Thursday, February 15, 2018

Knuth Gets the Kibosh

You might remember Kate Knuth, who was supposed to be the bright young DFL hope. She once represented New Brighton in the legislature, but mysteriously stepped aside after three terms. After kicking around for a while, she got herself a plush job with the City of Minneapolis as "Chief Resilience Officer." Well, it didn't last long:
The chief resilience officer of Minneapolis, Kate Knuth, has stepped down after seven months on the job.

Hired for the grant-funded position in June, Knuth was responsible for responding to “challenges” facing the city, which ranged from low graduation rates for black students to the risks of spills from trains hauling hazardous materials to severe weather stoked by climate change.

Knuth, an environmental educator and former DFL legislator, spent her first months in the job interviewing people and conducting a survey, but had not delivered any finished work product before she resigned.
If the goal of the position was to figure out the challenges Minneapolis faces, the city could have saved a lot of money had they simply given Betsy Hodges a mirror, but we'll leave that aside. Think about being on a job for seven months and not delivering any finished work product. It's astonishing, really. I fully expect our old friend Kate to return to academe, where not delivering work product isn't likely to raise as many eyebrows.

3 comments:

3john2 said...

Even in Academe, though, you have to publish. It doesn't matter if it's twaddle, as long as it fits the narrative you're golden.

Mr. D said...

Even in Academe, though, you have to publish.

Initially, yes. But once you have tenure, not as much. Bureaucrats should never have tenure, though, especially at six-figure salaries.

Bike Bubba said...

Well, at least somebody nudged her towards the door, which is encouraging. What is discouraging is that someone with a degree in "biodiversity" was somehow thought capable of handling high school dropouts and train wrecks--and more capable than the hired and appointed department heads who actually had spent careers working in those areas.

Not that it'll happen, but I dare suggest that the fact that they hired a "biodiversity" major to handle train wrecks ought to invite a degree of introspection and apology in City Hall.