Update on Another rigged Minnetrista appointment

Ever notice how often chaos ensues when a subject comes up people don’t want to talk about? Claims that have absolutely no basis in fact or reality are made and no one questions anything. Monday night was one of those meetings.

The council had been presented with an application, filed on October 26, before there were any commission vacancies, for a resident to fill either a Parks Commission seat or a Planning Commission seat. There was also an agenda item that night for the council to reappoint 2 Planning Commission members and a Parks Commission member whose terms were expiring at year end. No public notice had been made to fill any of these vacated or expiring positions.

I made my concerns known to the city Administrator before our meeting and the result was the items were pulled from our agenda that evening. The following dialog between myself and Mayor Whalen took place at our work session as she insisted that it has been the city’s policy to advertise for all commission vacancies and expiring terms, despite the fact these agenda items for approving unadvertised commission appointments were on our agenda that very evening. Listen:

“That’s been our policy as well as our practice” Whalen stated as a bizarre dialog ensued claiming the terms “vacated” and “expired” have the same definition. They do not and I’m guessing most readers understand that but someone please tell our mayor. It will be interesting to see what kind of policy staff comes up with for advertising commission openings so they don’t have to advertise for all commission openings. Obfuscation is a specialty in Minnetrista local government.