Tag: Lisa Whalen

“Our Minnetrista” pledges allegiance

If there was any doubt about the stronghold the political committee “Our Minnetrista” has over our city it was displayed last night at our city council meeting, the first since the campaign finance judgments were handed down against the mayor and two council members. In a well orchestrated turnout the political machine sent speakers to the podium, one by one, each with scripted remarks pledging allegiance to the misunderstood public officials that had been party to the illegal activities of “Our Minnetrista” accepting more than 10 times the legal contribution limits.

Several of the “Our Minnetrista” contributors that wrote checks over statutory limits spoke last night echoing the mayor’s cry that it was all just an “administrative error.” Readers may remember a similar cry of there being “no basis” for any of the complaints when they were filed after the election.

“Our Minnetrista” Treasurer Karen Danielson turned on the waterworks on cue claiming innocence (or was it ignorance, I don’t remember) before the crowd and, again, made unsubstantiated claims of her attempts to get approval for implementing the financial scheme which involved concealing the source of candidate contributions as well as their amounts. In her sworn declaration she actually admitted no one told her the scheme was legal. And the Oscar goes to…

There were several individuals who spoke asking for the violators’ resignations. One noted that a $5,000 fine didn’t indicate an “administrative error” but a very serious breach of campaign finance law. That didn’t sit well with the “Our Minnetrista” crowd and one of them actually suggested that I should be the one to resign. Yes, the person exposing corruption should be the one to resign. You can’t make this stuff up.

To conclude, the mayor, who had previously ruled there would be no council debate (Translation: I would not be allowed to speak) gave herself the opportunity to defend herself and the two others before abruptly ending the Persons To Be Heard session.

 

 

Trial testimony uncovers collusion to rig Minnetrista council vacancy appointment

OPEN MEETING LAW VIOLATION? Just when you think it can’t get any worse… The following testimony from the recent campaign violations trial shows us that long before Minnetrista Councilor Patricia Thoele publicly resigned her council seat the end of March 2018, the “Our Minnetrista” political committee members (which included Mayor Whalen and Councilors Mortenson & Thoele) were busy recruiting Thoele’s replacement the previous January. According to trial testimony they invited John Tschumperlin to meet with them in January, keeping Thoele’s pending resignation a secret until the end of March, and then voted Tschumperlin in as her replacement.

Tschumperlin testimonyAll this while inviting residents to interview for the vacancy they had already rigged.

It is a violation of Minnesota’s public meeting law for a quorum (3 or more) council members to discuss city business outside of noticed public meetings.

*There is no relation between Judge Mortenson & Council Member Pam Mortenson

 

 

How contribution limit violations affected Minnetrista elections 2014-2018

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS. The chart below shows the contributions and expenditures of independent candidates that ran opposed to “Our Minnetrista” candidates in the 2014 and 2018 city council and mayoral elections. Our Minnetrista wasn’t active in 2016 because Mayor Whalen had no opposition and the council majority was already in the hands of Our Minnetrista. The Our Minnetrista political committee has controlled elections in Minnetrista since 2014 and has discouraged independent candidates from running for public office. It is undeniable:

The 2014 mayoral race was won by less than 200 votes. Without the unfair advantage of Our Minnetrista’s illegal activity it’s reasonable to conclude that Whalen’s opposition in that race, Mark Vanderlinde, would’ve won the mayoral election by a wide margin. It’s also likely, had there been a level field, the 2018 independent candidate, Elroy Balgaard, would’ve defeated one of the Our Minnetrista candidates.
Related posts:
Minnetrista-gate Judgement
Star Tribune coverage
Center of American Experiment coverage

“Minnetristagate” Update

MinnetristagateI’ve received a lot of inquiries about the status of the Minnetrista campaign finance violations alleged against Minnetrista’s mayor, 2 sitting and one past councilmember and leaders of the “Our Minnetrista” organization. A three judge panel heard testimony by all the Respondents and Complainant during an evidentiary hearing that lasted two days (May 7 & 8, 2019) at the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings in Saint Paul. Closing statements are due today, Friday, June 7, 2019, and a judgement will follow within two weeks.

Judgment due mid-June for “Our Minnetrista” candidates

The evidentiary hearing concerning the alleged campaign finance violations of the “Our Minnetrista” organization and the candidates they supported in the 2014 and 2018 elections concluded Wednesday, May 8, 2019. Testimony began the morning of Tuesday, May 7 and was heard by three Administrative Law Judges with the Office of Administrative Hearings in St. Paul, MN. Final arguments to be submitted in writing by both the Complainant and Respondents are due June 7, 2019 and a final judgement will be issued approximately 14 days following.

Audio recording of testimony is available to order from the Office of Administrative Hearings (Case# 71-0325-35774) https://mn.gov/oah/media/media-contacts.jsp

 

“Minnetristagate” Update

Coined “Minnetristagate” by the Center of the American Experiment writer, Tom Steward, the Minnetrista campaign finance violations matter, justice scalesinvolving the current Mayor, two current and one past council member and leaders of the Our Minnetrista organization, has been scheduled for an evidentiary hearing May 7. The Administrative Law Judge issued an order denying Respondents motion for a summary disposition on all but one minor allegation having to do with providing literature disclaimers.

The complaint, filed with the MN Office of Administrative Hearings, deals with allegations of campaign finance violations against the Respondents occurring during both the 2014 and 2018 Minnetrista city elections. An excerpt regarding the 2018 elections from the Judge’s order on page 8:

“Our Minnetrista engaged in all of these activities without ever being identified as a source of the funds on the candidates’ campaign reports.  Though Respondents maintain that Our Minnetrista acted as the campaign committee for the candidates, Mortenson and Tschumperlin’s financial reports were filed as candidate reports, rather than campaign committee reports, further obscuring Our Minnetrista’s role in the candidates’ campaigns.  Additionally, the funds expended by Our Minnetrista greatly exceeded the $600 contribution limit.” 

Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings Media contact: https://mn.gov/oah/media/media-contacts.jsp

 

 

GreenStep Cities Red Flags

GREENSTEP CITIES RED FLAGS: Mayor Whalen invited a representative from the GreenStep Cities program to address the city council last August. Enticed by the lure of recognition and their seemingly benevolent mission, “Minnesota GreenStep Cities is a voluntary challenge, assistance and recognition program to help cities achieve their sustainability and quality-of-life goals,” it gained legs with staff and was advocated again at the city council’s strategy meeting in February.

When the GreenStep representative was asked last August about where their funding came from they said it was primarily nonprofits, foundations, and grants. What they failed to disclose is they have two major funders, one of which is the Met Council. And we all know the Met Council’s allegiance to local government autonomy.
GreenStep Met CouncilRed flag number one: Not being transparent when asked a direct question about funding sources.

In conversations over the weekend I learned from one of our state legislators that the GreenStep Cities program is “Repackaged from what was formerly known as Agenda 21 (for the 21st Century) GreenStep appears to be an obfuscated friendlier name for the same thing.”

Those unfamiliar with the United Nations Agenda 21 need only know it didn’t receive a warm welcome in the United States, with states passing resolutions condemning it and one even passed legislation prohibiting government involvement in the program.

Red flag number two: Changing the organization name when it’s reputation is exposed as undermining federal, state, and local autonomy.

The GreenStep Steering Committee is comprised of representatives from several nonprofits that are all climate change evangelists working together with the University of Minnesota, League of MN Cities, and various state agencies.

GreenStep Steering CommitteeRed flag number three: Human caused climate change is a controversial topic and there is no diversity represented on the steering committee.

This is not a program that will benefit the Minnetrista electorate. In fact, the sample ordinances they provide to cities appear to be designed for more government control over building regulations and private property use.

No award from the League of MN Cities is worth this.

 

 

 

Council member admonished for asking questions about WSB on camera

Minnetrista’s Mayor appears to prefer council members not ask difficult questions or make comments at public meetings (on camera) about WSB Engineering, Minnetrista’s contract engineering firm. The video below shows Councilor Molitor being admonished (respectfully??) for not asking his questions prior to the public meeting regarding the costs of a WSB proposal. He exhibited considerable restraint. Watch the interchange cued up below:

 

A strategy long employed by the city to keep controversial topics out of view of residents is to have the City Administrator call each council member the morning of each council meeting. Council members are encouraged to air any and all questions during this scheduled call. While this practice helps the city control what’s brought up at the public meeting it deprives all the council members of hearing each other’s questions and concerns.

Minnesota has an open meeting law preventing serial communication among a quorum of council members outside of a public meeting. The city of Minnetrista violates the spirit, if not the letter, of that law by using the City Administrator as a conduit, fielding questions and influencing council members outside of public meetings.