GreenMark & Wacouta Township in Goodhue Co. District Court
September 12th, 2017
I found my notes!! On August 29, 2017, Alan and I went to the Goodhue County Courthouse for the GreenMark Solar v. Wacouta Township (Court Case No. 25-CV-17-1462) festivities — a Summary Judgment hearing.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m not a fan of any of the principals of GreenMark, Mark Andrew, Dennis Egan, and Julie Jorgensen. Mark Andrew is a former Hennepin County Commissioner and a fan of burning garbage. Here’s a thread from the Mpls yak-yak list about Andrew when he was running for Mayor. Dennis Egan, well, we had a few go rounds when he was Mayor of Red Wing AND was executive director of Minnesota Industrial Sand Council, and at the time silica sand mining issue was on agenda for City of Red Wing. Julie Jorgensen? Her Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project coal gasification plant took up 5 years of my full-time labor before it went to part-time and intermittent, and still just won’t fully go away! Minn. Stat. 216B.1694, Subd. 3(b)(1)(ii).
That said, I’m also a big fan of solar, from way, way back when my father designed the solar on the Minnesota Zoo (that was later taken down, it was hot water! Not quite what was most needed, and they didn’t know much about solar back then).
Here’s the GreenMark Complaint — couldn’t find the Wacouta Answer or the cross-motions for Summary Judgment. The Wacouta Township website is years out of date — what’s up with that? (2014 is most current minutes, plus a notice of the May 2017 meeting about the solar project. ???)
Here are a couple articles:
GreenMark Solar challenges Wacouta Township | Republican Eagle
Minnesota Developer Sues for Solar Garden Permit
The oral argument started with Greenmark. Some points (not all inclusive):
Focus on Minn. Stat. 394.33, Subd. 1, that the township decision violates Town Powers Act. It’s inconsistent with their zoning. They can enact more restrictive zoning, but they didn’t, township has no solar ordinance.2
Township ordinance is ambiguous. Frank’s Nursery case — if ambiguous, allow property owner to do what they want with the property.
“Agricultural community” — Planning Commission and Board selected different definitions. Current use, peat mining and hay. Pollinator scale 45, and 85 with solar. Wetlands. Reduce carbon emissions.
Township argument:
Town Power Act does not restrict township actions. Bergen defines inconsistent, it’s not different.
Township Ordinance, Art. 3, Subd. 10, limits industrial uses that do not support agricultural. Solar is an industrial use. Twp. does allow solar in ag, BUT, it’s more restrictive, and it’s not inconsistnet.
The standard is whether down decision was rational, i.e., legally sufficient, supported by record.
Reasonable — inconsistent with agriculture, exported to the grid. CUP – exported, GreenMark takes issue with def of ag use, but see “Hubbard Broadcasting” denial of Conditional Use. Review is deferential. Mandamus (GreenMark’s action) review not to challenge discretionary decisions of local government.
Frank’s Nursery re: ambiguous ordinance, doesn’t require ordinance to be construed to support use. Court still needs to determine rationality.
Greenmark Rebuttal
Mandamus – this is about building permit, a ministerial act, not discretionary.
Does township even have jurisdiction/authority.
Purpose of project — Goodhue County, that’s the area.
Altenberg (?) – Town Powers Act – Twp didn’t adopt a more restrictive ordinance.
Bergum (?) – legislative intent of Town Powers Act.
Township Rebuttal
Cases of Mandamus for building permits
Goodhue – zoned agricultural, township couldn’t zone industrial, that would be inconsistent with county zoning.
__________________________
Judge Bayley said he has a lot of homework to do, and will do it and issue Order.
April Fool on April Fools Day!
April 1st, 2013
Bubble in the natural gas fracking world? Is the fracking boom about to go BOOM? From AlterNet:
Is Natural Gas the Next Bubble? Has Fracking Promised More Than It Can Deliver?
In this weekend’s Red Wing Republican Eagle — they edited my headline, this is the original, because my view of this is that those writing about how he is being abused, it’s a lynching, etc. are ignoring the crucial fact that he had the choice to disclose but he did not. Let’s see what happens today:
It’s about disclosure!
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.
Mayor Egan to resign? Sand mining bill introduced!
February 23rd, 2013
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!!!
YES!!! Making progress today on two fronts in the frac sand world here in Red Wing and in Goodhue County!! First, Mayor Egan has announced he WILL resign, but he hasn’t yet. Second, there’s a draft bill circulating that regulates sand mining and which mandates an EIS, and I’ll post a more detailed review of that soon.
But the problem here is that Dennis Egan shouldn’t wait for a month to resign — Egan should resign NOW! Way down at the bottom of this is a good editorial from Richard Johnson, a former County Attorney, who was ejected from the Council meeting. He was outraged at the Council’s lack of a backbone, understandably! (I missed the meeting, couldn’t be there, was on the train almost to L.A. then, and trains have to be booked 6 months in advance to get a decent price.) The week of hasty communications before the Council meeting seems to have been worthwhile, seems to have been heard. It took a while, though, for them to get wound up. There are a lot of us here in town utterly disgusted by Egan’s lack of judgment and is inability to see that it’s a problem. Seems that the Council and us voters pushed hard enough to make it impossible for him to continue. His statements are still statements of denial, more evidence of the depth of his cluelessness (I’m struggling for words here!).
Let’s hope this resignation plan isn’t an April Fools gag. Red Wing City Council, GET IT IN WRITING!
The story in the paper is more extensive than the online version, CLICK HERE FOR PDF OF STORY IN REPUBLICAN EAGLE, and here’s what’s on-line:
Egan will leave mayoral post
Meanwhile, there’s a frac sand mining bill in the works, here’s the draft as I received it:
There are some issues with this, particularly regarding local control. This bill doesn’t do nearly enough to preserve the rights of local governments to do set their own more stringent regulations, it allows it but needs to clearly state that the local more stringent regulations are controlling — if not we’re in the same mess we wound up in on the Goodhue Wind project. Also, it sets a one year limit on the EIS preparation time, and from the transmission projects I’ve worked on, it may well take more than that. It does not include Chisago and Washington Counties… But this is a draft, there’s plenty of time to work on it. More on that in a bit.
And more good news — soon to be ousted Mayor Egan is in the Rochester Post Bulletin and the STrib too:
Last Mayor Egan post before Council meeting
February 11th, 2013
Here’s my latest missive to the Red Wing City Council, the final comment before tonight’s City Council meeting. CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT. We’ll be watching on the train – hope signal is good tonight!
My missive:
All –
Greetings from Chicago. FYI, I’m beginning a long planned vacation, and it’s not possible to rebook Amtrak without significant penalty, so with regrets, I will not be able to attend tonight’s meeting.
You will have some difficult but necessary decisions to make tonight.
There’s an important point I want to make about “our” Mayor Dennis Egan, and the options before the City Council. It’s not binary — it’s not either/or. Several people have said that he needs to choose one position or the other, framing it that there needs to be a choice of whether he will be “our” mayor or to represent frac sand interests. But it’s too late for that. He has already betrayed the people of Red Wing and his oath of office. He’s shown us his moral and ethical views, he’s demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to take the issue seriously, and he has shown the extent of his denial. That can’t be undone.
The issue before the council is Egan’s fitness as mayor, and not whether he should be given a choice to resign one position or the other. Whether he resigns as the “voice of frac sand” or whether he is removed from that position as the PR liability that he is, it doesn’t matter at this point if he’s no longer representing frac sand. With the facts of this issue, and with the Mayor’s behavior and public statements, the bottom line is that he can’t continue as Mayor because has shown us that he cannot be trusted to put the City’s interests first.
Mayor Egan has demonstrated that he’s not fit for office. He shouldn’t be mayor.
Not only that, Steve Murphy and I agree that this is an impermissible conflict. If Steve Murphy and I agree on something, it MUST be right!!!
Thank you for our attention to this issue. I urge you all to act mindful of the Code of Conduct for Red Wing elected officials and your oath of office.
Carol A. Overland
Vacationing in Chicago and on the way to L.A.p.s. I believe there are records of citizen complaints and comments that are missing from the packet and hope that the packets will be updated with all comments to date just prior to the meeting.
There is a lot more in the papers leading up to tonight’s meeting. I’m going to cut and paste so that when they disappear into archives, they’ll be accessible. First is the RW Beagle’s coverage:
Some citizens push for Egan to leave; he’s staying
By: Anne Jacobson, The Republican Eagle
The mayor said he doesn’t intend to resign.
The Red Wing Charter requires that five people sign before a recall committee can form.
“This has just got my blood boiling, how dare he,” Overland said.
Now from the Rochester Post Bulletin:
Our View: Red Wing mayor shouldn’t serve two masters
Posted: Friday, February 8, 2013 3:04 pm
Red Wing Mayor Dennis Egan says he doesn’t see a conflict interest between his new job as a lobbyist for the frac-sand industry and his role as an elected official. The trouble is, a lot of people do.“In my mind, there’s not a conflict,” Egan said.
“Would I ever be a lobbyist and hold public office at the same time?” Rehder said. “No.”
And on to the letters. The next two are a hoot, because Steve Murphy and I are actually agreeing on something. As I told the Council, if Steve Murphy and I agree on something it must be right.
Letter: Council should act if Egan won’t
Shame on lobbyist-Mayor Dennis Egan. It’s time for him to resign. If not, it’s time to eject “our” mayor from office. By: Carol A. Overland, The Republican Eagle
To the Editor: Shame on lobbyist-Mayor Dennis Egan. It’s time for him to resign. If not, it’s time to eject “our” mayor from office.
Mayor Egan, resign. If not, it’s time for the city of Red Wing to act.
And now Steve Murphy’s editorial:
Letter: City painted with political disdain
The recent developments surrounding the mayor of Red Wing and his employment with the sand mining industry as a paid lobbyist are extremely troubling. It matters not how you feel about the issue of frac sand mining or the use of hydraulic fracturing to harvest gas and oil; the distressing concern at hand is both a matter of law and one of integrity. By: Steve Murphy, The Republican Eagle
Neither of these instances holds true in Dennis Egan’s case.
I have heard Egan’s reasoning for not stepping down as mayor. His reasoning is simply ridiculous.
Steve Murphy formerly represented the Red Wing area in the Minnesota Senate.