via e-mail from jeff@MnResponsibleRec.org
P.O. Box 111, Duluth, MN 55801
TEL: (218) 740-3175
WEBSITE: www.MnResponsibleRec.org
September 26, 2007
Ms. Melanie Ford, St. Louis County Attorney
St. Louis County Courthouse
100 North 5th Avenue West, #501
Duluth, MN 55802
Dear Ms. Ford
I am writing to check on progress regarding a Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation citizen audit of St. Louis County's publicly funded motorized recreation program that was presented to your staffperson Tim Lee by MRR staff in Mr. Lee's office on May 23.
To briefly review, MRR finds that St. Louis County is in violation of grant agreements for each and every motorized route funded and sponsored by the county. We make these conclusions after careful inspection of grant-in-aid documents provided by the county and after being assured by the St. Louis County Auditor that we indeed possess all documents related to the county's public funding of motorized recreation. We continue to be highly concerned that the county is dispersing public funds in violation of the county's agreements with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. We encourage your office to complete your review of our citizen audit and contact us and St. Louis County Commissioners as soon as possible about what steps you intend to take toward bringing the county into compliance with its grant-in-aid contracts. As we shared with Mr. Lee on May 23, one longtime and high ranking county staffperson, after examining the requirements stipulated in the county's motorized recreation grant-in-aid contracts and the evidence MRR has gathered, exclaimed, "We don't do any of this." The result of the county's gross lack of compliance with grant-in-aid agreements has had a host of unwanted effects, including misappropriation of public funds, trespass on private property and damage to wetlands and forests.
With the state's people and legislature focused on accountability in the use of the state's gas-tax - the main source of the county's public funding for motorized recreation ($15 million statewide in 2005), there is no better time than now for St. Louis County - the state's largest county - to provide the oversight and accountability needed to bring St. Louis County into compliance with these agreements in order to protect taxpayers, private property owners and our environment. Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation looks to the St. Louis County Attorney's office to initiate this oversight and accountability process by affirming our findings and advising the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners on the need to comply with state grant agreements involving the public gas-tax funding of motorized recreation.
Please call me at 740-3175 at your earliest convenience. We thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this important matter.
Respectfully,
Jeff Brown
Executive Director
p.s. Please find MRR's audit of St. Louis County's publicly funded motorized recreation program and more information about gas-tax funding of motorized recreation under Campaign Updates on MRR's website homepage: www.MnResponsibleRec.org
c. Tim Lee, St. Louis County Attorney's Office
St. Louis County Commissioners
Rebecca Otto, Minnesota State Auditor
Lori Swanson, Minnesota Attorney General
Minnesota Representative Alice Hausman
MRR Members
