Another reason to fire Carol Molnau

The Star Tribune unearths that Carol Molnau sold $3 million of land to a developer 8 days after a bill she successfully pushed for the passage of an expansion of a state highway in close proximity to the land. This was when she was in the Legislature in 2000. She has spent the past 5 years as the Lieutenant-Governor and the Department of Transportation Commissioner. Her tenure has had its failings.

The article gives more specifics and looks into what the ethical rules are pertaining to conflict of interest in the state Legislature. For me, it's just one more reason why the Legislature should fire Carol Molnau from her position at the DOT. Governor Pawlenty clearly isn't and she doesn't have the good sense to resign.

The article is a good piece of investigation. It delves into Molnau's pre-legislative career as a local official in Chaska involved in road and land-use decision-making that appears to have financially benefited her directly.
Regarding the sale of land a week after her conference committee finalized the highway's fate, Molnau asserts that putting the highway expansion of the burgeoning suburb had no impact on their sale price. The assertion challenges her credibility a bit. Alternatively, if we take that as her honest opinion, it's still a reason to fire her. If the head of the Department of Transportation doesn't think that suburban/exurban highway expansions would impact the property value of undeveloped land less than a mile away, maybe she's not qualified to be making transportation decisions.

Perhaps the future of the Minnesota state highway system:

Minnesota needs a new transportation commissioner

Before the bridge collapse, there was much to criticize in the performance of the Minnesota Department of Transportation's management. Whether it was bungling up vital road projects, poor communication on traffic control, or putting private license driver information on unsecured servers, it has been a mess during the Pawlenty administration.

Lt. Gov Carol Molneau, who also serves as the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation has not shined in the the aftermath of the bridge collapse. Her staff member for coordinating emergency responses had to be fired for essentially not doing her job for the last few years. She has been ill-informed on the bridge collapse aftermath. She essentially told Minneapolis to go to hell when it suggested the new bridge design include light-rail transit capability. Two of the losing new bridge design bidders sued the DOT after they chose the MOST expensive design, previously telling the vendors that the cheapest route was the way to go. While underwater searches were still underway, she appeared at a press conference with a nautical-themed shirt. Oh, and though the investigation of the reason for the bridge collapse is still underway, it appears the DOT bears some responsibility to poor and ultimately dangerous decisions in their response to known structural problems.

The Star Tribune has recovered her work schedule for the past three months and wrote about it's contents, or lack there of. It suggests, at minimum, the commissioner is not really involved in a lot of decision making. Worse, it appears that the commissioner may not be really doing much work at all.

• Where was the MnDOT chief?

Several prominent DFLers in the Legislature have called for her resignation from the DOT. Molneau and her boss, Gov. Pawlenty, have stood firm. The governor remains popular, but that didn't stop the Legislature from (wisely) firing his Education Commissioner.