Marc Mason points to the Twin Cities’ library development projects as a good example of no common sense.

Both are massive, multimillion-dollar projects and they’re practically within walking distance of each other.

“With all the talk about cooperation between the two cities, don’t you think they could have done something about that?” asked Mason, candidate for the Ward 3 City Council seat. “It doesn’t make much sense to have two libraries of that scale that close to each other. You’d think someone would have noticed.”

Mason hopes to unseat incumbent Lillian O’Brien. He’s no stranger to the City Council, having served on it in 1986 and 1987, and again in 2003 and 2004.

At that time, he served alongside O’Brien, filling the City’s Ward 5 spot. He eventually lost that seat and the city redrew the ward boundaries, taking him out of Ward 5 and into Ward 3.

“I haven’t moved anywhere,” he said. “I’ve been at the same address for 20 years.”

His theme all along has been a lack of common sense in local government, and the Twin Cities’ twin libraries are key points in his argument.

“I understand that they are both going to be beautiful buildings,” he said. “It seems you could have done something else with that money somewhere else and still had one big library that made everyone just as proud.”

Common sense means shedding some of government’s traditional roles. He’d like to see the city use more privately contracted help, especially for public works projects. He’s firmly against creating a city ambulance service, something that’s been mentioned as a possible city service in the past couple of years.

“Let private business be private,” he said. “The city doesn’t belong competing with private business.”

That’s the problem he has with the city’s control of the Colisee. It should be in private hands, whether it succeeds or fails. He also would prefer a local interest to manage it – not a national outfit.