{"id":62178,"date":"2017-02-17T11:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62178"},"modified":"2017-02-17T10:12:44","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T16:12:44","slug":"its-a-start-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62178","title":{"rendered":"It’s A Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ted Mondale and Michelle Kelm-Helgen resigned from the Metro Sports Utilities Commission<\/a>\u00a0yesterday, after the corruption in the MSFC’s use of luxury skyboxes as a spiff for the Twin Cities’ DFL became to great for even the Metro old-boy-and-girl network to hush up.<\/p>\n

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Mondale and Kelm-Helgen faced cascading criticism and scrutiny since the Star Tribune reported in November <\/a>that they and other MSFA commissioners hosted friends, family and well-connected DFLers at two 18-person luxury suites at the stadium during Vikings games and at several concerts. The two said the state-owned suites were needed to market the building, but an investigation by Legislative Auditor James Nobles revealed the suites were used mostly for entertainment by the MSFA commissioners and staff.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Legislative Auditors report sounds like it’s good reading:<\/p>\n

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[Legislative Auditor James Nobles’]<\/em>\u00a0100-page report faulted Kelm-Helgen and Mondale\u2019s leadership of the MSFA, saying they had violated a core ethical principle by using public office for personal gain, by handing out free tickets, VIP parking, food and drink to friends and allies.<\/p>\n

Combined, the two made nearly $300,000 in taxpayer-funded salaries. They oversaw construction of the $1.1 billion stadium, which was funded in part with a $498 million public subsidy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And the saga of Michelle Kelm-Helgen, DFL grand\u00e9e extraordinaire<\/em>, \u00a0sounds like a “how-to” for any political glad-hander in a one-party city;<\/p>\n

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Even before the suite usage blew up, an unclear division of duties between Mondale and Kelm-Helgen became an issue. Former authority members Duane Benson and John Griffith had questioned the need for two taxpayer-funded executives in similar roles. They also raised concerns about Kelm-Helgen\u2019s lack of collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on a board that had an inability to get information,\u201d Benson said, adding that Kelm-Helgen also refused to let the board participate in her job reviews.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Remember way back when Zygi Wilf was yanking the DFL-led Legislature and Governor Flint-Smith<\/del> Dayton around, threatening to move the team if the state didn’t pony up to improve his investment for him at public expense? \u00a0And we asked – what could possibly<\/em> go wrong when you entrust half a billion dollars to an bunch of unaccountable bureaucrats whose sole qualification was their DFL political connection?<\/p>\n

Because you should remember it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ted Mondale and Michelle Kelm-Helgen resigned from the Metro Sports Utilities Commission\u00a0yesterday, after the corruption in the MSFC’s use of luxury skyboxes as a spiff for the Twin Cities’ DFL became to great for even the Metro old-boy-and-girl network to hush up. Mondale and Kelm-Helgen faced cascading criticism and scrutiny since the Star Tribune reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320,255,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mndfl","category-the-racket","category-the-rare-sports-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62179,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62178\/revisions\/62179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}