Mayor Rybak can't be too happy to have had his suspended driver's license as the lead story on the news last night and on the front page of the paper this morning. But he may actually have gotten off pretty easy -- and can thank an overzealous news team from another station.
A WCCO crew was camped out by the mayor's city car Thursday afternoon, after a tip spread like wildfire at the MPD that he had been driving with a suspended license for three months. We, of course, wanted to document whether the mayor was actually driving or instead using his police department driver to get him around while he had a suspended license.
Unfortunately, we won't ever know if he intended to start the car and pull away, or if he was -- as he said -- really just getting some papers out of his car. That's because as soon as he opened the door and slipped behind the wheel, the other reporter on the scene ambushed the mayor. Had she waited just another moment or two, we could have seen for ourselves whether he would drive or not.
Confronted by cameras, Rybak said he was surprised to learn just an hour before that his license had been suspended. He said he thought it might be a miscalculation because he had sent a check to cover the speeding ticket received back in 2006. I showed him court records which show he still owes $80 in unpaid fines. He told us he had no intention of driving home. He said he would either take the bus or call his wife for a ride. He was obviously not pleased to see us, but it would have looked a lot worse for him if he had driven off.
Instead of seeing for ourselves what he would do, we got to see an excited reporter charge into the shot and take center stage herself.
