Ward 6 Date BookToday | This Week | This Month This calendar includes only public meetings of interest in the 6th Ward and does not reflect the Council Member’s full daily schedule. |
City Council – Ward 6
City Council Vice President Robert Lilligren has represented the 6th Ward of the City of Minneapolis since January, 2006. He was first elected to represent the 8th Ward in November 2001. With no political background or experience, he entered public life because of a strong desire to help his fellow Minneapolitans and to bring a strong voice to core-city concerns. A member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, he is the first American Indian tribal member to serve on the Minneapolis City Council. Robert is one of three openly gay members currently serving on the Minneapolis City Council. Robert has a strong background in community activism, housing development, and on transportation issues. He is a self-employed small-scale housing developer/property manager with an emphasis on housing preservation. When first elected to office, Robert was serving as a volunteer on eight different community boards and commissions including: vice-chair of Phillips West Neighborhood organization, the Midtown Greenway Coalition (a bike/walk advocacy group), the Hennepin County-appointed I-35W Project Advisory Committee, and as an advisor and board member for several affordable housing groups throughout South Minneapolis. A key focus of Robert’s first term in office was helping to jump start the stalled Sears project – a 2 million square foot vacant and dark building which was blighting the whole south side of Minneapolis. It is now the up and running Midtown Exchange. His leadership helped to set (and exceed) historically high minority and women workforce and contractor goals for the project. He drafted language into the project’s Request for Proposals (RFP) that allowed for the creation of the Global Market at the Midtown Exchange. This open market brings opportunities for local entrepreneurs – many from new arrival and immigrant communities – and makes fresh food and produce more available inner-city residents as well as being a regional attraction. This term he shifts his focus to the reopening of Nicollet Avenue at Lake St. as a priority. City Council Vice President Robert Lilligren currently is appointed to the following City Committees: Executive; Community Development; Transportation and Public Works; Health, Energy and Environment; and he is the Secretary of Minneapolis Community Development Agency. Robert chairs the Committee of the Whole and the City of Minneapolis Information Services Policy Steer Group as well as serving on and chairing several other city initiatives like the Civil Review Authority redesign, the Community Engagement Task Force and the Workgroup for the future of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. Transportation policy, planning and funding are special areas of work and interest for Council Member Lilligren. He represents the City on several local, regional and statewide transportation bodies where he advocates for alternative transportation and a balanced, multi-modal system like; the Grant Evaluation and Recommendation Services (GEARS) Board which advises on the allocation of the projected $100 million in new revenues from the ¼-cent sales tax dedicated to investment in metro transitways, and on the Bike/Walk Advisory Council which reviews and recommends the spending of a $25 million federal grant to shift people from motorized to non-motorized transportation modes. Among other areas of interest he also serves on the Board of Directors for the Meet Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association, the Empowerment Zone (EZ) Governance Board, the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) Policy Board. City Council Vice President Robert Lilligren moved to the rapidly redeveloping and very diverse Phillips West Neighborhood, from Loring Heights (another 6th Ward neighborhood), in 1982. He has helped revitalize his once crime ridden block. Committed to life in the City, Robert doesn’t own a car – he relies on his bike, his feet or mass transit to get around. He brings a street level perspective to his work on the City Council. He is an avid reader, a classically trained singer and an energetic advocate for Minneapolis. |
