Lisa Goodman’s seven terms on the Minneapolis City Council ended on Jan 1. Less than nine months later, she’s back at city hall. She started a new job Monday as the director of initiatives and partnerships — a new position created specifically for her.
What new things does a former council member who represented both Uptown and downtown since 1998 have to teach us about Minneapolis revitalization? We’re about to find out.
In Goodman’s 26 years on the city council she was known for wielding great power as chair of committees controlling economic development cash, being an unreserved police booster, and being a foe of safe streets and alternative transportation (she was the lone vote against the Transportation Action Plan).
This City Pages story from 2009 has all the Goodman classics: guiding development towards her friends and getting the city sued; threatening to defund a neighborhood group for not letting her use their email list; and going to great — possibly corrupt — lengths to help her dear friends build a wood-burning energy plant in the Phillips neighborhood.
One of Goodman’s last acts in her old job last December was to vote on the city’s 2024 budget that created her new job. The annual pay of $156,000 is roughly 140 percent of her old salary as a council member.
In an email last Friday, deputy city operations officer Brette Hjelle described Goodman as a “creative thinker with a penchant for bringing people together to get things done.” He said Goodman was hired after a months-long “rigorous and thorough interview process.”
But that can’t be true — I was told on Feb 1 that she’d be given this job. I posted about it four days later. That’s not enough time for a thorough, rigorous, months-long process.
About a year ago I started hearing rumors from former staff at the city that Mayor Jacob Frey would create a new position for Lisa Goodman in his administration. It seemed plausible. When a city employee told me in February what Goodman’s new job would be — director of strategic initiatives and partnerships — they felt strongly that she was about to become a disruptive presence in their workplace.
Goodman is known for bullying staff — as in threatening to get them (the subject matter experts) fired if their work went against her wishes. Firing a department employee was not something she was technically empowered to do as a lone member of the city council, but her threats held weight. She was a powerful politician who would often get her way.
EXCLUSIVE AUDIO: Mayor Frey serenades outgoing Ward 7 Council Member Lisa Goodman with an original song featuring comedic lyrics inspired by decades of abuse and threats directed at subordinates in the workplace. pic.twitter.com/9gJBe5x8b4
— Wedge LIVE!™ (@WedgeLIVE) November 29, 2023
At a Goodman retirement celebration last November, Mayor Frey had fun with Goodman’s reputation. As a tribute to his friend, he sang an original song with lyrics like “challenge her if you dare” and “challenge her best rec, you’ll have her high heel upon your neck.”
To give a recent example from 2021: a vote on the new Hennepin Avenue was delayed a year for no reason other than Lisa Goodman’s displeasure at the staff recommendation. And when another of Goodman’s dear friends, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, was hired as public works director, the staff recommendation was significantly altered to suit Goodman. The public works staff person who led work on planning, and dealt with Goodman’s abuse, left her job at the city soon after.
Kelliher has since been promoted to city operations officer and is Goodman’s new boss.
Author’s note: I vaguely remember Tony Webster once told me that Lisa Goodman made him clean up when her dog took a crap on the floor at city hall. Tony wasn’t working for Lisa at the time (he had another role at the city) but he felt compelled to follow her commands.