From the front page of today’s Star Tribune:
In early 2000, as real estate development boomed in Chaska, then-state Rep. Carol Molnau authored a bill that ensured a long-delayed plan to build a new Hwy. 212 there would be put on a fast track.
Molnau, as chairwoman of the powerful House Transportation Finance Committee, guided the bill to passage. But she did not disclose Hwy. 212’s proximity to the land she owned in Chaska or that she was negotiating to sell the property to a national housing developer, state and local records show.
The transportation bill provided for rapid construction of what Molnau called “mega-projects.” One that fit the bill’s criteria was Hwy. 212, which would run less than a mile from her farm.
It goes on…
Eight days after the bill was signed by then-Gov. Jesse Ventura, Molnau and her husband, Steve, sold their 40 acres to the developer, Pulte Homes of Minnesota, for $3.3 million — six times its estimated market value, records show.
Well, I’m sure Lt. Gov Molnau has a plausible explanation for why she didn’t disclose that she was negotiating to sell her farm…
Molnau said in an interview Saturday that she didn’t publicly disclose her negotiations with developers because she believed the legislation would have no effect on her property value or benefit her financially. She said ongoing development surrounding her property was the driving force behind the increasing value of her land.
That’s right. And building a transportation “mega-project” less than a mile away didn’t increase the attractiveness of the land to potential developers by 1 dollar. I mean, its not like Pulte could advertise the homes as “Conveniently located near highway 312, Pulte Homes offers Chaska residents easy access to downtown Minneapolis and surrounding communities.” Oops - thats on their website.
Highway 312 is the road that is going to become the new Highway 212 as a result of Molnau’s bill.
And just for the record, all of this happened before Tim Pawlenty chose Carol Molnau as his running mate. Was Pawlenty aware that Molnau had profited from the Highway 212 bill? If so, did he think it was appropriate?
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Have you ever been to the Home Depot / Target complex near the intersection of Hwy 41 and Pioneer Trail? Have you seen all the new townhomes and single family homes that have been built in that immediate area since the 1980’s?
That is the exact area of Molnau’s farm. That land was like gold before the highway was built. Maybe the highway added a slight premium, but it is not like those people were going to be driving on gravel roads to to 494…. It was being heavily developed long before this occurred.
The Molnaus did what every other farmer in the path of urban sprawl has done, road or not: Sold, because you cannot generate a farming profit when you are saddled with developer-driven property taxes.
I’m not Molnau fan. I wasn’t when Pawlenty picked her and I’m not today. But this story is nothing short of tabloid journalism.
I’m shocked that anyone would think that a Republican would benefit from government largess. Government is the problem, unless they’re building new highway to your farm (housing development). Duke Molnau would never think to reveal a possible conflict of interest because it is normal Rethuglican operating procedure (see Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater et al).
Seriously, did Hwy. 212 need to be upgraded, yes. Like many other roads that lead to outer ring suburbs it was over capacity, There certainly was a lot of pressure from Republican constituencies to make the improvements. But to say you didn’t think it would add to the value of the land you were negotiating to sell to one the countries largest home builders is ludicrous.
Yet another example of why Carol Molnau must go, NOW. Her department is in shambles, morale has tanked, the OLA report is damning in it’s assessment of how maintenance has bee put aside to build suburban freeway lanes. In reality she has only pursued the policies of her boss TPaw, but we can’t get rid of him for 3 more years.
Oh yeah, I forgot, business is evil. Never mind that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will do more to solve disease in the world than any government ever could. That darned Halliburton!
My point is that the Molnau land was going to sell for $3.3M whether a road was there or not, and whether Ms. Molnau was ever a member of the state house or not.
Didn’t now former state rep Dave Bishop run into this problem with a road project near Rochester? If memory serves correctly, it was not quite to the same scale. But the lack of disclosure was the issue. Speaking of that, has anyone determined (and I have not read the article yet so this might already be answered) if Lt. Gov. Molnau was under any legal obligation to disclose their potential land sale?
This is the best the Star Tribune could do? I know they hate Molnau, but the fact that she owned land ONE MILE from the highway is a scandal?
I can just see the follow-up stories:
MOLNAU OWNS CAR, DRIVES ON HIGHWAYS
or
MOLNAU COULD TAKE BUS TO WORK, BUT DOESN’T
The Star Tribune has lied about its ciculation numbers, hired a publishr who stole documents from the Pioneer Press, stole an editorial from the NY Times, and has seen a consistent decline in readership. They’ve had it in for Molnau for a long time, and this story is weak.
Pathetic really.
And yet, she can’t support a transportation bill to help all Minnesota citizens. Check out this “funny” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=url9VTH0nDw
Good question, MRW. If there was a formal procedure or disclosure law that she clearly should have followed in this case, I would have to change my opinion.
Haha…She sold the land a week after the thing was a done deal, and made a sixfold profit.
Yeah, she should have disclosed. This is a HUGE ethical lapse.
I love the republican appologistia who habitually pop up here.
Because we all know that land values shoot up six times the second a major road project is announced.
Give me a break.
She coulda / shoulda donated the land to her church to avoid the personal profit pitfall from expanding a metro US highway while the state roads that support the movement of produce from farm, forest and factory went without maintenance.
Honestly, from what I know, insiders had a good angle on this a long time ago. It wasn’t a leap to figure out that the 212 extension was close to land owned by the Molnau family and that her political activities may have affected the land value. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of this before and while interesting, it won’t land a resignation.
However — there /has/ been major armtwisting about who could/couldn’t vote on Northstar due to ‘conflict of intetrest’. Rep Abeler (R-Anoka) and Rep. Dittrich (D-Champlin) have been beaten about the head and shoulders on this issue.
My feeling is that those who do vote anyways do disclose interests and if it becomes an issue next election it becomes an issue. Many politicians do have major land interests in their home communities and should their constituents be hamstrung for choosing someone with those accomplishments? I like to gauge these sorts of issues against the goal of having more non-conventional politicians, in the hope that getting away from the all-lawyers-all-the-time (yes, I do still like lawyers, but that shouldn’t exclude non-lawyers from politics) will bring better representation (or at least a less ultra-partisan diversity of opinion) in the end.
Reinforcing the idea that insiders knew a long time ago:
“Her own family benefited from real estate transactions concerning the family farm adjacent to the right of way of the new Highway 212 in Chaska.”
http://northstar.sierraclubaction.org/showalert.asp?aaid=171
Since it references governor-elect, its from a /long/ time ago. I think this is just the strib dusting off the old stories they didn’t publish or were thinking of publishing and finding it more relevant today than it was when it was first known.
Minnesota Daily published an excerpt of the Sierra Club notice in 2003: http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2003/03/14/38286
Zack and this blog call this a scandal. But they conveniently overlook Terri Bonoff and her fudged resume.
It would be a scandal if she bought the land while the negotiations were going on. To be fair to Carol Molnau everybody and their brother knew that her family owned land in that area.
I agree with DTM.
This story has been circulating for years but evidently the capitol press whores were too lazy to chase it down until now. And even now, it looks like it took some real reporters instead of the lapdogs that cover the legislature. Now, when will the spineless DFL majorities give Molnau the boot?
Did anyone else notice the timing of her being named as Pawlenty’s running mate and the sale of the farm? Because the farm was sold and she bought another one in a different district, she couldn’t have continued to serve in the legislature.
Molnau is a crook… Sorry guys but that is what it is when you personally benefit from your position in government. sure that road needed improvement, but are you sure that a project in Duluth or Hibbing shouldn’t have been done first? What strings were pulled and how many other details were swept under the rug?
I think the operative here is that we expect our government to open and transparent. We expect our representatives to NOT use their position to unfairly profit from their decisions. But then unlike our Republican friends, I believe in good government.