7p TONIGHT – Red Wing City Council Meeting
February 25th, 2013
7 p.m. February 25, 2013
Red Wing City Hall
Tonight’s the night — be there or be square! Tell the Red Wing City Council what you think about having the “voice of frac sand mining” as Mayor of Red Wing. Should he be allowed to remain in office until April Fools Day?
jsebion3@gmail.com, lisa.bayley@ci.red-wing.mn.us, deanhove@charter.net, michael.v.schultz@charter.net, peggy.rehder@ci.red-wing.mn.us, ralph.rauterkus@ci.red-wing.mn.us, marilyn.meinke@ci.red-wing.mn.us
Tonight the Red Wing City Council will be addressing the Mayor’s offer to resign as of April 1, 2013. April Fools? I hope not.
If you can’t attend the meeting, CLICK HERE FOR LIVE WEBCAST:
IS HIS RESIGNATION IN WRITING? There’s no reason to wait so long — he should resign immediately. He should resign before the legislative session goes any further. He should resign before any meetings where he’d be going to represent the City of Red Wing. He’s tainted. This is about character, and he’s had many opportunities to display his character, and what I’ve seen is disturbing. If he doesn’t resign, he should be booted out, as the City Council has power to do under the City Charter.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE FEBRUARY 11, 2013 COUNCIL MEETING
The agenda item about Dennis Egan begins at 36:13.
Dennis Egan’s comments 51:26 – 1:03:55.
Throughout, he remains resolutely firm in stating there is no problem with his actions, and very long-windedly states when put on the spot, that he will not consider resigning. No direct answers.
Egan begins not by addressing his own egregious behavior, but by objecting to emails sent that questioned the ethics and motives of City Administrator Kay Kuhlman, that it was “out of bounds and out of line, unfair and uncalled for.” WOW. Here’s what was in the STrib, from Egan, about talking to Kuhlman about his frac sand mining lobbying job:
And in the Post Bulletin, he also raises Kuhlman’s involvement:
He seems to be using her to hid behind, that “She didn’t raise any red flags at that time,” and that he “informed” her “prior to accepting.” Maybe that conversation didn’t happen, she wasn’t informed, and she’s collateral damage. Maybe he’s dropping her name to help bolster his position. Whatever occurred, he’s putting her in a bad position. What was that conversation, the subject, the date, what all did he disclose to Kuhlman? The City Council and the public should know.
Based on the Kuhlman reference in the STrib and Post Bulletin, here’s a Comment of mine on the Post Bulletin site:
The bottom line is that Not-soon-enough-to-be-ex-Mayor Dennis Egan did not disclose to the City Council. If Not-soon-enough-to-be-ex-Mayor Dennis Egan did disclose to City Administrator Kay Kuhlman, she did not disclose to the City Council. If he’s tossing her name around to bolster his position and he didn’t disclose his position to Kay Kuhlman as he said he did, then it’s even worse for him. Because he raised this issue so defensively right out of the gate (CLICK HERE, at 51:26), I think there’s more going on here. What’s the rest of the story?
This is about character. This is about Dennis Egan’s value system. Dennis Egan has demonstrated his character and value system, and he is not fit to be Mayor. He should not represent the City in any way.
Timing is important. The legislature is in session and will be until after April 1, 2013. Egan should not be Mayor while a registered lobbyist for the frac sand mining industry. I believe there is a national conference in March that Egan is to attend representing the City of Red Wing, and if so, the City should send someone else.
Keep those emails coming to the Red Wing City Council members — tell them what you think of this situation, let them know whether you think Egan should remain in office until April Fools Day (in previous posts, I’d not copied the “j” of jsebion3@gmail.com — APOLOGIES — it’s correct below):
jsebion3@gmail.com, lisa.bayley@ci.red-wing.mn.us, deanhove@charter.net, michael.v.schultz@charter.net, peggy.rehder@ci.red-wing.mn.us, ralph.rauterkus@ci.red-wing.mn.us, marilyn.meinke@ci.red-wing.mn.us
Tonight — 7 p.m. February 25, 2013 at Red Wing City Hall. Be there or be square.
Where’s the Mayor’s resignation letter?
March 4th, 2013
Mayor Egan, where is your letter of resignation? Send him an email and ask him!
And the City Council too!
jsebion3@gmail.com, lisa.bayley@ci.red-wing.mn.us, deanhove@charter.net, michael.v.schultz@charter.net, peggy.rehder@ci.red-wing.mn.us, ralph.rauterkus@ci.red-wing.mn.us, marilyn.meinke@ci.red-wing.mn.us
After telling City Council members over the weekend that he’d be resigning, at the City Council meeting last week, Mayor Egan said he’d be turning in his letter of resignation on Tuesday. That didn’t happen.
Then “the Mayor came in at the end of last week and said he would be getting it to us on Monday (today).” Yet it’s not been seen.
Out with it, Mayor Egan, resign!
How hard is it to write a letter of resignation? How hard is it to follow through on something? How hard is it to keep your word?
Looks like the City Council should proceed with that investigation, and remove you from office, since you’re not following through on your promises of resignation.
Glustrom booted out of CO PUC proceedings!
October 2nd, 2011
WTF?!?! Leslie Glustrom has been denied intervention status by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission! Shades of what happened to me in Big Stone, and almost in the CapX 2020 Certificate of Need! She made her Petition/Motion to Intervene, and Xcel objected and the PUC booted her out. (I’m searching for the Order).
The story gives a pretty careful description of what happened, what’s missing is information on all the good work Leslie has done over the years, contributing to the record, helping come up with a better result, and now this…
Here’s Leslie at Nancy’s wedding a few years back:
Boulder energy watchdog kicked out of Xcel dockets at PUC
Update from Maria
September 28th, 2006
This update just arrived from Maria:
Hello to all of you, especially those of you who haven’t heard from me in a while. I have been letting go of a lot of things, and one of those things has been, temporarily, e-mail. Sorry for that. I have been thinking about how to update people and I know this is the righttool.
So. How’s it going? Well, that is the questionâ?¦
After the fire of June 5th that catapulted us out of our former life, I spent the first month frantically doing things, or trying to do things. The next month I spent intentionally not doing things. The month after that I spent sorting through the contents of the barnwhile simultaneously sifting through the contents of my brain.
And now it is the next month and I find myself part of team of people poised to build a house. There’s Hillcrest of Clark’s Grove, Majestic Homes of Worthington, Jakel’s Well Drilling of Northfield, Kittelson Heating and Plumbing of Wanamingo, Howie Electric of Dennison, Lumber Mart of Kenyon, and Nerstrand Excavation Inc. of, you guessed it, Nerstrand, to name most, but not all of the many, poised, team members. We are all waiting for the permit(s) to come through. Any day now. Any time now. Just wait, be patient.
This is a hard month. Each of these months has been hard. The first was hard psychologically. The second was hard spiritually. The third was hard physically. And this is hard a month â?¦ I don’t know exactlyhow. I’m still in it.
As I worked my way through boxes and piles in the barn I found these things from our past life. Life before the Fire. Everything in the house was carried out in one day. On June 8th it was like this huge outpouring of love, and something like 50 people showed up, and somehow out of a building that was deemed a “Total Loss” came a thousand things, carried out in the loving hands of all these people. These were the things I sifted and sorted through during the month of
August.
I found Thea’s viola, looking like a work of art, but a “total loss” as a musical instrument. And the prize model ship from Peter’s collection, streaked with black smoke but still striking an elegant pose. Here is Ches’ excellent rip-stop nylon kite, bought in 1988, a dingy coat of smoke and barn dust coating originally bold colors of the fabric. And Rose, the giant mask we made for a parade and stored in our basement, is lording it over the barn from a support beam,looking really, none the worse for wear.
These things I sifted through. As I held each thing, touched it, considered it, assigned it a value, I let go of the past and imagined a future. I imagined these things having a place in our new life. I tried to be generous. After all, each of these things was a survivor of sorts. I found it difficult to be sympathetic toward thesestrangely familiar, homeless items.
We have all managed to find a toehold in this new life I like to call the Present, a little pun. Our son gained his footing by building two beautiful structures: a loft in the barn and a bridge on our trail. His next project will be a doghouse. Thea has established her new life as a college student at St. Olaf, and is stepping her way through each day with typical grace. It’s strange, this transition she is making lands her where she planned to be, but she arrived there from a place she could never have imagined. Ches and I have been able to ground ourselves by going, daily, out to The Farm, (as we now refer to the place we used to call Home). There we have been tending the garden, pruning willows, mingling with our pets, mowing the trails, harvestingfruits and vegetables, imagining our new houseâ?¦ making ready.
I notice and appreciate each day, the gifts people have offered to help us on our journey to the Present: the tea pot in which I brew my morning tea, the colorful socks I don before going to work, the cooler I’m using to store vegetables in the barn, the lawn chair I sit in to watch the sunset, the cup I drink out of at dinner, the table we sit around, the computer, the books, the coats, the love, the attention, the information, the connections and suggestions, the sympathy and the stories, the listening and the caring, the community, which is a wordI understand better now.
One of you sent me this poem over the Internet:
There is a Brokenness
There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken,
A shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
Beyond all grief which leads to joy,
And fragility
Out of which depth emerges strength.
There is a hollow space
Too vast for words
Through which we pass with each loss,
Out of whose darkness we are sanctified into being.
There is a cry deeper than all sound
Whose serrated edges cut the heart
As we break open
To the place inside which is unbreakable
And whole.– Rashini
I appreciate this poem, this poem that to me describes the incredible diligence it takes to be present, and why it’s worth it. And now, to The Future, which is where I hitch my dreams at night.
Our house may be delivered as soon as Oct. 20th. The construction phase may be over as soon as Nov. 1st. We may have a work weekend to which you may be invited as soon as Nov. 4th. After which time we may be serving up a great big Booya for all of you who care to come andsee what has risen out of the ashes.
I’ll keep you posted!
Love,
Maria Musachio
Union Support – and Northfield’s Richard Keiser in the STrib
August 31st, 2005
Monday I honked and waved at the NWA Mechanics, Krie and Ken barked and wagged in support, on my frantic run to the Airport Post Office to serve a Reply to Cedar Falls Utilities Motion to Strike (strike an exhibit, no, not picket!)
Labor unions are a powerful force — no wonder the likes of Katherine Kersten are afraid — unions brought us some of the basic concepts that we take for granted, like earning a living wage, benefits including health care coverage, and unions contribute to the community not only by improving the lives of their members and families, but through direct contributions of volunteer labor on important community projects.
Check the STrib and Northfield News today. In the STrib, Northfield’s Rick Keiser got a well-earned reply to Katherin Kersten’s recent “Teachers should leave Wal-Mart alone,” a blast of the teacher union Wal-Mart boycott of conscience:
Blinded by her dislike of unions, Katherine Kersten has forgotten that one of the things that this country has long stood for is equality and justice for all.
The reason why people boycott Wal-Mart every day, without any prodding from organized labor, is that they exacerbate inequalities abroad and at home. Wal-Mart demands very low prices from its suppliers, and this forces those suppliers to cut labor costs.
A Honduran clothing factory whose main customer is Wal-Mart pays workers who sew sleeves onto 1,200 shirts per day only $35 a week. Wal-Mart has repeatedly been fined for violations of child labor laws, including working through meal breaks and operating dangerous equipment.
Many small businesses cannot provide affordable health care benefits to employees, but Wal-Mart has 600,000 employees and is the nation’s largest private employer. The company is in many states at the top of the list of employers whose workers rely on Medicaid. It has a terrible record of gender inequality and pays women almost 40 cents an hour less than men.
Is the company broke? No. It earned $10.3 billion in profits last year and paid its CEO, Lee Scott, $23 million in total compensation.
The individuals that Kersten interviewed may not know these facts, but Kersten does. Low prices are something we all can appreciate. But low prices at any cost? Do the ends justify any means?
I can think of no better message with which to send our children back to school than to take a stand for equality and justice for all.
Richard A. Keiser, Northfield, Minn.
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What are unions about? Here’s a local example from IBEW Local 110 from the Northfield News:
Local electricians give time, talent to Habitat
8/30/2005 11:26:00 PM
By DEVLYN BROOKS
Managing EditorNERSTRAND — More than a dozen electricians on Saturday morning buzzed around the Habitat for Humanity home going up in Nerstrand.
Some were wiring light switches and fixtures upstairs. Others were working in the basement, doing much the same thing. And still others were toting material and rolling up wire, trying to clean up behind the others as fast as they were making progress.
If everything went as planned, the crew was to wrap up the basic wiring of the entire house by noon. They started at 7 a.m.
“The best thing about these guys is you don’t have to tell them what to do. They just go and do it,” said Bill Sartor, project manager for the Habitat for Humanity. “Pretty soon they’re flying, stringing wires … in half a day they’re done.”
The electricians were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 110, a union that stretches a large geographic territory from south of Faribault all the way north to Cambridge. On Saturday, guys came from all over to help — Lonsdale, Northfield, Nerstrand, Dennison, Cannon Falls, Faribault and even from the Twin Cities.
Bob Delisha, the president of Faribault’s IBEW chapter, said that when they can the union members like to give back to the community.
“We want to show the community that we’re there to help out,” he said. “I think sometimes unions get a bad (reputation). We want to let people know we care about them.”
The Nerstrand home is the fourth Habitat for Humanity home that the IBEW has help wire in recent years. Sartor said they’ve done two houses in Northfield, one in Faribault and now the one in Nerstrand.
“It’s a big benefit to us,” he said.
Sartor said the relationship between Habitat for Humanity of Rice County and the IBEW began in earnest a few years ago. And since, when asked, the union has been there ready to help.
Sartor added that the electricians’ flexibility is wonderful. Electricity was just run to the house on Tuesday and the call went out for volunteers to help string the house on Saturday. That morning about 15 electricians showed up.
“These guys on a short notice make things happen,” he said.
Slinger Electric of Faribault is the electricity contractor for the house, Sartor said, and in addition to Slinger, other local electrical contractors have donated material and assistance to make the Nerstrand house happen.
Overall, Sartor said the house is on schedule to be completed in November. The home’s heating system is installed, most of the plumbing is in, much of the exterior siding is on, and thanks to the guys on Saturday, the wiring should be completed except for the finishing touches that have to wait.
At this pace, Sartor said that Khara Huffstutter, and her children, Erick and Laura, should be able to move in during November, just as planned.
Huffstutter was chosen to receive the home by going through Habitat for Humanity’s annual applicant process. During the building process she also has had to put “sweat equity” into the home, meaning she had to physically work on building the home with the Habitat for Humanity volunteers.
Huffstutter had been living with her parents in Faribault because she could not afford to buy a home on her income.
Habitat for Humanity will sell the new home to Huffstutter for about $75,000.
Sartor said that when the home is completed, about 110 volunteers will have worked on the house.
The lot for the home in Nerstrand was donated by Opal Wolf.
— Devlyn Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@northfieldnews.com or 645-1116