Text: May 24, 2016 Speaker Kurt DaudtMinnesota House ofRepresen1a1ives463 Stale Office Bldg.SL Paul, MN 55155 To Speaker Daudt: The chaotic end to the 2016 legislative session was again on embarrassment for the MinnesotaHouse of Representatives. By waiting to process and pass all the major bills in the final hoursand minutes - some of which did not even get vetted in a public conference committee - Housemembers were not able to adequately represent their constituents and ordinary Minnesotans losttheir ability to participate in the process. Members were forced to vote on bills that had beennegotiated and written behind closed doors without public meetings and that members had noteven read. The language of the bonding bill and amendments were literally unavailable to severalof our members. This bad process led to the House of Representatives passing a bonding bill thatwas littered with errors: major projects that had been agreed to were left out (HermantownWellness Center, the Duluth Steam Plant, the Polk County - North Country Food Bank). Thelanguage of the bill would not have allowed any money to be used for Highway 14. And perhapsmust alarming, the total bon authorization was $1.2 million rather than $1.2 billion. This is nota staff problem; this is a time management and bad process problem. And it is bad forMinnesota.I am particularly troubled by the omission of another provision that would have raised the cap oncounty regional rail authority contributions to fund rail projects from 10% to 20%. By failing toinclude that provision, you torpedoed hundreds of millions of road and bridge investment foryour refusal to allow a local government to spend its own money the way it sees fit.I am also troubled by inaccurate statements you have made to the press about what happened onthe last day of session related to that provision. In rushing to blame Senate Democrats whiletaking no responsibility yourself, you claimed that you never agreed to raise the cap on countyregional rail authority contributions. That is false. In the early evening on Sunday, I joined ameeting between you, Majority Leader Peppin and Senator Bakk in Senator Bakk's office.Senator Bakk gave you the amended language related to lifting the cap. Senator Bakk made clearthat any deal on bonding needed such a provision included. You took the language withoutrejecting it. Telling reporters otherwise is simply false.The incident, however, raises a larger problem. Because the meeting occurred behind closeddoors and the bonding bill never went through a public conference committee process, there is noway to independently verify anyone's account of these high-stakes negotiations involvingbillions of dollars of public money.The trust of the people in their government is too important to allow this to happen again. Assuch, I suggest that leadership negotiations about any potential special session be conducted in public meetings and that the leaders confine themselves to setting broad parameters for any billthat may come up during the special session. I also suggest that all bills be negotiated in a publicconference committee/working group where all provisions are openly discussed and voted upon. Finally, I suggest that we agree that the public and legislators be granted at least 24 hours toreview any bill debated in a special session so that we can avoid the serious errors that wereincluded in the end of session bonding bill.We all must take responsibility for how the House of Representatives conducts its business. Overthe years under both Democrats and Republicans we have seen conclusions to the session that are not transparent to the public. I would submit that the last two years were the worst yet. Aslawmakers, we owe it to the public to work together to change this for the better. As a start, anywork leading up to and during a special session should be conducted in the public.Sincerely,Paul ThissenMinority Leadercc Governor Mark DaytonMajority Leader Tom BakkMinority Leader David Hann