[Mpls] Rybak Mailing

[Greg Abbott]

On Jan 21, 2005, at 7:21 PM, Dean Lindberg wrote:

> Considering the source of this statement (Ms Anderson, not Mr. 
> Cutting),
> along with the admonishment about how the city should be spending it's
> money, I smell a lot more politics in her press release than objective
> legal opinion.
>

What could be more objective than state law itself?  The statute is 
plain as day:  No mailing from a local government can include a picture 
of an elected official.

RT should reimburse the city for the cost of the piece from his 
campaign account -- for printing, mailing, as well as staff time 
involved in producing the piece.

And he should do it immediately, not just make the promise now while 
waiting weeks or months to write the check (the city shouldn't be in 
the position of giving RT's campaign an interest free loan).

Greg Abbott
Linden Hills

Here's the actual text of the statute for those who are interested - 
Minn. Stat. 471.68, Subd. 3:

Subd. 3. Pictures prohibited. When a statutory or
  home rule charter city, county, town, school district,
  metropolitan or regional agency, or other political subdivision
  of this state, issues a report or other publication for public
  distribution to inform the general public of the activities of
  the political subdivision, the report or publication must not
  include pictures of elected officials nor any other pictorial or
  graphic device that would tend to attribute the publication to
  an individual or groups of individuals instead of the political
  subdivision.  Directories of public services provided by the
  political subdivision are exempt from this subdivision.