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State Representative Duane Quam
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-9236
For more information contact: Jason Wenisch 651-296-2317
NEWS COLUMN
REFORM, REDISTRICTING MOVING FORWARD
This week, the bulk of our time in the Minnesota House was spent hearing Reform 2.0 bills in committee. As of last week, 37 bills have been introduced from the Reform 2.0 agenda, 23 bills have received hearings, and a total of 34 hearings have been held. Six bills have passed the Minnesota House - all with bipartisan support; and four have been vetoed by Governor Dayton.
This week's committee hearings centered on rulemaking moratorium and other rulemaking reforms, online/digital learning in schools, and tackling welfare reform.
On the House floor, I was pleased to see lawmakers vote nearly unanimously to make needed updates to our sex offender notification laws. Not long ago, I shared with you a decision made by Governor Dayton’s human services commissioner to send a convicted pedophile from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program to a St. Paul halfway house.
In any normal circumstance, when a sex offender relocates to a community, a neighborhood meeting is called so neighbors can receive advance notice of offender’s arrival. According to current law, halfway houses don’t fall under this category, meaning no notification would have been necessary in St. Paul once this convicted predator relocated there.
The commissioner feels the 64-year-old has successfully completed treatment over a 17 year period, deserves a greater deal of freedom, and is ready to be eased back into society by living in a halfway house located in St. Paul.
This vote proved that when an urgent need presents itself, legislators can come together and address it without concern about partisan politics.
Finally, the big talk among state lawmakers this week was the release of the new redistricting maps. Due to population changes from the 2012 census, legislative districts needed to change in order to provide equal representation no matter where Minnesotans are living. A panel of five judges released the new maps on Tuesday.
Because my current district had grown in population, and I was over eight thousand people above the target, I expected to lose some areas. I knew the current District 29A – which contains all of Dodge and part of Olmsted county – would change somewhat, I did not expect that this current area would now be divided by seven different districts beginning next January.
In what would be my new area of representation, I would still represent Dodge and Olmsted counties, though the district would include more residents in western Rochester, eight fewer townships in Dodge County and two in Olmsted. Roughly 90 percent of the new district is part of the current district, but West Concord, Hayfield, and Claremont are among the communities that will have new representation and belong to a new House district in January.
That said, the map doesn’t change how I’ll represent people, it only changes the mechanics of the election process. I promise you that I won’t be distracted by redistricting. It’s the people in our communities that I represent, not some artificial boundary set by the court, and I look forward to representing all of you in the future.
News Items
- Quam Statement on HF956 - Omnibus Energy Bill - (Posted: May 8 2013 9:14AM)
- Capitol Update from Rep. Duane Quam - (Posted: May 3 2013 12:00AM)
- House Moves Ahead with Damaging Changes to Education and Taxes - (Posted: Apr 26 2013 12:00AM)
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