By CIRIEN SAADEH, The UpTake
At a March 8 floor hearing, legislation from the Minnesota House that would have provided $20 million to the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute to build an urban garden and farm at the Roof Depot was discussed – mostly by members of the GOP who objected to the bill at an earlier committee meeting.
“We objected to the bill on the fact the neighborhood doesn’t even own the property, but through aggressive activism has kinda hijacked the legislature and tried to intimidate the legislature,” said Rep. Jon Koznick (GOP – District 57A), one of several GOP members speaking against the legislation through a “minority report.”
The minority report was authored by GOP minority members from the House Economic Development Finance and Policy committee.
Koznick, as well as Rep. Pat Garofalo (GOP – District 58B) and other legislators, also spoke about their concerns with what they said was activist intimidation of legislators and staff. However, Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman (DFL – District 34B) reminded legislators several times that activist intimidation was not the purpose of the floor hearing on the legislation.
GOP legislators also questioned the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute’s ability to manage such a large financial project.
The bill was first heard at the March 1 meeting of the House Economic Development and Finance Policy committee.
“This bill is a $20 million investment that will support the creation of the East Phillips indoor urban farm, housing, coffee shop. It is a creative and community-driven solution to redevelop a vacant industrial site located in the Green Zone in South Minneapolis” said Rep. Hodan Hassan (DFL – District 62B) during that meeting.
In a traditional committee hearing, a bill’s author is able to introduce their bill, any pertinent author amendments, and their testifiers before member discussion begins. However, the EPNI discussion was interrupted before it could begin, by Koznick who wondered why the bill was being heard in the legislature. Hassan reminded legislators that she has introduced this bill twice before.
“I’m hoping the third time is the charm,” said Hassan.
Hassan was joined by several testifiers, many hailing from the East Phillips community, testifying in support of the bill.
The bill passed out of the Economic Development Policy and Finance committee and was referred to the House Capital Investment committee, but before it could finish going through the appropriate committees, it was brought to the House Floor because of GOP objections to the bill and concerns around the role of the legislature in responding to issues surrounding the Roof Depot.
Both the minority report and the majority report from House Economic Development FInance and Policy were “laid on the table” at the March 8 floor discussion.
House File 2093 was authored by Rep. Hassan alongside several co-authors. Senate File 1853, the bill’s companion, has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL – District 62) but no other action has been taken on the Senate bill.
