After serving one term as lieutenant governor, Yvonne Prettner Solon has returned to the public arena in Duluth.
Gov. Mark Dayton has appointed her to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority board for a six-year term on the seven-member board that is “responsible for the technical, financial, and organizational development of the Port Authority.” The board also hires the agency’s executive director and oversees agency operations.
She is one of two board members appointed by the governor; two more are appointed by the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners and three by the Duluth City Council.
Prettner Solon replaces former legislator Cal Larson on the board; he’d first been appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2003 and was reappointed in 2009.
Prettner Solon is no stranger to the Port board; she’d served in the early 1990s as a city council appointee. She’d served in the state Senate before being elected in 2010 as lieutenant governor. She was not on the ticket last year when Dayton was elected to a second term.
Prettner Solon said in December that she was considering a run for mayor of Duluth, now that Don Ness isn’t seeking a third term this November. She said she’ll decide on the mayoral run by April.
The Duluth News Tribune quoted Vanta Coda, Port Authority executive director, on her appointment to the Port board: “Yvonne’s political acumen and knowledge of the working waterfront are key attributes.”
