At the board meeting last night the EMID board acknowledged that the April 1 deadline it had set for Perpich to get legislative authority to take over Crosswinds is no longer in effect. As a result, Perpich and South Washington County now have the remainder of the legislative session to seek authority to take over the Crosswinds building.

Last night the EMID board heard from their attorney that the Minnesota Office of Management and Budget (MMB) has changed its position on the requirements for handing off the Crosswinds and Harambee facilities. They are now requiring that the Minnesota Legislature approve any transfer of these buildings before MMB will approve these transfers. As a result, MMB is not authorizing EMID to transfer the buildings until the Legislature has acted.

While Roseville and Perpich each have legislation currently being considered that would provide the proper authority, the same is not true of South Washington County. It is expected that one of the Washington County senators (Kent or Sieben) will probably introduce such legislation soon. At that point there will be two competing proposals for Crosswinds in the legislature and the EMID board will have to wait for the dust to settle before making any further moves to transfer the building.

In other news from the board meeting, Shari Thompson reported that teachers now have until April 15 to pick from a list of over 900 jobs EMID has identified as available for them in member districts. Teachers will sign up for these positions in order of seniority.

Sue Mackert gave an update on the Perpich-Crosswinds bill noting its broad bipartisan support and saying that she feels very good about its chances of passage. The Perpich-Crosswinds bill has been assigned to the House Capital Investments committee and will likely be heard there the week of April 2, when the Legislature returns from their holiday break.

South Washington County board member Jim Gelbmann also felt compelled to launch a defense of himself from apparent charges of conflict-of-interest that were hounding him at the Legislature, where he is employed as a committee administrator. He provided documentation showing that he has no financial interest in the outcome of the Perpich-Crosswinds decision and said that he had approached his boss at the Legislature and declared his conflict-of-interest as soon as the Perpich-Crosswinds bill was introduced.

Three parents testified to the board. Leslye Taylor described family activities at the Legislature and asked the board to stand in support of its own action. Susan Larson shared a packet of media articles and letters to the editor, noting that the question of the transfer of Crosswinds was getting broad attention in the press. Eric Celeste pointed out the muddy waters stirred up by South Washington County’s actions at the Legislature and asked the EMID board to take no further action until after the Legislature completes its deliberations.

An audio recording of the testimony of EMID’s lawyer about the situation and Shari about teachers is available on our website.