Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

ST. PAUL: Gov. Pawlenty’s stance on climate-change continues to melt. A policy point evolves into a punch line. [Minnesota Public Radio]

NASHWAUK: Judges reject environmentalists’ case against new taconite plant. Global warming was addressed in the Environmental Impact Study — didn’t you see the chapter heading “Carbon Footprint”? [Duluth News Tribune]

MINNEAPOLIS: Editorial views right-sized. A candidate for park board in Minneapolis complains that due to “staff constraints” the Star-Tribune editorial page will only endorse in races that have no incumbent. [e-democracy]

ALEXANDRIA: Politics be damned! Susan Gaertner, Ramsey County Attorney and guv candidate, tells a local audience health care reform requires a real leader: “I am ready to provide that leadership, no matter what the political consequences may be.” [Alexandria Echo Press]

LAKE MINNETONKA: Still sweet. Ponzi schemer Tom Petters’ 590-bottle wine cellar goes for $7,080. [Star Tribune]

EDEN PRAIRIE: Free speech in chains at local library. A blogger defends a library patron’s right to leave notes no one can read with “9/11″ and doodles of buildings.   [Gavin Sullivan]

“When you win an election by 312 votes, there’s not a lot of effort that goes to waste,” Al Franken told Minneapolis Democrats Saturday. “We ran a very efficient campaign.” Franken nominated R.T. Rybak for endorsement for a third term as mayor at the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s city convention.

Outside of his own race for U.S. Senate, Franken has the magic touch, apparently: Rybak’s endorsement by the party, though a foregone conclusion this time around, is actually his first. Here is a minute-long video clip (via wr3n) of Franken’s remarks:

A lot of people here have been asking me, “What do I call you?” And the answer to that is: Al. There is only one person in the state who will have to call me senator and that, of course, is [his wife] Franni. I want to thank you all. You know, when you win an election by 312 votes, there’s not a lot of effort that goes to waste. We ran a very efficient campaign. And I want to thank each and every one of you who made our victory possible, and just let you know that I can’t wait to get to Washington and start working on behalf of all of [you? unintelligible].

Franken spoke as a delegate from Ward 7, Precint 9, and received a standing ovation more rousing than the crowd’s response to Rybak. That’s according to Aaron Landry, who also reported via Twitter:

Mayor: Rybak received 75 percent of delegates’ votes on the first ballot.

Park Board at-large (three seats): Mary Merrill Anderson, Tom Nordyke and John Erwin won endorsements by acclamation. (Anderson and Nordyke are one-term incumbents; Erwin previously served as a single term as at-large commissioner from 2002–06.)

Park Board, District Five: No endorsement for Jason Stone, Martin Demgen or Steve Barland to replace incumbent Carol Kummer — amid “chaos.”

Board of Estimate and Taxation: Carol Becker, an incumbent, got the only endorsement for two seats that voters will fill in the fall.

More results:

Park Board, District Two: No endorsement in contest between incumbent Jon Olson and Natalie Collins. (At lloydletta, you can see videos of candidate statements, questions-and-answers and balloting; Eva Young’s commentary here.)

Park Board, District Four: Newcomer Anita Tabb, the only candidate, won endorsement to replace Tracy Nordstrom, who is retiring as commissioner after one term.

Park Board, District Six: Challenger Brad Bourn beat out incumbent Bob Fine. (Via tweets by Downtown Journal’s Cristof Traudes)

Park Board, District One: Liz Wielinski won endorsement with 72 percent of the vote over Michael Rainville, for a seat being vacated by longtime city official Walt Dziedzic.

Park Board, District Three: One-term incumbent Scott Vreeland gained  endorsement again. (Via Steve Brandt, Star Tribune.)

Tom Nordyke, Jon Gurban

Every couple of years, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board makes headlines for violating citizens’ right to free speech. The latest example? The board’s president, Tom Nordyke, and superintendent, Jon Gurban, are banning the Minneapolis Charter Commission from holding public meetings at park buildings because the commission’s topic is a proposed charter amendment that would eliminate the Park Board.

Last week, according to the Star Tribune’s Steve Brandt, Nordyke told Charter Commission Chairman Jim Bernstein that the Park Board’s objection was to the content of the speech that would take place at the commission’s public meetings:

I cannot support holding the meetings in our buildings and wasting more taxpayer dollars and staff time on this initiative.

Bernstein ran unsuccessfully for park board in 2005. That same year, the suprintendent sicced police on another park board candidate who was attempting to distribute flyers for his reform campaign at a city park. Gurban told park board candidate Jason Stone to stop handing out campaign literature on park property and eventually called park police. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota (ACLU-MN) intervened on Stone’s behalf.

Reporter Scott Russell quoted Gurban in the Southwest Journal:

Jason would say: “How are you this evening?” My response would be, “Jason, you can’t do this. And you know better. You were at that meeting last Wednesday night. Stop doing this.” … Am I happy three squad cars showed up? No, I am not. I know those squad cars have better things to do than to deal with an issue like this. If I was Jason Stone, I would be a little bit embarrassed about that. All Jason had to do was to stop handing out his literature.

Stone lost his 2005 race and is running for a place on the park board again this year.

Two years ago, Nordyke’s predecessor as board president, Jon Olson, wouldn’t let a citizen criticize Gurban during “open time” at board meetings. As the Star Tribune’s Pam Louwagie reported, the ACLU-MN again intervened after Olson cut off Minneapolis resident Arlene Fried, a co-founder of the citizen watchdog group Minneapolis Parkwatch, in the midst of a statement critical of Gurban:

FRIED: … Four: Failing to comply with the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act by not honoring all requests for public information. Five: Withholding of information from commissioners and the public, for example –
OLSON: Um, Ma’am … 
FRIED: These are governmental issues. 
OLSON: Okay, do you have documentation that we have failed to comply with the open Data Practices Act?
FRIED: I’m aware of it.
OLSON: You know, this is not — I’m going to cut you off right there. I’m going to cut you off.
FRIED: Excuse me. Excuse me. You can do that –
OLSON: Thank you very much and you have a good night. Thank you. And we’ll move on to our next speaker –
FRIED: Freedom of speech. You’re denying me freedom of speech.
OLSON: I don’t think so. I’m not going to allow you to get up there and make accusations like that, that we violated the law.

May 2, 2007:

After the ACLU-MN intervened, Fried tried again at the May 16, 2007 meeting. In this second clip, Nordyke (who was not the board’s president at the time) persuades Olson to let Fried finish her statement.

Disclosure: I know Fried and have worked with her on several park-related issues, including posting these two clips from the official park board meeting videos to YouTube. I also wrote a January 2008 commentary for the Daily Mole expressing hope that newly elected President Nordyke would raise the park board’s standard of transparency, accountability and professionalism.