Gov. Mark Dayton reappointed 15 of the 16 Metropolitan Council members to their seats on the regional planning and governing board.
Only Roxanne Smith of Champlin was not given another term. She says the council boundaries were changed in redistricting and her home was moved from the 1st District to the 2nd.
Dayton appointed Katie Rodriguez of Maple Grove to the 1st District seat and reappointed Lona Schreiber to the 2nd District seat.
The governor's spokesman, Matt Swenson, said today:
"Under the new district lines, two existing members of the Met Council lived within District #2. The Governor could only appoint one person to fill that position."
Smith, who had been appointed by Dayton to the 1st District seat in 2011, said today that she is "heartbroken" and believes that officials thought she lived in Maple Grove, not Champlin, when they made the boundary changes, which moved her home into the 2nd District. Smith said she mounted an unsuccessful effort to rework the boundaries to get her back in the district.
Smith said she will continue to be active on the housing and racial and economic equity issues that she focused on while a Met Council member.
She is also director of social justice ministry at St. Joseph the Worker parish in Maple Grove. She's founder and current chair of Housing for All and former co-chair of the Clergy and Religious Leaders Planning Table for ISAIAH.
Besides appointing Rodriguez to the District 1 seat, the governor reappointed these Met Council members (listed alphabetically):
- James Brimeyer – St. Louis Park, District 6
- Steven Chávez – Eagan, District 15
- Jonathan Commers – St. Paul, District 14
- Gary Cunningham – Minneapolis, District 7
- John Doan – Blaine, District 10
- Adam Duininck – Minneapolis, District 8
- Steven Elkins – Bloomington, District 5
- Richard Kramer – St. Paul, District 13
- Harry Melander – Mahtomedi, District 12
- Jennifer Munt – Minnetonka, District 3
- Edward Reynoso – Ham Lake, District 9
- Sandy Rummel – White Bear Lake, District 11
- Lona Schreiber – Brooklyn Park, District 2
- Gary Van Eyll – Chaska, District 4
- Wendy Wulff – Lakeville, District 16.
