“I’m sort of struggling to find the purpose of the video,” Hennepin County Commissioner Penny Steele said after watching it.
She said she also believes that a training video should include comments from the many federal, state and local agencies that responded to the tragedy — not just the sheriff’s office.
Steele is a Republican.
The video, which has been shown to organizations like the “men’s club at Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church” (what are they being trained for?), glorifies the role of the Sheriff’s office - which is really something considering he wasn’t in charge.
While the sheriff’s office was in charge of the water rescue and recovery after the bridge collapse, the Minneapolis Fire Department had the overall command authority at the scene in the first few hours after the tragedy. The Minneapolis Police Department later took over that role.
Under the arrangement, Stanek reported to Minneapolis Deputy Chief Rob Allen, who was the unified incident commander at the site.
Where did Stanek get the idea to put together the video? The Bush Administration - known for their expertise in disaster management and public relations - suggested it.
Kathryn Janicek, his chief spokesperson, said Stanek had been “strongly encouraged” to produce the video by U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is overseeing the formal investigation into the collapse.
Kudos to Penny Steele who spoke out against this misuse of public funds. It’s worth noting that Rich Stanek has always been about promoting Rich Stanek throughout his career.
The DFL did NOTHING to campaign against Stanek when he was running for election.
Politicize the bridge?
Murphy and Saltzman would never do such a thing!
You know pbd,
These people are politicians and their solutions or assessments are going to be political because, that’s what we pay them to do, handle the politics.
Stanek is paid to protect, serve and administer. Politicizing shouldn’t be so overt with him.
The most dangerous place in Hennepin County is between Rich Stanek and a television camera.
I agree that Stanek is wrong. But lets also talk about the wretchly partisian attacks coming from Murphy, Saltzman, etc. Keep in mind, they get paid per diem to hold hearings and engage in the same types of political games that Stanek is.
Is the video available online? I’d like to see it for myself to get the full context.
Well the taxpayers paid for the DVD, so it seems that the overburdened taxpayer of Hennepin County should be able to request a copy from the Sheriff’s office. Stanek is like Michele Bachmann when it comes to hogging the cameras.
Loveit: When Mayor Rybak did a self promoting piece that he sent out to Minneapolis residents, he got rightly criticized for it. The hearings that Saltzman and Murphy are holding are related to state business - and are not campaign infomercials.
The only time Stanek avoided cameras was when Tom Lyden went to an event to talk to him about why he appointed the unqualified Julianne Ortman for a finance position.
“Stanek is like Michele Bachmann when it comes to hogging the cameras.”
Yeah — he is like Bachman, Keith Ellison, and Larry Pogemiller. I agree.
Right after the bridge went down, everybody stood around waiting for someone to take charge. The fire dept. was technically in command. Everybody was in a daze.
Stanek showed up and took charge. If he can teach someone how to do that in a video, great.
I want to know how much tax money is being spent on Saltzman’s Salem transportation trials (committee hearings in search of a press conference).
I want to know how much tax money is being spent driving legislators around Edina on a bus looking for poverty.
I want to know how many millions in new weldfare spending the dems are going to do this year to get us out of a recession.
You may recall that some of the initial taking charge issues were because the State Emergency Response Leader, Sonia Morphew Pitt was out galavanting in DC instead of returning to Minnesota.
Here’s a topic to ponder on a December afternoon….
who did more to abuse/mis-use public resources…. Rich Stanek or Mark Ritchie?
Were there any direct costs related to Mark Ritchie’s shenanigans?
Can’t we just call the guy an idiot without going into the past and comparing every dumbass ever to belong to either party?
Anyone who has organized a training module or video knows that using real-life examples and anecdotes is Training 101. There is a big difference between having a narrator say “First, create an effective chain of command” and having someone who lived through an actual distaster talk about how they did it.
I still haven’t seen the video myself (as I doubt you all have) but if this can help get leaders thinking about how they will handle future crises, I don’t think it is all bad.
Real life examples would get beyond Rich Stanek. What about featuring that heroic woman firefighter who we saw on the news rescuing people from their cars that were in the river?
I’ve not seen this video, but I believe a public records request would give me a right to a copy. I plan to do that.
Featuring that heroic firefighter would be great if the topic of the video was how first responders can be creative in rescuing people or bodies from the water.
If this is a training video geared at those who will need to make resource allocation and emergency response decisions, it is right to interview Stanek and have him tell us in his own words what decisions he made.
I haven’t heard alot about Stanek until now — what is the wrap on him? People seem to have quite a violent reaction when seeing his name in the news (I’m honestly asking — I’m not a lifer here in MN and don’t know all the history).
Here’s why I have serious concerns about Rich Stanek:
http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2006/01/rich-stanek-is-running-for-hennepin.html
But this video isn’t related to that issue.
This video isn’t about training - it was campaign infomercial disguised as a training video - if it was about talking to those who are making resource allocations, then you’d talk to people beyond Stanek’s Office.
If this was such an up and up thing to do, why is Stanek avoiding talking to reporters on this? He normally loves to return calls to reporters.
This reminds me of Stanek’s behavior over his hiring of Julianne Ortman to a position to which she wasn’t qualified.
http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2007/05/julianne-ortmanns-constituents-seem.html
It turned out Ortman did turn out to be quite the double dipper.
http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2007/05/hennepin-county-taxpayers-get-swindled.html
http://www.startribune.com/local/12523221.html
Some smell politics in Stanek’s $30,000 training video
By MIKE KASZUBA, Star Tribune
Last update: December 15, 2007 - 3:26 PM
So whom was Sheriff Stanek training at Mount Olivet?
Brian Lambert put this on the web (via Mpls/St Paul Magazine:
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 8:20 AM
To: Rybak, R.T.; Johnson, Barbara A.; Bosacker, Steven
Subject: Stanek Video
I read Kaszuba’s article today. He did not dig to get the realities of
Stanek’s involvement at the 35W Bridge Collapse. His theft of the
credit is not going to sit well with my staff and our hard working
partners. Mayor and Barb, you were at the meeting with the president -
I asked for the Navy divers. I also met privately with the Gov to
reinforce that issue and asked him to convince Rich to accept that
offer. Forte was also involved in these discussions. Rich asked for
Army Corp Engineers. I also had to caution Rich on his over estimates
of missing. I would also doubt he closed the nearby bridges. Allen
would know the facts there. It is sad, but the truth needs to be told.
Steven, I did not talk about the President meeting in the video. Maybe
we should add that discussion.
Suggestions?