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• • fulltime during annual legislative ses- sions. ...With the political power in Minnesota state government now emanating from the suburbs, the new Editorial Editor at the ........................ should have a pretty good background in suburban thinking. Art Coulson, who succeeds retired editorial editor Ron Clark, has been the • » • • • •'s se- nior editor for suburban coverage. Coulson, who came to the • •• • • •. • • • • • in 2000, had previously written editorials for the • • • • • ...... . • • • • • •• •• paper in Rochester, New York. ...Ya gotta love the way former St. Paul Licenses, Inspections and Environmen- tal Protection (LISP) director Roger Curtis caused Mayor Randy Kelly some embarrassment after Curtis had been fired by Relly. Curtis got the plum city job under then-Mayor Norm Cole- man. Despite growing union unrest with Curtis, Kelly kept him when he took over from Coleman. Curtis was bounced in January because one of the Departments employees was doing a fair amount of illegal gambling at the office, and the Mayor apparently thought Curtis was not minding the store well enough. Along comes the trip to Denver controversy. Helly is deemed to have broken Minnesota's anti-gift laws because he flew to Denver for a Wild playoff hockey game on a plane belonging to Dr. Glen Nelson. The trip was ok if Nelson was just a Wild owner; unfortunately, he's also an investor in the Gopher State Ethanol plant, a burn- ing issue along West 7~' St. in St. Paul where the plant tends to irritate the devil out of its neighbors. Much activ- itylast session centered around moves by St. Paul legislators to cut off Gopher State's ethanol funding. When the Cam- paign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled the trip was out of bounds, Helly said he'd appeal. At which time Curtis was able to make his hay. How could Attorney General Mike Hatch de- fend the Campaign Finance people when he had, according to Curtis, asked the Mayor to find a job for his nephew Joseph Hatch? Joseph Hatch is currently a part time LISP employee. According to Curtis the Mayor called to ask about LISP hiring young Hatch, `And hey, if your boss calls and asks if you've got room, then you do." The thought that having a relative in St. Paul's employ would color any Attor- ney General's judgment is a bit of a stretch, but the • » • • • .» .... bit on the story and Curtis got his zingers in all around. We've not checked on whether Helly or Hatch actually made the calls. Frankly, trying to find jobs for kids never made it to our list of big bad no-no's. ... We want to take special note of the departure of an outstanding public ser- vant,lbm Brace, Brace, who had been the State Fire Marshall for the past 16 years, served four different Minnesota governors during his time at the De- partment of Public Safety and was par- ticularlywell liked by fire departments around the state. Brace was not reap- pointed by Governor Pawlenty and was replaced by Jerry Rosendahl, who had been the director of Minnesota's Divi- sion of Emergency Management. Rosendahl will take on the dual roles of State Fire Marshall and director of the Office of Pipeline Safety. ...Hormel Foods Corporation of Aus- tin has named Joe Swedberg as its new corporate Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Marketing Services. A Hormel employee for more than 22 years, Swedberg had been Vice Presi- dent of Marketing for Hormel's refrig erated division. ...1bdd Otis, former Minnesota DFL Chair and a former Minneapolis legis- lator, is a member of the A19uie Birth- day Celebration Committee. As we've noted in past issues, a huge gala salut ing the former governor on his 80u birthday is set for Thursday, Septem- ber 18, at the Radisson South Hotel in Bloomington. Otis will host a table of DFLers who hold the public life and accomplishments of 9uie in high re- gard. Registration will be capped at 1,000, and organizers are saying that 700 of those seats are already spoken for. The event begins with a reception at 5:30 and dinner sometime thereaf- ter, with the final word after dinner going to the guest of honor. Tickets for the birthday salute are $50 per per- son and can be obtained by sending a check to: 9uie 80~' Birthday Celebra- tion, P.O. Box 29697, Brooklyn Center, MN 55429. Tables of 10 are available by contacting event chair Chuck Slocumb (chuckCa~willistongroup com) or 952-939-0068. ...Just as we went to press last issue, we learned that Duane Benson would be leaving the Minnesota Business Part nership after eight years as the organization's leader. Now, a few weeks later, a number of interesting names are beginning to swirl as possible re- placements for Benson. 'Iivo of the names we are hearing circulated most often are Governor Paalenty's Chief Of Staff Charlie Weaver, who is thought to be interested in securing a position with less stress and fewer hours, and Haren Himle, who most recently was the Senior Vice President Corporate and Government Affairs for St. Paul Companies. With names like this al- ready swirling, we are certain that the Partnership will be able to find some- one to fill the large shoes Benson will be leaving behind. Voiume2l, Number 20 July 3, 2003 page 5