Legalectric

UPDATE – 8/23/2021 – Letter from Judge Biren – Petition D-I-S-M-I-S-S-E-D:

CLICK HERE for last night’s City Council meeting. Go to 32:50 for Kent Laugen, 43:00 for George Hintz, 47:45 for Tom Wilder, 51:20 for City Attorney Amy Mace’s explanation of procedure for sanctions, and 55:50 for Kent Laugen again and he’s ushered out of the room.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Kent Laugen, an attorney licensed in the state of Minnesota… oh, well, NEVERMIND, Kent Laugen is suspended for non-payment:

Anyway, it seems that Kent Laugen emailed a letter to the judge “via the Judge’s personal court email address.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, “individuals have made multiple ex parte communications with the Court regarding this case.” Oh, good idea, folks… (I can guess who a few of them are!).

Just filed by the City of Red Wing’s City Attorney:

And I quick pounded out this:

But then a little voice said to look at Kent Laugen’s MARS listing, and lo and behold, KENT LAUGEN IS SUSPENDED, NOT AUTHORIZED TO PRACTICE:

Based on this, I sent a correction, as I’d assumed, and stated, that he was a licensed attorney in Minnesota and should have known better than to send a private communication to the judge on the judge’s personal email:

Yesterday’s filings have all been accepted by the court and served on parties.

All Laugen has to do is pay up to get his license back, but maybe there are Continuing Legal Education credits needed too? We’ll see…

… and this:

And this, just in, click to enlarge:

Hot off the press — RECALL CITY HALL LAWSUIT IS WITHDRAWN!

It was voluntarily dismissed, AND their attorney withdrew from the case. It’s “without prejudice,” meaning they can refile if they want to. That, however, would be a phenomenally bad idea.

Well, that’s good news. But I was looking forward to duking it out with them, because they need to be slapped upside the head. You can’t try to pull off a recall election, using bogus rationale, because they don’t like how the Council voted, particularly where they voted 6-1 to fire the police chief.

Prior Legalectric posts:

Red Wing VOTERS Intervention Filed in Recall City Hall lawsuit

RW Council Meeting, and Recall lawsuit in Roch PB

Overland Comment on Recall Petition to City Council today

Frivolous Recall Lawsuit Filed

Dean Hove 2” Recall Petitions

Tonight – Red Wing Recall again

Recall Petitions here!

Recall the Recall? Hove again!

RW Council Mtg – RECALL NOT!

Recall? (SNORT!) NO! NO! NO!

You say there’s gonna be a recall…

“Recall” on Charter Commission agenda?!?

Red Wing VOTERS has filed a Petition for Intervention in the Recall City Hall lawsuit that was filed August 6th, and a Stipulation to Intervention has been circulated to the Recall and City attorneys:

Here’s the short version, from the intro:

This Motion is made the grounds of Red Wing VOTERS’ interest in the fundamental right to vote and preserving the integrity of open, free, and fair elections, specifically, the City of Red Wing elections of 2018 and 2020.  Red Wing VOTERS is an association of voters in Red Wing who oppose the recall effort, representing voters who elected Red Wing City Council members and their interests.  Red Wing VOTERS has a defense to Petitioners’ claim for “correction of ballot error M.S. A. §204B.44,” which, if Petitioners prevail, would have the detrimental impact of invalidating the 2018 and 2020 elections through a recall of six of seven duly elected City Council members and disenfranchising the voters who elected these City Council members.  If Petitioners prevail, Red Wing VOTERS would suffer irreparable harm.  Red Wing VOTERS has an interest in those issues focused on the broad rights of citizens and voters under the Charter and correct interpretation thereof, an interest distinct from the interests of, and not represented by, the City of Red Wing.

Recall is an extreme remedy — it’s not for those times when you don’t like what City elected officials do, how they vote, even when you REALLY don’t like it. Recall is the remedy for malfeasance and/or nonfeasance.

If you look at Recall City Hall’s Petition to the District Court, search for “procedural,” and you’ll see repeated insistence that their Recall Petitions are “procedurally sufficient.” And they don’t address “malfeasance” except to say that the state definition of malfeasance shouldn’t apply! There’s nothing addressing the need of their Recall Petition to be both procedurally and LEGALLY sufficient. And action by the City, scheduling a recall election, is only triggered by a finding that their petition is sufficient:

“If the petition or amended petition is found sufficient…” Is that so hard to understand?

In addition to “sufficiency,” the Recall Petitioners argue that the City SHALL schedule an election if their petition is (just) procedurally sufficient (and no addressing legal sufficiency).

There are many voters here in Red Wing who are fed up with this divisive Recall City Hall effort.

Prior to the August 9, 2021 City Council meeting, and it turns out before the City was served, I sent this review of their Petition:

Letter-to-Council-Overland-Comments-on-Petition

Exhibit-A_Recall-Flyer

Exhibit-A-1_Why-a-Recall

Exhibit-B_250-Word-Statement

Exhibit-C-_Certification-of-Recall-Committee-Hove_4-9-2021

Exhibit-D_-Certification-of-Recall-Committee-Hove-Not-Certified

Exhibit-E_Letter-5-16-2021-Petitions-Invalid

Exhibit-F_Certification-of-Recall-Committee-Wards-1-2-DEAN-HOVE-Received-6_7_2021

I’m looking forward to this. There’s a scheduling conference on Friday, and by then I’ll know if the Recall attorney and City attorney will stipulate to our intervention or whether we’ll have to have a hearing.

Census Bureau hasn’t updated its page yet (they’re busy?!?!) and says they WILL release info, so here’s the press page with future info (!) and lots of links:

Census Bureau Press Page (with lots of options)

Here’s the Demographic Map Viewer

Goodhue County’s populations went up 3%:

It’ll be easy to get lost in this. And the full census info has yet to be released!