Early Birds: Dick Anderson, Ron Britz, and Julius Webster were at the Edina Country Club early this morning. We had 20 participants at the meeting and another 4 tuned in virtually.
Guests: John Quincy of Solomon Strategies Group and Linea Palmisano, Minneapolis City Council Member, brought by Jim Erickson.
Honorary Members: Karen Holtmeier, Ron Britz, Mark Simon, and Dick Nelson.
President Chuck Shreffler opened the first in person meeting since March by asking for a moment of silence and his last ring of the bell. Chuck than handed off the bell to our new President Jim Erickson.
Announcements
- We need craft speakers for July 15, July 29, and August 19.
- Rich Miller (former club jeweler) was spotted by Tom Ashbaugh at a senior center in Bloomington.
- Clyde Johnson (retired color printer) had a call with Todd Anderson.
- Mike Palm is still thinking about a boat cruise in August. If interested let him know.
- Jim Erickson is running an update to his 2020 Presidential Poll.
Business Updates
None today
Business Exchange
Sharing today were Jon Peterson, Kelsey Knight, Jim Christianson, and Dick Anderson.
Craft Talk
Jim Erickson introduced his co-worker, John Quincy, who was a two-term member of the Minneapolis City Council. John gave an overview of the structure of the Minneapolis City Council and Police department. Linea Palmisano, a current Minneapolis City council member representing the 13th ward for her 2nd term gave us an overview of the Minneapolis City Council response to COVID-19 and the George Floyd protest/riots and the aftermath.
COVID-19 is forecast to reduce City Revenues making a $165M budget problem in a $1.7B city budget. The Council is determining where the cuts need to be made.
The future of policing in Minneapolis is getting a lot of news and is being discussed at length at the city. The outside rhetoric is quite controversial and the discussion about the future of the Minneapolis Police Department is much more measured as the council will spend a year studying what may change.
A really great question and answer session was held and we hope to have a future update on this important topic later this year.
Please thanks Linea Palmisano for coming at http://www2.minneapolismn.gov/ward13/ward13-staff
Please register to Jim Erickson at jim@solomonssg.com or 612-325-3009.
Looking ahead
July 15- TBD
July 22- Five Star Painting @ECC and Virtual
July 29-TBD