' watchdog. That's putting it politely, Phil. It isn't ok to let people like President Potter continue to steal the taxpayers' money. That's gotta stop ASAP. Period.
Posted Monday, April 20, 2015 11:43 AM
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The case for MnSCU reform, Part I
The case for major reform of MnSCU seemingly gets stronger each week. Silence Dogood's article about the latest financial crisis at St. Cloud State is an argument against MnSCU's current structure. While the 'highlight' of the article is on President Potter's getting taken to the cleaners by St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, the understory is MnSCU's indifference towards President Potter's mismanagement of SCSU's finances.
Here's the first question that MnSCU Chancellor Steven Rosenstone hasn't answered: Why didn't MnSCU, either through MnSCU's Central Office, MnSCU's Board of Trustees or through Dr. Rosenstone's office directly, take quicker action to get SCSU's finances in order?
OBSERVATION: Dr. Rosenstone, the MnSCU Central Office and MnSCU's Board of Trustees have been portraits in lethargy, indifference and apathy. Simply put, they've drawn 6-figure salaries without being the taxpayers' watchdog or without providing oversight of the system.
Here's the next question that needs answering: Why did MnSCU hire a consultant to a $2,000,000 contracts for things that MnSCU employees should've been able to handle? Apparently, spending money that doesn't need to be spent is a habit within MnSCU. This emphatically suggests that the culture within MnSCU needs changing. That won't happen with this chancellor. He's established his identity. Dr. Rosenstone had the chance to straighten MnSCU's financial ship out. He failed. Dr. Rosenstone was officially installed in October, 2011 .
ULTIMATE QUESTION: How many more multi-million dollar contracts will Dr. Rosenstone be allowed to sign before he's terminated?
In 2013, the DFL legislature bragged about freezing tuition. While I'm sure students and parents appreciated that, I'm totally certain that this didn't lower the cost of higher education. It just increased the subsidy needed to hide the cost of getting a degree.
Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:28 AM
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St. Cloud Times' bad advice
This morning's St. Cloud Times Our View editorial is mostly the type of stuff you'd expect from liberals trying to paint themselves as moderates. There is a section, though, that's clearly liberal:
Now is the time to (pardon the pun) pave the middle ground between DFL and Republican proposals to stabilize long-term transportation funding.
Dayton's plan does the most because it spends the most by correctly getting users of the state's transportation system to pay more in gas taxes. Never willing to raise taxes, House Republicans would rather shift general-fund money into transportation. That's a bad idea because the next Legislature could shift it back based on its funding priorities.
Instead, Dayton should accept a smaller gas-tax hike to a level that more closely aligns with Republican spending targets. Oh, and just call it a user fee.
I hope the Republicans immediately reject the Times' proposal. The Times editorial board will rationalize their opinion on the faulty theory that compromise is automatically the right thing. It isn't. Principled compromise isn't the wrong thing. Compromise for compromise sake is foolish.
First, I'd argue that We The People should come first. It's clear that the vast majority of Minnesotans a) prefer fixing Minnesota's roads and bridges and b) don't want to get hit with another tax increase. That means that the DFL would deserve the political nightmare they'd get in if they tried undoing the GOP transportation plan.
Next, I'd argue that it's foolish to think that the DFL is interested in good faith negotiations regarding transportation. Move MN, the DFL front group that's campaigning for a $13,000,000,000 tax increase, has consistently talked about Minnesota's roads and bridges during their TV and radio interviews. The minute they're off the air, though, they're lobbying legislators for raising the sales tax on people in Washington, Dakota, Carver, Sherburne and Anoka counties to pay for transit projects that benefit Hennepin and Ramsey counties.
There's nothing fair about that. It's a major rip-off that benefits the DFL's political base by taxing people more closely aligned with Republicans. If Hennepin and Ramsey counties want increased transit projects, let them pay for those projects. It's immoral to force people to pay for things that a) they don't benefit from and b) others benefit from.
There's another flaw with the Times' thinking. They say that "the next Legislature could shift it back based on its funding priorities," which is true. What the Times isn't taking into account is that people can let the DFL know that they'll pay a steep political price if they get rid of the Republicans' plan while replacing it with a plan that's already been tried and failed.
If we implemented the Republicans' plan and it fixed Minnesota's roads and bridges, why wouldn't the Times praise the Republicans' plan? Further, why wouldn't the Times criticize the DFL if they tried getting rid of a transportation plan that's working?
Finally, Republicans should utterly reject the DFL plan in the strongest words possible because it's been tried before and failed miserably. Compromising with people who've proposed terrible policies isn't a virtue. It's stupidity.
Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 2:31 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 21-Apr-15 11:29 AM
If the DFL tax plan taxes the users of the roads through higher gas taxes, then why do I need to pay more in sales tax to fund the choo choo and bus, neither of which I have ever stepped foot on in this state. Why are public transportation riders not asked to foot the bill for their modes of transportation?
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Apr-15 11:35 AM
I agree with your question but it's worse than that. The people riding the choo-choos aren't paying their fares. We are through subsidies. Talk about not fair.
Wild wins, lead St. Louis series 2-1
Monday night, the Minnesota Wild defeated the St. Louis Blues, shutting them out 3-0. The Granlund-Parise-Pominville line scored the first 2 goals, with Granlund and Parise assisting on Pominville's goal that opened the scoring:
Just 2:05 later, Granlund and Pominville assisted on Parise's goal:
Parise's goal was just sick. He's being tied up by the Blues' defenseman. The puck is in the defenseman's skates. Parise's solution? Poke the puck loose, get it onto his stick. Finish by rifling a shot over the goalie's shoulder from point blank range.
Devan Dubnyk was strong when he needed to be, which, tonight, wasn't that often. The story tonight was how totally unequipped the Blues are to deal with Minnesota's speed. Wave after wave of Wild forecheckers kept the pressure on the Blues' wings, defensemen and goalie. While the Granlund-Parise-Pominville line dominated the stat sheet, they weren't the only Wild forwards that caused the Blues headaches. The Coyle-Niederreiter-Vanek line was relentless with its physicality and their forecheck. The Brodziak-Bergenheim-Fontaine line provided admirable energy for being the Wild's 4th line.
The other story tonight was how the Wild totally frustrated the Blues' goon. Shift after shift, Steve Ott tried running Wild players. Shift after shift, Wild players would laugh at Ott before leaving the ice at the end of their shift. Finally, with the game decided, Ott tried provoking a fight, first against Marco Scandella, then against Jared Spurgeon. Still, the Wild resisted the temptation. That ultimately led to Ott getting tossed from the game with a 2-minute minor and a 10-minute misconduct.
There's an unmistakable trend developing. St. Louis is doing its best to intimidate the Wild. That's failing miserably. The Blues' defensemen are having tons of difficulty containing the Wild's speedy forwards. Devan Dubnyk is making big stops whenever they're needed.
This series isn't over. Still, if St. Louis doesn't bench Ott and figure out how to contain the Wilds' speed, it won't take long before St. Louis will be singing the end-of-season blues.
Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 3:45 AM
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President Potter's dirty deed
Surprise, Surprise; NOT!
by Silence Dogood
Monday evening the St. Cloud City Council unanimously approved a land swap brokered by Mayor Kleis between the city and SCSU's President Earl H. Potter. Essentially, Mayor Kleis fleeced SCSU out of a 50-acre parcel of land on the East side of St. Cloud by swapping it for a couple of acres of what amounts to some pretty valueless property south of the St. Cloud campus.
What did the city get? A 50-acre parcel which is a natural area with several water-filled quarries. What did the city have to give up? The 66-foot wide right of way for a road that no longer exists, a small vacant lot, and a little-used and unneeded storage yard. Total acreage of the three city properties is less than a few acres.
Based on the 'appraised' values of the property, the city came out ahead by $34,000. However, based on the real value of the swapped properties, the city took President Potter and SCSU 'to the cleaners.' The deal needs to be approved by the MnSCU Board of Trustees before it becomes final. However, the Board also approved the lease between the Wedum Foundation and SCSU that has already cost the university $7,700,000 with the potential to cost the university another $6,000,000 over the next five years of the lease. So much for sanity prevailing.
Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 12:23 PM
Comment 1 by Yeager at 21-Apr-15 04:58 PM
http://www.universitychronicle.net/george-w-friedrich-park-reopen-august/
The University Chronicle seems to have done a nice job digging in to the details of this land swap. Not sure who you can "blame" for this one - the swap originated during Saigo's time, and it was pushed by Kleis. Ultimately, the swap removes a liability for the University and (slightly) expands the footprint along the actual edge of campus.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Apr-15 05:15 PM
According to Kleis last night, the Saigo-Kleis deal wasn't a swap. If I understood Kleis right, SCSU would've kept control of the property.
Comment 2 by Mystique at 21-Apr-15 07:56 PM
The parcels of land the city owns is worth $294,000. The park is worth about $328,000. It doesn't take a math major to figure out that's a $34,000 advantage to the city. Getting over 50 acres of undeveloped real estate in the city limits whole giving up around 7 acres of land is a great deal for the city of St. Cloud. The Chronicle did a good job talking about the history of the park but not the land swap itself. This might have been the easiest vote the city council ever made. With the $12 million budget deficit and climbing, layoffs on the horizon, Potter's love for international travel, massive declining enrollments, Coborn Apartment's $7 million dollar loss, it is clear that seemingly everything he touches turns to lead. Why would anyone be surprised that a simple land swap would be any different?
The Totalitarian Left's intimidation
The Totalitarian Left's intimidation tactics might've reached criminal level. Glenn Reynolds explains in this USA Today special op-ed :
When Vladimir Putin sends government thugs to raid opposition offices , the world clucks its tongue. But, after all, Putin's a corrupt dictator, so what do you expect?
But in Wisconsin, Democratic prosecutors were raiding political opponents' homes and, in a worse-than-Putin twist, they were making sure the world didn't even find out, by requiring their targets to keep quiet. As David French notes in National Review, "As if the home invasion, the appropriation of private property, and the verbal abuse weren't enough, next came ominous warnings. Don't call your lawyer. Don't tell anyone about this raid. Not even your mother, your father, or your closest friends. ... This was the on-the-ground reality of the so-called John Doe investigations, expansive and secret criminal proceedings that directly targeted Wisconsin residents because of their relationship to Scott Walker, their support for Act 10, and their advocacy of conservative reform."
Is this un-American? Yes, yes it is. And the prosecutors involved, who were attacking supporters of legislation that was intended to rein in unions' power in the state, deserve to be punished. Abusing law enforcement powers to punish political opponents, and to discourage contributions to political enemies, is a crime, and it should also be grounds for disbarment.
These thugs with law degrees haven't earned the right to be called prosecutors. Just like I refuse to call Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or Jeremiah Wright reverend, I refuse to call these thugs prosecutors. Prosecutors theoretically stand for justice. These thugs don't even pretend to stand for justice.
Ed Morrissey's post starts with the text of the Fourth and Fifth amendments:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Ed's commentary is pitch perfect:
The above comes from an old document, written over two centuries ago, that until very recently had legal force in this country. To a large extent it still does, but the actions of Wisconsin's state government in reaction to a political reform effort, and for that matter, property confiscations in the war on drugs, indicate that the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the US Constitution have become passe. In its place, we have law enforcement raids that not only seize property while threatening violence against its owners, the targets are denied counsel and forbidden to speak of the seizures publicly.
Thugs with law enforcement badges that "seize property while threatening violence against its owners" are tyrants. Based on Dr. Reynolds' statements, they're apparently criminals, too. There's no disputing that these thugs don't respect or obey the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
They're morally reprehensible in addition to being Democrats. The people conducting these sham investigations are Democrats who don't care about the Constitution's protections of individuals' rights:
The basis for this was the campaign-finance reform movement, which sees money in politics as a greater evil than a government empowered to shut down political speech. The John Doe law in Wisconsin shows exactly why government intervention in political speech is worse than any corruption it attempts to prevent. The use of force in Wisconsin got applied to one side exclusively, and intended to shut down conservatives before they could exercise their legitimate political power. It's even more egregious than the IRS targeting of conservatives between 2009-2013, but it's the same kind of abuse of power, and it leverages the same kind of campaign-finance reform statutes that give government at state and federal levels entree to control political speech.
It's time to a) put these thugs in prison and b) legislate these sham investigations into oblivion.
Government gets its powers with "consent from the governed." I'm totally certain Wisconsin citizens didn't give these thugs permission to ruthlessly violate their constitutional protections.
Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 12:41 PM
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The case for MnSCU reform, Part II
Until recently, Rep. Gene Pelowski, (DFL-Winona), had a reputation of being a reformer of higher education systems. That reputation has slipped mightily in the last 3 years. I wrote this post to highlight how disengaged he's been on higher education:
Chairman Pelowski hasn't held a single hearing looking into any of these disgraceful events. Examining the minutes for the House Higher Ed Committee's meetings shows that Chairman Pelowski didn't devote a single minute on oversight. Chairman Pelowski didn't ask Clarence Hightower where negotiations were at between the Board and Chancellor Rosenstone. He didn't ask the MnSCU Board about contract negotiations between MnSCU and the IFO.
Rep. Pelowski's inattention to detail is only surpassed by his willingness to insist on just throwing more money at the problem without providing proper oversight. Here's something from his latest e-letter:
Rep. Gene Pelowski, the minority lead on the committee, issued the following statement after the vote:
'With a projected budget surplus of $1.9 billion, now isn't the time to burden our college students with more debt. If enacted, the House Republican's bill would lead to increased tuition for Minnesota's students and more debt. Making higher education more accessible and affordable is part of Minnesota's economic success that produced the $1.9 billion surplus.'
Again, Rep. Pelowski hasn't demonstrated an attitude towards making sure MnSCU spends the taxpayers' money wisely. Rep. Pelowski's attention is solely focused on funding.
KEY QUESTION: Why isn't Rep. Pelowski interested in efficiency?
Here's what's heartbreaking. Throwing good money into a dysfunctional system incentivizes corrupt officials to continue misspending money on unimportant initiatives. Nothing about that sounds right to a sane person. While I'm picking on Rep. Pelowski in this post, the truth is that other legislators have the same attitude.
In 2007, when higher ed funding was increased by $296,000,000, Sen. Sandy Pappas complained that we were " starving higher education ." Despite that increase in funding, students still got hit with major tuition increases. That $296,000,000 increase, BTW, represented an 11% increase in funding.
The point is that MnSCU received a major funding increase but didn't lift a finger to limit tuition increases. Parents got hit twice, once for a funding increase, then with a tuition increase. There's nothing equitable about that. In fact, it's a rip-off to parents. That's before talking about students who had to take out student loans to pay for MnSCU's fiscal insanity.
Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2015 11:50 PM
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