coming up on oakdale update will visit with representative norris loic as she reminisces about her legislative career over to the new business in the city and we'll learn about the yellow ribbons that the designation old bill has received hundred seventy she recently announced she is not seeking reelection with me now to talk about her long legislative career is representative norris lalich nora thanks for joining me on oakdale updated me great to be  again this is probably what about six seven time at least yes ok all right let's look back on that well first of all this start with your boundaries your what your boundaries were well we went through resisting this year every time there's a census they redraw the legislat a legislator has about thirty six thousand folks or so so this time it kind of went back to where my district originally was which is now has o p l is actually divided into the northern part is one district and then they put the the southern parts of just below tenth street kind of where tartan is open ours is in a different district so that my district has that bottom part tenth street below and then it goes all the way along radio drive woodbury all same but it is the woodbury part which is it's a big chunk of woodbury anything west of radio drive so it's kind of tamarac where you know dick's sporting goods and home depot are originally were north of thames street all the way up to what right i had the whole city about the whole city will so now it would be leon lonely who's going to be running to represent the area and he's done a good job and i think he'll be a good rap so bill's going to have two reps best and why was that why would it be well you know wasn't our worst because last year we shut down so that was that would be bad one and then it was our best because it was a difficult transition where we had a democratic governor mark dayton and then we had a republican legislature and any time it's divided like that there's just a lot of contention between what the legislature passes and what the governor will accept or so and we have the you know the vikings stadium and we had a lot of you little more than usual i mean people have analyzed this and i think part of it is because you have a republican legislature that has a certain tent on you know how they see issues as well as we have a lot of new republicans that were from the tea party and you know st yes we can get into that you know there wasn't a whole lot going on until legislature but let's talk about what was accomplished or not but the sat with the capital bonding bill that was pretty important yeah it's very important you tell us what it's what it is and then so it was we wondered if it would happen again but it did there's a lot of really good projects in there we have one local one which just outside oakdale which is tough in center there in the monastery where the nuns were over by hill m is they at the last minute senator we are put in an amendment and they got the two million dollars to refurbish those rooms because you think about rooms being built for nuns and now there's families with kids pretty much moms and kids coming there's a shelter you got to have some significant updating and so we did pass a good sized mining bill money goes put people to work shovels in the ground jobs and there was a big issue the payout transparency  emphasis of that was because of burnsville egan school district paid out about two hundred fifty thousand dollars to somebody leaving a job and it was also under nobody knew why it was a secret thing ok what happened there well i think that they want more transparency in those types of situations i mean these are public schools are paid with tax dollars so it made sense to pass legislation that that has to be public and transparent why wasn't it in the first place and what was i think that the rules have not been in the laws statutes have not been as clear about that said typically local school boards have been able to control those kinds of situations and any kind of extenuating circumstances of why a superintendent may or may not get that kind of a payout but now yeah it will be up to further scrutiny and i think that's a good thing or i think there was angry people on that imagine i remember you know it's got a hundred calls who got a lot of calls you know i've actually gotten some calls about six twenty two over the years you know we try to leave the school districts you know making their own rules but i have people that have concerns about how it's money being spent and what's happening and every once in awhile every where there's some fraud and you know what's happening with that and shouldn't be there be tighter control and so we're moving towards that very good i think that's a good deal right now i think was passed last year but the marriage amendment pretty big issue this year yeah it's going to be on the ballot for this fall that and the voter i d s you and it's it's really divisive i'll tell you people are either for it or against it there's not a lot of people that are in the middle we think that minnesota might be the first state actually to feet the marriage amendment so yeah it's really it's making a lot of people angry  already isn't statute that it one man and one woman would marry and so now to put it in the state constitution and to have in our constitution discrimination i think a lot of people don't think it makes sense but i'll tell you what we're hearing is that there's going to be some ads in october that i hope folks realize they shouldn't believe in all of these issues that are going to scare people that they need to do an amendment like this and i think that people really have to use common sense and  it already exists in statute and why should we put this in the constitution i agree a lot of negative is going to come out and make it to the advertising a lot and apparently it's so serious and so shocking that it does flip voters was a big one this session mary to fire who's a representative from big lake brought that to the process i said on the state government finance committee so we had a lot of those hearings you know it's another thing that's up for debate do we really need to have a constitutional was the constitutional limits are so popular is they don't require a governor's signature so both houses of legislature pass it and it goes right to the public so in the case we have a legislature doesn't agree with the governor and this is a way to go around him there has not been a lot of voter fraud and you hear people go back and forth on this there was a couple apparently felons that voted felons aren't allowed to vote they didn't know we're allowed to vote so there's been a lot of  legislation put in place to make sure felons are fully informed and will not be voting but i think it's unfortunate i think there's other ways we could do it mark ritchie came out with this idea of notebooks so sort of computer  you came up you would say i'm frank or sallow and they would look and there would be a picture of you on the community based already the idea is if you say you come up and sam i am frank or sallow and i don't have an i d or i would if you're an older person and you so they can't vote and that's you know we're this is america and minnesota we want as many people to vote as possible do you think i mean one of the charges against this was the fact that republicans felt that it would be the  poorer people that are democrats that we would vote democratic and that's what they're worried about i have to tell you the research shows that that's true as they see this as a suppression it's called the voter suppression bill and that that yes  lower income income people tend to vote more democratic and if they can't get to the poll or get they get the poll and i didn't know it could potentially cause thousands of people nationwide you know and in minnesota probably hundreds of people to not be able talking about you know voter id engage marriage was not what i came to the legislature to do i want about education and health care and jobs and it's very distracting you know it takes a whole campaigning in the legislature kind of off a lot of money at the state to each almost to serve low income people and it is not transparent about how that money is being spent and if it's being spent well you might remember that that you care at one point gave up i think was thirty million dollars back to the state that they had not spent for that intended purpose and it makes you wonder if they're giving back that much art there are other h m o s that would have those kinds of issues so commissioner jesson who's the head of the a t f has done a good job of starting to rein that in and starting to look for more but i'll tell you it is really tough of h m o s to get that transparency we push and we push and we push and there's a lot of resistance there and that me they're making money you know and it's you know they're going to make some money but it's at the public these are public dollars and they have to be well spent we don't want unnecessary tests or unnecessary visits or whatever is happening that they're twins to x l to the target center you know we've done a mall now and with the big you know crowning one is the vikings you know in our area i had a lot of people that really wanted this and they would talk to senator wicker and i and they would talk about how long that it's been and then the big issue is should the public be supporting and taxpayer money be used for banking stadiums and we would say as little as possible you know the final agreement it really expands gambling it's charitable pull tabs which are actually going to come electronic somo but more bars will have where they can gamble with these sort of handheld machines and then that's going to pay for the stadium you know it's a little bit worrisome because if that doesn't come through the backup is that is the general fund which is the taxpayers however you know mark dayton i think this was something he really had a vision that he wanted i think that poobah that's when it kind of turned and when he said you know if you don't do something the vikings very well may leave now they're going to say it's going to be in the same exact spot down by the metrodome and hopefully it will continue to be affor now let's talk about how it's working together this session with the republicans it was tough you know we had the the really right wing tea party folks elected and they were not real interested in compromise you know when i first came in and i came to that wall pro from woodbury had a seat and then i had the seat in ninety seven there was a lot of compromise or we would argue on the floor but we'd still go out to lunch and people played practical jokes it was a very much of a lighter atmosphere tell you this last session people say stuff on the floor in committee and they don't they don't want to talk to each other outside of that because that's how volatile it was and i think that that's a real shame plus the idea is you know you know i'll tell you i don't know if you know this or the people oakville know this but they were they lost because of partisanship on a very important issue which is the to free financing for the blackies area remember we were there i remember when it was knocked down the end right there well the legislature needed to pass a tiff extension for it to develop that property is you know it's still not quite developed doesn't cost a state dime they put it in a tax bill at the end if you remember which with a bunch of business tax cuts and the governor could not sign that bill typically the majority party would take out those two projects there were several for several studies put into prevailed running through at the end right oh bill can get the best developer possible didn't do that they didn't do that i mean i to have odell suffer because of gains over the tax bill and then there will be an impact is just that that's the type of thing you know in the past they would not let that happen but we will have to admit they may win in the end to the republicans when insane this is what they're going to cut their right to this not being able to compromise not good no it's not and you saw last year with the shutdown and then this year with things like oh kill coming out they thought the governor would be forced to sign because a visit he's like oakville and he you know he had to weigh the tradeoffs but it's going to be doing that tax bill it's a shame  time in life where you decide can make some big decisions the redistricting that's happening when you look at running in your new district it's really a ten year decision the first time you run you're pretty much obligated to stay and run in that district your district it was actually what we would call a sweet little district i mean it is great that's oakville it has that part of woodbury with like target it also has tamarac it has the south maplewood with the ski jump and you know battle creek and all that stuff so it was a great district but for me personally you know it's my last ten years to really make a better income you know we don't get paid very much at the legislature and i really wanted to to be somewhere i do want to be somewhere and i have a new job where them it's been a really good working mom job in terms of summers during the days you know to be off of the kids but now they're older and i can transition to something else plus the partisanship i mean what john herrington said and i think big highlights would be i was chair of the early childhood finance committee you know being a chair in the legislature is a is a wonderful thing you get to hold the gavel you get to work with people on the agenda and we were able to pass important legislation around a quality rating system make child care is r rated so parents know where to go to for twelve years childcare and also we just run a one to forty five million dollar race to the top grant for early childhood and that was part of the continuation of my work so that was you know early child it was definitely the highlight  going to the two thousand and four democratic national committee and boston and i invited garrison keillor to go and he went and did a fundraiser for the caucus and spent time with our delegation and that was just something i don't know if i'd ever get to to do again and then you know meeting and serving people in oakdale one of the great joys is when a constituent brings a problem to us that is really sticky and there's a lot of people that run into issues with state government and we can help them i mean that's the really good stuff ok now what about give me a couple low points and really you know the shutdown which was about a year ago was definitely a low point do you remember the capitol was locked our building was locked couldn't even kids couldn't go in and nobody  was just us we didn't know what was going to happen the governor and the republicans could not find a compromise i think that was a really bad scene for the state of minnesota and for the people and we also shut down one time marriage once we had thousands of people on the rotunda you know there's they're out there and they're singing we shall overcome i mean it was like it felt like you were in the civil rights movement you know it was a you know i want to ask you two other questions you know  where you were sitting in the last few days arguing and fighting about the stadium issue were you sitting there thinking i'm going to really miss this or were you thinking thank god i'm never going to have well you know it's a little bit of both you know we tried to put this amendment on the c m to give any access revenue surly ad so that was we're working hard on that and it's fun to be doing a deal in the middle of all of this but i'll tell you our hours are unpredictable you know we work all night every day they tell you the next day what time you're going to be end you sit closer than we are next to a person all day all night and you work and they know your work space is this big so there's times i thought  ime i thought how many people are meeting at midnight i mean to work from midnight or two or three and they don't know when they're going to get home and you know i it's time for me to be on a regular schedule for you ok so i've got about thirty seconds here what are your so i'm very happy to be moving on and educating folks and and working with something really positive well that's their again i will tell you and i want to thank you for all your years of services i mean you've done a lot in that it's been tough i know that i can understand it  it's time for short break but first here's this month's trivia question the twenty twelve fourth of july fireworks display will be held at richard walton park the event was moved from the  and eleven our trivia question is why did the city movie event come tanner's late to richard walton park was it because dan is late dried up because residents complained about the noise or because of safety and parking concerns well th the answer later in the show we'll be right back with more of oakdale update in just a minute it's now time for defining developments segment each month we profile a different business in our community here's this month's business associated bank opened its second new minnesota branch of the year recently in oakdale a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony was held on friday june first the new location features a drive up a t m and a two lane drive through mayor carmen surat was on hand to present a certificate welcoming the bank to the city associated bank is located in the former m and i bank building between mcdonald's and target at seventy eight six the thirty second street in oakdale oakdale is now all yellow ribbon city which is part of a network that connects agencies organizations resources and employers to proactively support service members and military families here's more information about the yellow ribbon city  as a leader in the minnesota national guard the yellow ribbon networks are our continuity for our soldiers and their families during the other twenty eight days a month that we don't have them and most importantly on deployments what we are hoping for what we what we desire is a community that embraces their soldiers an airman when we're there or when we're not there and takes care of their needs you know course it becomes very important during a deployment because you've got a  family that's left with alter their provider their father their mother so it's very important that we have that that network that takes care of their needs when we can't or when others can't and i think that's what we're striving for with the yellow ribbon network is a community that's linked together that provides either service or support that are still german and their families we're just about out of time but first let's answer a trivia question we asked you why did the city move the fourth of july fireworks event from tanner's lake to richard warman park the correct answer is c due to the lack of parking and restrict access for public safety vehicles the event was moved to walton park at fifteenth street and hadley avenue the rock and hollywood will perform at the bandshell from seven to ten pm with the fireworks extra starting at dusk that's all we have time for for everyone at the city of oakdale thanks for watching