DFL Chair Brian Melendez today called for Governor Tim Pawlenty to fire MNDOT Commissioner Carol Molnau for her mismanagment of that agency.
The full release is available after the jump.
One week ago, the Star Tribune published an article documenting MN GOP Chair Ron Carey’s press release calling on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to resign. Will they cover this as well?
Governor Pawlenty Should Fire Molnau
Report on Pitt Points to Growing Crisis of Accountability in Pawlenty Administration
St. Paul, MN (November 28, 2007) The Minnesota DFL Party said today that due to a severe crisis of accountability in his administration, Governor Pawlenty should immediately fire Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau and take full responsibility for the ongoing mismanagement of our state’s transportation infrastructure.
“The Legislative Auditor’s report confirms what we have suspected for a long time: Carol Molnau is not qualified to run the Department of Transportation, and Minnesota is paying the price for her incompetence,” said Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez. “To respond to the severe crisis of accountability in his administration, Governor Pawlenty should immediately fire Carol Molnau as Transportation Commissioner, and take responsibility for his administration’s utter failure to effectively manage our state’s transportation infrastructure.”
Crisis of Accountability in Pawlenty Administration:
Pitt Inadequately Supervised, Cost State $26,000. “The Minnesota Department of Transportation did not adequately supervise nor have sufficient internal controls regarding Sonia Morphew Pitt, the former MnDOT emergency management director who did not return to the state for 10 days after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, a state legislative auditor report says…The report, released this afternoon, said Pitt incurred $11,500 of ‘unauthorized, unreasonable or inappropriate expenses’ and charged the state more than $14,500 of work time that should have been recorded as personal leave.” [Star Tribune, 11/28/07]
MnDOT Official Put Personal Relationship Ahead of Job During Bridge Collapse; Fired Five Months After Concerns Were Raised. A state investigation found that MnDOT’s top emergency management official “put her personal relationship — allegedly with a federal highway administrator — ahead of her job during the state’s biggest transportation disaster in recent history — the collapse of the 35W bridge…The termination comes five months after a MnDOT employee told a supervisor about some ‘potential workplace misconduct’ involving Pitt.” [Pioneer Press, 11/10/07]
MnDOT’s Finances in Question. “Last week’s hearings revealed that MnDOT is expected to run out of money later next year. Minnesota law says the department can’t run a deficit, so MnDOT could be forced to delay road projects, cut back on road maintenance and forego purchases to stay in the black.” In addition, even if a promised $195 million from Congress is appropriated soon, the department will run into debt quickly, with an expected $23.5 million shortfall expected next month. [Minnesota Public Radio, 10/7/07; Star Tribune, 10/8/07]
MnDOT Officials Claimed Department Has Enough Money Until February, But Molnau Announced Intentions to Delay Road Projects Anyway. MnDOT officials testified last week that the department has enough money to pay for its scheduled road construction plan through February, and as a result, legislators delayed action on granting approval on additional funds. However, Molnau later announced that her staff would start planning to delay some road and bridge projects for the projects. [Pioneer Press, 11/9/07]
MnDOT May Not Have Money to Finish Wakota Bridge, Board Faults Molnau. According to a report by an independent mediation board, Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau improperly halted construction on the half-finished Wakota Bridge last year, putting MnDOT in breach of contract with the builder. In addition, last week it was revealed that MnDOT may not have enough money to complete the Wakota Bridge between South St. Paul and Newport, a half-finished project already three years behind schedule and nearly $20 million over budget. [Star Tribune, 10/4/07; 10/5/07]
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In the battle between which party is incompetent and corrupt I vote for both.
Zzzzz…
Zzzzz.. is just what someone being paid to spin and smear Democrats would say. It’s quite an impressive display.
How much money did that make, Korbee?
So Nitro, does your problem with Brodkorb being paid by a Republican carry over to a member of this blog being paid by Franken?
No member of this blog is paid by Franken.
No, but Korbee is not only obvious, but is very narrow in vision. He represents the old politics of division and extreme partisanship, seeking 50.00001% of the vote driven by hatred for the other side.
I’ve had just about enough of that bullshit.
Nobody likes fire, however sometimes the way to fight fire is with fire. Once estinguished, we all hope the fire never destroys us again.
I will not back down. My problem is with hatred, lies, smears, and half truths. No Republican I know of has offered any accountability for the last 6 years of disaster after disaster.
Sean Nov 20th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Actually Kerosene Hat, one of our members is working for Al Franken in IT (but I’m sure you knew that, you were just trying to hide it under that snazzy veneer of being a smartass).
But, in response to asking about our connections to the different candidates, its an straw man and a waste of our time. If I had to tell you every acquaintance and friend that was working for a DFL campaign in Minnesota I’d have a hard time writing anything else.
You repeatedly hint (this isn’t the first time) that we’re biased because JD works for the Franken camp. Shit, we may be. And, lets be honest here, it’s not like anyone doesn’t know. But I’ll tell you what I’ve told every other campaign that’s asked, I’ll happily post anything thats positive for a Democrat in the state.
But in the future you can either accuse us of being biased or continue with the passive aggressive approach you’ve taken so far.
And finally it’s not my responsibility to “provide an evenhanded look at the candidates positions and let people decide for themselves.” If you think it is, then maybe you’re looking at the wrong blog. Sean
JD does not blog here currently — he has taken a hiatus from the blog to work for the Franken campaign. He announced on this blog that he was going to take a leave of absence from the blog to work for the Franken campaign, and we have included it on our about page. This is more than Michael Brodkorb can say. (http://www.minnesotademocratsexposed.com/disclosure-page-about-me/)
Last election Zack was paid by the Klobuchar campaign for communications work — he did not blog while employed by the Klobuchar campaign.
No one is paid by a campaign who is blogging on here currently. Unlike Mike Brodkorb.
Everyone who has posted on here has established the conflicts of interest they may have — Zack did it while he was working for the legislature, and JD did it — and he left. I don’t care that you think that we’re biased because one of our contributors works for the Franken campaign (and, lets be clear here, it also hasn’t been decided if he’s going to come back).
I don’t know why this has become such a burr in your saddle — but if you think it’s that big of a deal — then go somewhere else. Hell — write your own blog as opposed to commenting anonymously here.
And, again, in response to asking about our connections to the different candidates, its an straw man and a waste of our time. If I had to tell you every acquaintance and friend that was working for a DFL campaign in Minnesota I’d have a hard time writing anything else. Sean
And, again, you can either accuse us of being biased or continue with the passive aggressive approach you’ve taken so far.
You haven’t accused us of being biased. You haven’t said that you think we’ve posted incorrect information, or anything like that. Instead you’ve continued to passive aggressively attack the people on this blog.
So excuse me if I’ve lost interest in humoring you. Either accuse me or anyone else on here of being biased, and provide an example of this perceived bias, or knock it off. Sean
Yes, you are biased. I would hope that is why you admitted to being biased. Accusing me of being passive aggressive is strange since I felt like I was being nothing but obvious while pointing out the issue of your favoritisms. Your automatic response of countering criticism with self righteous name calling spiced with a superior attitude I guess shows why you don’t have a problem with Franken.
You can try to justify you bias by saying JD isn’t currently blogging but the fact that you referred to him as a current member is telling. How long ago does it have to have been since a members last post for them to have no influence on his good friends still posting? One day, a month, a year? There is little functional difference between people in the group that runs this blog working for Democratic candidates and Brodkorb working for Republican ones. You told the truth when you said you admitted being biased and I applaud that. The fact that you and others keep bringing up Brodkobs affiliations as though you are somehow above it is the part that is ridiculous.
The Oracle of Truth (Lori Sturdevant) calls you “DFL-leaning” and “recent college grads” in last Sunday’s paper. Any truth to those accusations?
KH -
Sean was wrong when he described JD as a member of this blog. He is not. JD has not written here in almost a year. He may write here in the future, but it will not be until his association with the Franken campaign is concluded.
Trust me when I say to you that no one on the Franken campaign thinks I am biased in their favor, quite the opposite.
I have many friends who work on many different campaigns. I couldn’t possibly be biased in favor of all of them because many of them are running against each other. I think its shallow and insulting of you to suggest that having a friend who works on a campaign manifests the same level of bias as being paid by a campaign.
I will say this again. No member of this blog is paid by a campaign.
Zack,
I appreciate your direct and honest response on this. I have complete understanding that this is a site to support Democrats and that as a group each of you will have their own preferences on candidates that are a welcome addition to the discourse on this site.
The problem comes in when somebody tries to use the fact that Brodkorb has been paid by Republican candidates do positively differentiate this site from MDE when it comes to the senate race. There is one and only one Republican candidate so Brodkorb is being paid by Coleman would have little influence on his support at this point. The fact that one of the group responsible for this site is on temporary leave for one of the four candidates for the DFL endorsement has potentially a much bigger influence on posts here at MNpublius. The pure number of posts on Franken, Sean’s open hostility in posts on JNP and his admition of bias were strong signs that this was the case even if it is not true of everybody who manages the site.
Even this would not be a problem since blogs in general should be read as pure opinion that by it’s nature is full of bias. It is the posts that while accusing MDE of a conflict suggest that nobody here could possibly be guilty of anything of the sort. Both sites have strong connections to different candidates from their chosen parties that potentially influence their posts. In both cases I feel these are more important to understand when dealing with inner party issues than during the general election where the bias can be assumed.
I find it amazing how the issue at hand, the pure incompetence of Carol Molnau, becomes secondary to this tat for tat crap. It should be readily apparent to anyone outside of the current administration that she has been a horrible Commissioner of Transportation. The latest story mereley reinforces what we already know, Molnau Must Go!
Kerosene Hat’s apparent indignation at a liberal bias in this blog reminds me the movie Casablanca, “I’m shocked to find there is gambling in this establishment”. Jeesh
What you find here, or at MDE for that matter shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, least of all KH. You post more here that than anyone, including the owners.
Back to the point of the original post, Carol Molnau has done a terrible, lousy stinky, crappy (insert descriptive adjective here) job as Commissioner of Transportation and if she had any pride or dignity, she would resign. If not Pawlenty should fire her, he won’t of course, but he should.
Pitt is caught, fired, possibly facing charges or at least may end up with hefty fines. All of which should happen, I hope she is shamed right out of town.
However to even try and link this to Molnau in the same way that Ritchie has been busted is a good goggle.
Really want to expose some serious waste, look at the met council and their budget!!
Molnau needed to go yesterday. You don’t need a management degree to see that there is some genuinely weird stuff going on with the dept. For example the Mpls Emergency Director who was at the same out of town conference that Pitt was attending, was called back on the same day that the 35W Bridge collapsed. Pitt said no one asked her back. Why? Was she considered extranious? Are there other unnecessary employees at MNDOT? Were Pitt’s MNDOT supervisors aware of her relationship with the Federal Highway gentleman? If so, did they think they would get in trouble with higher ups if they called Pitt on it? Was the Pitt/Federal Highway Guy relationship and state expenses associated with it condoned as some “special relationship” lobbying expenses with the federal govt? Inquiring minds want to know.
How about this, we will dump Molnau if you get Ritchie to resign. Fair trade?
Still waiting for a reply. Leaning or not? Recent grads or not?
Ritchie solid for as long as he wants the position…