Legalectric

It all started with the City Council’s appointments to the Charter Commission, and the process leading up to it. Charter Commission appointments are divided, some appointed by Council, some appointed by Charter Commission. I’m on the Charter Commission, which voted to reappoint me at the April Charter Commission meeting. There were also four Council appointments made on April 24, 2023 meeting.

Check the April 24, 2023 City Council meeting, starting at ~53:53:

https://redwingmn.portal.civicclerk.com/event/21/media

After the appointments, they’re sent to the District Court for judicial approval. Instead, we got this letter back, staying confirmation of all appointments, something I’ve not seen before! Here’s her letter:

On seeing that Letter and the attachments, oh my:

Legalectric post: Der Kommissar’s in Town!

In that letter were two letters expressing concern about, and wishing to block, appointments of Tom Drazkowski, Jason Snyder, and MOI, to the Charter Commission. One was from Rev. Dr. Eick had been at the meeting, and was disturbed by what he saw at the meeting, in particular the odd process, in voting in Tom Drazkowski and Jason Snyder, particularly as they’d both been found to have violated campaign finance law in the November 8, 2022 campaign cycle, and they were fined. See Eick letter, p. 3-4 and Order of OAH re: Campaign Finance at 5-14.

The other was Mayor Wilson’s letter, “As Red Wing’s Mayor,” to block my reappointment to the Charter Commission:

Really… he said that and more. See Wilson’s letter starting at page 15, and the attachments, through page 21, jawdroppingly absurd. When I read the part about “Commissar,” the old Falco “Der Kommissar” tune started on the tape loop, and I couldn’t help but SNORT! Then a native German filled me in, Der Kommissar was a popular German TV show ages ago, and Der Kommissar was a brilliant and most successful homicide detective.

I’ll regard Wilson’s labeling as a compliment, although for sure it was not meant as such.

In her letter, Judge Lennon requested the following:

And here are the responses to the judge, provided after I sent a Data Practices Act Request to the city. See above link for City Council meeting of April 24, 2023:

City Council explanation of process:

From Jason Snyder:

From Tom Drazkowski:

And from moi, Carol A. Overland:

And again, read this letter Wilson sent “As Red Wing’s Mayor” directly to the judge AFTER the Charter Commission had voted to reappoint me. The Charter Commission welcomes public comment, it’s on the agenda. Did Wilson show up and make a public comment prior to our vote? NO! The Charter Commission accepts written public comment. Did Wilson write a comment to the Charter Commission prior to our vote? NO! Instead, he sent an ex parte letter directly to the judge after the Charter Commission voted to reappoint me to the Commission. He did not serve the letter on me or the Charter Commission or the City. Transparency much? Once more with feeling, check out this letter below, and here’s the link, as above, see pages 14-21:

And this… he attached this to a letter to a judge?!?!?! As proof of ???

Suffice it to say we need a new Mayor, one who understands the role as the public face of our city, and specifically that it is not to be used to attempt to control public opinion or its expression. Again, from the City Charter:

What’s next? Judge Lennon will post an Order sometime, I hope soon. Maybe the judge will order a hearing!

VIDEO OF CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING

Agenda with links to attachments

A background Legalectric post:

“Recall” on Charter Commission agenda?!?

So I sent this missive to all, being oh-so-transparent with the ask and intent:

I then sent background info to support the request for recusal of Kent Laugen, Ernie Stone, and Shelley Pohlman, which was added to the agenda #11 documents. These primary documents are the Recall petition with Stone, Laugen (and Rehder) named; the Campaign Financial Report and Amended Report with contributions from Stone and Pohlman; a “Recall City Hall” flyer posted on Pohlman’s Red Wing Minnesota News page; and Post Bulletin article with quotes from Recall principals Ernie Stone and Kent Laugen:

Attachment – Email from C. Overland

I was told, “we will not be adding your requested item to the agenda as your concerns could be brought up under item 11.” You can see how that went.

No problem, if that’s what it takes to get it off the agenda, well, that’s what it takes.

Ultimately, yes, it was tabled. Good. However, the conflict issue was not addressed, and it should be if there are items relating to “recall” on the agenda. Note also that the changes to Charter 5.17 were not “technical changes” to align with the statute, but were substantive changes eliminating the run-off provision, something which needs to be discussed.

And did I mention that Ernie Stone said he’d talked to the City Attorney about me and my questioning of Shelley Pohlman at the last meeting? Wish I were a fly on that wall! Guess he doesn’t think I should challenge her false statements, documented, on refugee resettlement, and her claims of “conflict of interest” of County Commissioner Flanders. Oh well. Those false statements and pot-stirring continue with the recall effort.

Three new Charter Commission members were approved. In the section in the beginning where Peggy Rehder had applied, and was approved, there’s material background that was ignored. Rehder was voted in despite the 2018 formal complaint against her when she was on the City Council, the investigation, which resulted in the Council’s resolution that she participate in mediation with Marshall Hallock, and a firm directive that her out-of-bounds behavior not occur again. She resigned prior to mediation even being scheduled. What has changed to address these behavioral issues? That was not answered.

Watch the 4/23/2018 City Council video of Council deliberation and decision.

Something this serious should be addressed. It wasn’t. Instead, discussion was blocked, putting blinders on to a demonstrated problem.

In discussion of the other two applicants, Shelley Pohlman (a/k/a/ Rena Marsh) demanded to know if the names were their legal names! Shelley then wanted to know of Bjornstad was a member of League of Women Voters or AAUW! (I am not now nor have I ever been a member of…) Bjornstad noted that she was too young, maybe in a few years (SNORT!), but that she was a 5th grade civics teacher for a few years. Kent Laugen was wanting to know if they would be loyal to the Charter Commission, not the City Council, which was weird, questioning their integrity and ethics. Shelley questioned Greg Bolt about his “conflict of interest” because he is a pastor and the Council President is a parishioner, and his role in her election (he marched in a parade with a sign and something else inconsequential). Three people voted against Bolt!

Also, there was discussion of a comment made at the last meeting by Alan Muller, who thought there should be a requirement that committees of the Council be subject to the same charter provisions as the Council, and they asked about that, he was there at the meeting, raised his hand electronically, was ignored, I noted he was there, but they did not acknowledge him to address their questions to him directly. That was weird.

The rest of the meeting was a typical Charter Commission meeting…

Oh, and there is also supposed to be a public comment period at the beginning of each meeting which was not there this time, and I’ve requested that this be in the boilerplate agenda.

There’s a Charter Commission meeting next week – TUNE IN on Channel 6:

Red Wing Charter Commission

Mar 31, 2021 – 06:00 PM

Agenda

And look what’s on the agenda (click for larger version):

Here’s what’s at issue:

BFD? Well, not really, because there are at least three people on the Charter Commission who are championing the “Recall City Hall” effort.

So I sent this missive out as notice and request that I want to add an agenda item to the “Approve Agenda” section:

To which Shelley Pohlman, Queen of Conflict of Interest in this recall matter, replied, 7 minutes later:

“This an open meeting violation.”

It’s pretty basic — can’t have people involved in an active (though likely doomed) recall effort voting on changes to the Charter regarding recall!!

Active recall… yeah, it’s a stretch, because there’s a high bar for a recall petition, and after that, a high bar in the number of signatures required:

There’s roughly 2,500 registered voters per ward, twice that where two wards are combined, and roughly 10,000 registered voters for the “at large” Council seat…

Let’s do the math… if they want to recall all but Beise.. SNORT! How many registered voters in that councilor’s ward(s) are needed?

• Hove – Wards 1 & 2 = 5,249, 20% = 1,049
• Klitzke – Ward 2 = 2,575, 20% = 515
• Norton – Ward 3 = 2,617, 20% – 523
• Buss – Ward 4 = 2,424, 20% = 484
• Brown – Wards 3 & 4, 20% = 5,041
• Stinson – At Large – All Wards 9,905, 20% = 1,981

I can’t see them gathering 500, 1,000 or 2,000 voters’ signatures, but there it is, they can do it, it’s clearly allowed in the City Charter, and they’re at least being press hounds, though no evidence of a Petition yet, so get your popcorn and have a seat…

They’ve formed a “Committee to Recall City Hall” and here’s their first report:

Note the large anonymous donations?

Anonymous donations – NOT OK!! The rules clearly state that:

It’s stated pretty clearly… “This itemization must include name, address, employer or occupation if self-employed, amount and date for these contributions.”

Nope, folks active in a recall effort shouldn’t be participating in discussion or voting on Charter Commission recall provision language change.

And then there’s the recall effort itself — folks not wanting to accept that they lost by an “overwhelming majority” vote of 6-1 to fire Roger Pohlman. Just no, what a waste of time, effort, and money. Lots of distractivism, pot-, and outright lies. Lies? Yes, look at this and note the misstated order of things:

Here’s a link to the Pohlman support “petition.”

Above, from Shelley Pohlman’s “Red Wing Minnesota News” page, she states, “In response, citizens presented the counsel with a petition with more than 250 names…” “In response” isn’t true. The properties in the WORD version presented to the City show that the “Petition” was begun on February 17, and last saved and given to the City on February 19, BEFORE he was fired, yet the Petition was demanding Pohlman be “reinstated immediately.” The petition was not delivered to the City “in response” as stated above. Why the misrepresentation? Ummmm… yes, really, BEFORE he was fired. What information were they acting on when they put this “Petition” together and solicited names? Who was soliciting “signers” for this “Petition” before he was fired? What information were those ~250 people who “signed” given? Were they told that Pohlman was applying to be Chief in Lakefield, MN?

Potential for Pohlman to be fired? He knew there were issues, issues that had been raised before. Here are two documents from his 2020 evaluation, retrieved with a Data Practices Act Request to City:

And the termination letter:

Looks to me like ~250 people were played. Pohlman knew this was coming. Someone(s) struck up the band, got the bandwagon rolling, folks jumped on, and they didn’t have the full story. Over and over, as above, they’re continuing to parrot lines that Pohlman wasn’t given time to speak? The potential of firing was not new to Pohlman, and he was represented by counsel, wasn’t he?

Saying that “taxpaying Red Wing citizens were shut out of the meeting” is bizarre. What does that mean, shut out? Employee matters are confidential, is that CONFIDENTIAL closed session what they wanted “open” contrary to state law? Is it that they didn’t attend the open zoom meeting where the Council acted? I’ve heard that some wanted an “OPEN UP” meeting, and IN PERSON meeting, at City Hall where the doors were open and people could attend in person, and that this was denied. Is this what they’re referring to? Let’s get this clarified!

Ya say ya wanna do a recall, and I say, “NO NO NO!” There’s no legal basis for a recall. This is a PR push, and a sham. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

 

The Red Wing Charter Commission met last night, first the meeting, where they voted to add moi to the Charter Commission, and then for a round of thoughts on Ethics.

Here’s the presentation from Pam Whitmore, League of Minnesota Cities:

Ethics and Local Government

More on this later, gotta focus on tomorrow’s PUC meeting!

Oh, and check out the PUC’s conflict of interest rule: