Friends and neighbors

On the streets of Minneapolis last night:

In the end, at about 4:22, the Alpha News reporter gets a face full of temporary bollard and her phone is stolen. The phone was apparently found in a fountain the next day, destroyed, but the footage was retrievable. And this video is the footage in question.

You can argue that protest movements are about justice, but this isn't justice. These are not people seeking justice. Larceny and aggravated battery are not justice. There is a fundamental emptiness in their lives, which you can hear in the desperation of their F-bomb laden screeching. And all the SJW cant and street violence cannot fill the void. These are fundamentally broken people. And in their rage, they are intent on dragging others into their void. Don't let them.

Mr. Lotter, he gone

After four months in position, former New Brighton honcho Dean Lotter gets the pipe in Eureka, CA:

The Eureka City Council at a special meeting Tuesday will accept the resignation of outgoing Eureka City Manger Dean Lotter, who was placed on administrative leave on May 1, after holding the position for just over four months.

Following a national search and rigorous interview process, Lotter was selected to replace retiring City Manager Greg Sparks. In December of last year Lotter and his wife moved to Eureka from New Brighton, Minnesota, where Lotter served as city manager for 13 years.

We aren't likely to get the "why" in this case, at least right away, but his act probably didn't go well out there. He was able to get by with a lot of nonsense because of the Keystone Kop nature of New Brighton politicians, but that act doesn't work everywhere.

Former Imperious City Employees in the News

Remember Dean Lotter? He was the longtime City Manager for New Brighton, best known for his imperious manner and copious self-regard. He left New Brighton last November for a new job in Eureka, California. Apparently he didn't last long:

A major announcement was made Friday for the city of Eureka.

Eureka City Council said City Manager Dean Lotter is on Administrative Leave.

Effective immediately, City Clerk Pam Powell will assume the role and responsibilities of Acting City Manager, the city said in a press release.

I don't know anything about the current situation or the cultural mores of Eureka, California, but Lotter was much beloved among certain politicos in New Brighton because he was always good for backstopping whatever antics they were undertaking. Maybe Lotter wasn't playing ball, or maybe he played ball too well in Eureka, but he got the pipe from there in a hurry. That's interesting. And with the recent resignation of Mary Burg, there's a fair measure of skulduggery afoot in Lotter's old redoubt, as usual. We're watching the situation and I will have more to say about all that in the coming days.

Won't be missed

Good news:

Dean Lotter, 49, is unconcerned with the approaching Minnesota winter. He’ll be gone by Thanksgiving.

The New Brighton city manager has accepted a job running Eureka, a coastal city of 27,000 in northern California.

This guy is one of the most sanctimonious weasels I've encountered in local politics. Although his position is supposed to be non-political, he is political to the core, to the detriment of the citizenry. I will get back to this topic later this week.

Random thoughts

• I don’t care that much about Ilhan Omar’s marital status per se, which has never been easy to sort out. What I do care about is it has been a marker for corruption, including the likelihood that she was a participant in, among other things, immigration fraud. And I especially care about the chance she has been paying her paramour a salary. That’s a big issue.
• Are the Packers for real? It’s always difficult to tell in the week-to-week world of the NFL, but for the moment the answer is yes. One thing is certain – Aaron Rodgers is not carrying the team on his back. If anything, he was along for the ride yesterday against Dallas. That’s by far the most promising development of the season thus far. Having said that, if Rodgers were to suffer a season-ending injury, it would be a disaster. Beating Dallas in Dallas is big, but beating Detroit in Green Bay next week is even more important, because it would establish clear supremacy within the division. Vic Ketchman, the retired Packers.com writer who is one of the best football minds around, thinks the Packers should be 11-2 when they hit the end of the season. If that happens, it could be a very special season. But then again, I’ve thought the Bears and the Vikings were actually the more dominant NFC North team at different points this season, only to see both of them underperform in key moments. This much seems to be true – while the Packers have not been dominant in any one game, they’ve done enough to win four games of five in the NFL, and have defeated three of the preseason favorites to be content for the NFC championship. That matters. Still, it’s best to trust no one.
• The local community newspaper chain that covers New Brighton and its neighbors has apparently gone out of business. In recent years, they haven’t done much other than print DFL politician press releases and semi-amusing police reports (no, seriously). Ad revenue hasn’t sustained their operations, and almost no one took a “voluntary” subscription to subsidize their efforts. It’s not surprising; many such small publishers have gone out of business in recent years, but it’s still a little sad. Almost no one covers the local scene any more and if any local government could use a little scrutiny, it’s New Brighton’s. I may have to step up my efforts on this beat.

Mayor Val Gets a DWI

Res ipsa loquitur:

Busted

The New Brighton mayor’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when a police officer pulled her over early Sunday morning, according to charges filed against her Tuesday.

Valerie Johnson admitted to the offense when she made her first appearance on the charges Tuesday afternoon at the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center.

Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree DWI during the hearing. A second count against her was dropped.

Johnson, 60, was pulled over at Ramsey County Road E and Old Highway 8 at 1:55 a.m. Sunday by a New Brighton police officer who noted she had expired tabs and was traveling 54 mph in a 40 mph zone, legal documents say.

Johnson was slurring her speech and exhibited watery, bloodshot eyes, during the traffic stop, so she was given a preliminary breath test.

Her blood-alcohol at the time was 0.17, according to the charges. The legal limit to drive is 0.08 in Minnesota.

A few thoughts:

• If you blow a 0.17, you have no excuse. None.
• As readers of this feature know, I don't care for Mayor Johnson or her politics. I think she's been an abysmally bad mayor for any number of reasons. That stands.
• I've not personally witnessed her public behavior, but it's long been an open secret that she likes to drink and often drinks to excess. The stories have gone around town for years. Perhaps she'll learn from this. I hope she does.
• The most curious thing about the episode? I do not know how she could possibly have expired tabs. She is the mayor of New Brighton. There is a license bureau in City Hall. She would have had almost unlimited opportunities to go get new tabs. Plenty of people have trouble getting over to the license bureau. It does not compute.
• Should she resign? Maybe, but I'm not calling for it. She needs to get help, though, and soon. She could have killed someone. 

We'll continue to watch this matter. The jockeying for position could get interesting.

Your Arrogant New Brighton Overlords

We wrote about the ballot question in New Brighton last week. The city government has put out, at taxpayer expense, a voter guide that misrepresents the question. That's trouble enough. But worse, they had their propaganda posted at the early voting facility at City Hall ever since early voting began.

Several citizens noticed and brought in a lawyer, who wrote a cease and desist letter. The letter is shown below:

Election laws are fo suckas

As of yesterday, the city ignored this cease and desist letter. We'll be watching the polling places today in New Brighton to see if the city has once again put their propaganda up. If you want the corrupt regime at City Hall to get some oversight, be sure to vote Yes.

Vote Yes in New Brighton - Part Four

You may have noticed this, but in general in our politics these days, a call for civility is generally not about civility, but rather about silencing those who might oppose you.

I have lived in New Brighton for over 20 years now, and the oleaginous note from City Manager Dean Lotter that appeared in a taxpayer funded newsletter sent to all city residents over the summer was, well, stunning in its bad faith. Titled "The Efficiency of Civility," it was singularly lacking in civility and was a naked attack on a former member of the City Council, a turbulent priest. It's frankly jaw-dropping in its malice:

There is a place where civility has been improved and it’s due to you, the voters of New Brighton. Now having time to get familiar with new Councilmembers Emily Dunsworth and Graeme Allen and working with returning members of the Council, Mary Burg, Paul Jacobsen and Mayor Val Johnson, I am reminded and rejuvenated by how well opposing views can lead to better decisions when those differing views are handled professionally.

Set aside the propriety of using a taxpayer funded publication to bash one's political opponents, even though that's a crucial issue as well. The real issue is that Lotter's assertions are baked wind. As a practical matter, there aren't differing views these days in the New Brighton City Council, because anyone who might object to how Lotter runs things is effectively silenced. City Manager Lotter likes it that way:

Mayor Johnson and the rest of the current City Council have breathed a new air into the Council and staff relationship. Mayor Johnson and the City Council still ask probing questions and hold staff accountable, but they do so professionally. As a result, staff feels comfortable offering creative solutions to service or budget issues that oftentimes improve things and save money. This restored sense of civility means the City is not having meeting after meeting on the same topics repeatedly for the sake of a narrow political agenda. 

The "narrow political agenda" Lotter references is trying to ensure that the city council doesn't just rubber stamp what the city manager wants. Whether Lotter wants to accept it or not, the former council members most responsible for challenging how New Brighton does business -- Gina Bauman, Sharon Doffing, and David Phillips, along with former mayor Dave Jacobsen -- had a constituency among the citizens of this community. All these individuals spoke for me and many of my neighbors. Did these individuals, especially Bauman, cause Lotter heartburn? I'm certain they did. Too bad.

The point of the referendum on the ballot is to ensure that those of us who prefer to have watchdogs on the council have a chance to consider their credentials. The current council members were elected to four-year terms and Mayor Johnson was elected to a two-year term. They were not elected for five years and three years. By eliminating the 2019 election, these individuals have extended their terms and denied the voters a chance to exert scrutiny and, potentially, oversight over the work of Lotter and the city staff.

A yes vote ensures that Lotter and his tame overseers receive the necessary scrutiny that voters by definition exercise. Voting no on the referendum rewards malfeasance and lets the current crew get by with having an extra year in office that they bestowed upon themselves. Under no circumstances should an election be taken away from voters.

Vote Yes in New Brighton - Part Three

Every move the New Brighton City Council has made regarding elections has been, in a word, disingenuous. No matter how the matter is framed, the real objective has always been the same -- maintain power for themselves and freeze out anyone who would challenge that power. Cancelling the 2019 election has never been about saving money; it's really about making sure that certain people in the city are denied a voice in government for as long as possible.

Gina Bauman was a member of the New Brighton City Council for two terms. Gina saw her role as being a watchdog and advocate for the taxpayers of the city. She had some success in her time on the council, most notably ensuring that local government assistance (LGA) money was returned to the taxpayers, not spent on pet projects. This was always a wise stance, because it is never a given that the city will get LGA money.

The rest of the council, and those within the city who preferred the status quo, always hated Bauman for her green eyeshade and her fearlessness. They tried to change the term of office in 2015 to shorten Bauman's term, but got swatted down by the courts. Badly. So when Bauman's term ended following the 2017 election, the council immediately moved to extend terms a year. This was never about saving money, but to prevent Bauman and others who share Bauman's views an opportunity to run against the current occupants of the office. Who will rid the City Council of these turbulent priests?

It's not about saving money, of course. The City Council loves spending money and, now that Bauman is out of the way, gets to spend even more. It's about avoiding accountability for as long as possible.  A no vote on the initiative rewards the City Council. A yes vote keeps the day of reckoning where it should be.

Next:  don't bother the City Manager. He's very important.

Vote Yes in New Brighton - Part Two

A few things to consider:

If the powers that be in New Brighton have their way and the 2019 city elections are cancelled, will that mean an end to off-year elections in New Brighton?

It won't. School board elections and other off-year elections will continue to take place. The city will still have to help conduct these elections.

Why has the city been using its newsletter and producing YouTube videos to campaign against the referendum?

Because they can. No one currently in city government is willing to question the propriety of using taxpayer funds -- remember, any revenue a government entity has comes from taxes and fees it charges citizens -- to get what they want. They call this civility.

Was there ever an outcry about the horrible inconvenience of off-year elections among the citizenry of New Brighton?

Of course not. But that's never been the issue. The whole point of the exercise has always been about maintaining power for the current council.

Next: turbulent priests.

Vote Yes in New Brighton - Part One

We've spent a fair amount of time over the years discussing the stupidity and cupidity of the local government in New Brighton, Minnesota. I've lived in New Brighton for 21 years. For much of this time, the levers of power have been in the hands of the very old guard within the city, especially longtime former mayors Bob Benke and his pal, Steve Larson. While both Benke and Larson aren't particularly visible these days, their successors have continued to treat city government as a fiefdom. The city employees like the arrangement just fine, because it means they aren't ever challenged on their decisions. The city manager, Dean Lotter, especially likes it, because he has no use for oversight or accountability.

Following the city council election in 2017, the outgoing city council, for the second time, changed the election laws for the benefit of those who would remain in office. Ordinance 857 cancelled the 2019 election, thus extending the terms of the mayor and all members of the city council by one year. The mayor, who is elected to a 2-year term, now would serve three years, while the city council members, elected to a 4-year term, would get 5 years in office.

This is wrong on its face; if politicians can extend their own terms and get by with it, the opportunity to hold them accountable is fundamentally reduced. By repealing Ordinance 857, the citizens of New Brighton would not lose a vote. We're going to spend the next few days discussing all of this in greater detail.

Trump goes to Mosinee

You can tell by the smell it isn't going well

I don't have a lot to say about Trump going to Mosinee -- to a large extent, a Trump rally is the same no matter where it is -- but I do find it amusing. I grew up in a town with a lot of paper mills. They can be foul-smelling places. Mosinee is about 90 miles northwest of my home town and it has the reputation of being the town with the nastiest smelling paper mill of them all. I pass through there on my way home and it can be just awful. For his sake, I hope the wind was strong and out of the west yesterday.

Eyes open, New Brighton

I'm going to write more about this in the coming days, but the local politicians are at it again. There's an important question on the November ballot and the city council and their minder, Dean Lotter, are trying to mislead the public. No surprise there.

Meanwhile, in New Brighton

The cabal that runs New Brighton got their wish last year, finally ousting Gina Bauman, the turbulent priest of the city council. And to make sure they kept things the way they wanted, they changed the terms of their election to add an extra year to their terms, ostensibly to save money, or so they say.

Our friends at Enlighten New Brighton pick up the tale:

Ever since the New Brighton City Council gave themselves a one year term extension without the consent of the voters they have been actively trying to spin the situation to defend their unethical action. Their self serving, logically tortured arguments have come up in public meetings, official city publications, and a taxpayer financed campaign-style mailing. Regardless of the venue or vehicle the arguments are tired and lame, and apparently not impressing the voters.

The Council's unethical actions have also apparently gotten the attention of the Minnesota legislature, prompting language in an Election Omnibus Bill (SF3021) that includes language that clarifies that City Councils cannot change existing terms by changing the election cycle. During the debate on this legislation New Brighton City officials passionately, but futilely, testified against this provision with their usual specious (to put it politely) arguments.

SF3021 will almost certainly pass -- both the legislature and (crucially) Secretary of State Steve Simon support the bill, so there's almost no chance of a veto, although you never know what Mark Dayton will do, since most of the time he doesn't know, either.

Leave that aside, though. The larger point is this; twice now the New Brighton City Council has tried to change terms of elections to benefit their agenda. They are about to get slapped down again. Despite this, they persist in such behavior. It's a bad situation. We're continuing to keep an eye on their shenanigans.

No time

No time for posting today, either. So it's an open thread. I'm hoping to write a longer piece later in the week about what's happening in New Brighton -- for now, let's just say the local government is having an extended clown show moment at taxpayer expense, all while claiming their continuous rake-stepping is about saving money. Here's a representative video:

The sign says New Brighton, but...

...the politicians are straight outta Bucharest, circa 1988:

Last month, a New Brighton commissioner wrote a letter to the editor of the New Brighton Bulletin questioning the motives of the former city council to change elections from odd years to even years.

On Tuesday, the commissioner lost his volunteer position because of that letter. The council voted 3-2 to remove Ben Jones from the planning commission.

Council members and city staff said Jones’ letter was insulting and misleading. Jones thought that was an unfair assessment.

“I’m disappointed,” Jones said of his removal. “I think it shows a little bit of pettiness in the council majority and a little bit of an unhealthy attitude toward the role of the commission and toward dissent in the city.”

I don't know Ben Jones, but I question the motives of the city council, too. Can't do that, apparently. City Manager Dean Lotter explains:

“Venues in which public meetings are conducted should be a sanctuary for free thought and decorum. That’s integral to achieving that dialogue or that goal,” City Manager Dean Lotter said in a recent meeting. “In order to achieve that decorum, commissioners give up some of their rights, like penning editorials. It’s just how it is.”

So you are free to think whatever you want, but you'd better not express your thoughts, according to Der Kommissar Manager Lotter. Meanwhile, the ever-excitable Red Queen mayor of New Brighton, Val Johnson, gives the game away:

“He has insulted me. He has insulted this council. And I don’t know if I could ever trust him again as a commissioner,” Johnson said at a recent meeting. “And when I lose that trust in people that we appoint, then there’s something that needs to be done.”

Mayor Val Johnson

Lest I offend Dear Leader Mayor Johnson's delicate sensibilities, let's get something straight. You wanted to be mayor. You ran for mayor. You are the mayor. In an open society, your decisions, your behavior, your general comportment, all of it -- are fair game for criticism, even open ridicule. No wonder you don't want to face the voters until 2020.

Cold shot

If you live in this part of the world, you can't spend a lot of time freaking out about cold weather. It's inevitable and we get a blast of cold nearly every winter. It usually comes a few weeks later, but what we're dealing with right now is hardly out of the ordinary. We aren't going to get below -20 in this stretch, at least not in the Twin Cities.

It's bitter -- says right here

Will it keep the crowds down in Times Square on New Year's Eve? Maybe. It's usually a lot warmer than -5 there. We'll see how committed they are to the bit.

Meanwhile, the world is coming here in just over a month for the Super Bowl. It's way too early to know how warm it will be then, but it's unlikely to be this cold. It's usually around 20 or so, which isn't that bad. The record low for February 4 in Minnesota is -28. It will be fun to see how much of a freakout we see if the temperatures dip below, say, -10. Of course, I remember it being -32 on February 2, 1996. My son was still an infant and it was just flat nasty that whole winter, so it can get cold in February. It's not the way to bet, but if we get another Arctic blast it could be a lot of fun for our visitors then.

The New Brighton Cozy Coup Makes the News

KSTP-TV advances the story of the great New Brighton Election Switcheroo:

New Brighton's city clerk explained to Mayor Val Johnson and the four council members that changes in Minnesota statute allowed an opening for municipalities to change their city elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years. The ordinance states that because of the change, "the 2019 City election is hereby cancelled."

The effect of the new ordinance means Johnson and two council members – Mary Burg and Paul Jacobsen – will retain their seats until 2020 instead of running for re-election in 2019.

"It's very unusual, and I think the public should be aware of it," said Sharon Doffing, who lost the mayoral race to Johnson.

Yes, the public should be aware of it. Most people in New Brighton are not aware of it, though.

Naming Burg and Jacobsen in the story is equally important, because they benefit as much from the switch as Johnson, but have been mostly allowed to hide from the consequences of their vote.

For her part, Doffing makes the salient point:

Doffing said she felt voters got duped in the process, since the council did not begin discussing the ordinance change until after the November election.

"When you run for office, and it says on the ballot that you run for two years, and then somebody wins and suddenly they're in for three years – that doesn't seem fair," Doffing said.

It is a bait and switch. Of course, Mayor Johnson doesn't see it that way:

At the Dec. 12 council meeting, Mayor Johnson reacted to criticism from Bauman.

"I don't see where extending a term is self-serving by any means," Johnson said. "I also do not believe that we are hiding anything from the public."

Essentially, Johnson, Burg, and Jacobsen are arguing that because the plan for the vote was on the city website, they weren't hiding anything. That's also a self-serving fiction, because Johnson and her colleagues know almost no one looks at the website, especially when they have to wade through multiple clicks to get to the truth. Try the city's website for yourself. See how quickly you can find the information.

There will almost certainly be a referendum on the ballot in 2018, which I predict the City Council will ensure is printed on the back side of the ballot, grouped in with the judges and the soil and conservation district elections. Watch and see.

We'll continue to watch this story closely.

Satisfied customers!

I love an endorsement! This from the New Brighton Political Exchange, a local FB nest of bien pensant thinkers:

And an endorsement from a former public servant who loves our work:

They don't like dissent much at the New Brighton Political Exchange. By the way, if you wonder why former Sen. Goodwin isn't particularly fond of our work, read this and this.

The Mayor of New Brighton Engineers a Cozy Coup

So I went to the New Brighton City Council meeting on Tuesday, because I'd gotten wind that there would be skulduggery afoot. That's putting it mildly. Our friends at Enlighten New Brighton pick up the story:

 At the December 12 New Brighton City Council meeting not only did the council (with the exception of Council Member Gina Bauman who continued to stand up for the people of New Brighton in her final meeting) ram through a large tax levy increase and a hefty utilities increase, they also voted themselves an extra year on their terms of office. This occurred at the very end of a long and tedious meeting where many who started watching at home or in person likely gave up on it.

It was exceptionally tedious. The deed was done over two hours after the meeting began. How did it happen?

They did this in a sneaky manner by emphasizing that the purpose of the ordinance they passed was to improve voter participation numbers by moving city elections to even years. The wording of the ordinance conveniently omitted the fact that a recently changed state law provides that if the change moves the election year such that an existing term would expire before the new election day the term would, by default, be extended if the ordinance language did not explicitly address existing terms. This is exactly how the ordinance was carefully worded.

The upshot is this:

• Mayor Valerie Johnson rewarded herself with an extra year before she has to face the voters; instead of having an election in 2019, she now gets to stay in her sinecure until 2020.
• City council members Paul Jacobsen and Mary Burg, elected to four year terms in 2015, now get the extra year as well.
• Incoming council members Graeme Allen and Emily Dunsworth now have a five-year first term.

You might remember Mayor Johnson, whose bravura tantrum concerning her own idiosyncratic formulation of white privilege earned her a few minutes on national television recently:

Since most of our fellow citizens weren't aware of the Mayor's, ahem, deportment, and because a concurrent school levy referendum was on the ballot, she was re-elected a month ago, to a two-year term that she has now made a 3-year term. Almost no one in the city was aware Mayor Johnson and her colleagues were planning this particular move. Our friends at Enlighten New Brighton pick up the story yet again:

The council's action wasn't a spur of the moment decision or an unintended consequence of a poorly worded ordinance - it was carefully and deliberately calculated and plotted at a council work session that took place on November 28.

Fortunately council work sessions are recorded and available on the city web site (http://newbrightonmn.gov/about/city-council/materials-and-media/). Unfortunately a lot of people probably did not view the term extension discussion as it occurred at over an hour into the meeting.

Go to the ENB site to see the actual video. Hit the link. Take a few minutes.

There's more to the story, as there always is. We'll be returning to the story in the coming days.