Latest news with #LeagueofMinnesotaCities
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
St. Paul Council appointee to League of MN Cities missed 8 of 10 meetings
Not long after being elected to the St. Paul City Council, HwaJeong Kim was appointed as the capital city's representative to the League of Minnesota Cities, the state's largest municipal membership association. The organization brings together city leaders to discuss legislative bills, salary surveys and employee hiring and retention strategies, among other issues facing municipalities. Kim, who is the city council's vice president, was sworn in as a voting member of the league's board of directors in February 2024, but missed the next month's meeting. She has also missed almost every meeting since. In all, Kim has attended two of the 10 league meetings held from February of last year through February of this year, and none since April 2024, according to meeting minutes available online. That's almost a solid consecutive year of monthly absences. St. Paul City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who became council president in February, said Kim had frequent scheduling conflicts and another council member will soon step into the role. 'We were recently informed by the city of St. Paul that councilmember Kim is no longer the city's representative to the league board due to some reshuffling of committee assignments on their end,' said Donald Reeder, a spokesperson for the league, in an April 30 email. 'We have not yet confirmed a replacement.' 'We also recognize that board members (typically councilors, mayors, and administrative staff from a variety of cities) wear many hats in their own communities and often have scheduling conflicts that do not permit them to attend all meetings or league activities,' Reeder wrote. Kim did not return a reporter's phone call and email on April 21 and a follow-up phone call and email on May 2, or a text message on May 5. A receptionist at City Hall said she does not work from the office on Mondays as the role is part-time. City council attendance Kim's attendance at the regular weekly meetings of the city council has been more up and down, but her frequent lateness and absences have not gone unnoticed by voters, some of whom have noted her outside duties as the executive director of a get-out-the-vote organization. So far this year, from Jan. 1 through the end of April, she has missed more than a fourth of the council's regularly-scheduled Wednesday afternoon meetings — or four out of 15 weekly voting sessions. Kim, who represents the Ward 5 communities of Como and the North End, was one of two council members absent from St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter's 'State of the City' address on April 21, even though it was held at the new North End Community Center, a $31 million rec center and community hub that opened last month within her own political ward. 'I do know she really wanted to be at the North End Community Center for the mayor's speech but she had a long-planned trip, so they had the grand opening a few days earlier and she was at that,' said Amy Brendmoen, a former city council president who previously represented Ward 5. Kim was also absent from the city council meeting on April 23, where a sizable line of Ward 5 homeowners arrived to object to tree removal near Como Lake for a sidewalk project that will leave them shouldering assessments of $10,000 or more. 'It is a little frustrating that all of us took time off work and our council member isn't even here,' said Osage street homeowner Nathan Rue, addressing the council during the hearing. 'We're just going to have to come back again.' Noecker explained to the line of homeowners that the public hearing will resume in early May, by which time Kim — whom she said was out of the country on vacation — would be there in person to hear their concerns. Noecker assured them that Kim would also watch the video recording of their remarks. 'I will be calling on you to step down' For some, that wasn't good enough. In a recent email to the Ward 5 office, Parkview Avenue resident Jane Sommerville noted that Kim is the executive director of Minnesota Voice, a progressive nonprofit dedicated to voter registration, civic engagement and training community organizers. While serving on the city council is officially a part-time job, and nothing bars outside employment, it's unusual for council members to split their time doing something as time-consuming as running an outside organization. The council position pays about $77,000 annually. 'It is unclear to me how you can maintain two jobs concurrently, especially one as demanding as City Council Vice Chair,' wrote Sommerville, in a recent email to Kim's office. 'On Nov. 12 … you attended a meeting at North Dale Recreation Center regarding the street project. However, you stood in the corner, did not introduce yourself, engage with your constituency, answer questions, nor appear to write down any questions. It was quite unclear why you were even there.' Sommerville was one of four plaintiffs in an unsuccessful legal action against the city aimed at blocking tree removal from Parkview Avenue. She noted that before the lawsuit was filed, residents of the impacted area had reached out to the Ward 5 council office by phone and email over the course of several months. 'Some neighbors received generic or templated responses from your office, and a few received emails from your staff,' Sommerville wrote. 'No one received a response from you specifically. Neighbors have invited you to come out and meet with us. You have likewise not responded nor come to our block to meet with us.' 'I will be calling on you to step down in your role as City Council representative for Ward 5,' Sommerville added. 'We deserve better.' Kim isn't alone in her council absences. Last year, she attended 37 of the council's 43 weekly meetings, or about 86%. That still put her ahead of Council Member Anika Bowie, who attended 36 meetings. Nelsie Yang attended 29 meetings after a 12-week maternity leave. The full council was together last year about 44% of the time — or 60% not counting Yang's maternity leave. Kim, a former legislative aide to Brendmoen, won the election to the Ward 5 seat in November 2023 with 2,745 votes, or 52% of the vote in a four-way race that included David Greenwood-Sanchez, Pam Tollefson and Nate Nins. St. Paul has since moved to an even-year calendar for municipal elections, shifting the next full council election to November 2028. Related Articles
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
‘An underground tsunami': Forest Lake battles destructive ice ridges at Lakeside Park
Alternating cold and mild temperatures combined with a lack of snow this winter have caused significant ice ridges along the shore of Lakeside Park in Forest Lake. The severe ice ridges, which are caused when lake ice pushes material from lakebeds up onto shorelines, have caused light poles to tip, boulders to move and the city's paved walking path to shift several feet to the west. City officials say it will cost $175,000 to repair the damage. The heaving along the shoreline 'shifted and pushed up' approximately 350 feet of the paved walking path that runs along the shoreline, and, in some areas, heaved on the west side of the path, said Dave Adams, the city's director of public works. 'This is the first time we've seen it happen on both sides of the path,' Adams said. 'The ground has probably moved 2 to 3 feet. That's what has pushed those poles over. If you can imagine how far that's pushed that pole over, that's how far the path has shifted.' On Monday, the Forest Lake City Council voted to approve a plan to repair the park and replace the paved walking path with a bituminous path. The engraved pavers will be stored in a safe location until they are re-installed elsewhere in the park, Adams said. Long-term plans for Lakeside Park include a downtown shoreline restoration project and a new Veterans' Memorial. Those plans call for the current walking path to be removed, so 'not spending too much money to replace the path, knowing that there's another project in the works to rehab that park, makes the most sense,' Adams said. The repairs must be done this spring so that the popular downtown park will be open and functioning for residents and boaters this summer, Adams said. City officials have filed an insurance claim with the League of Minnesota Cities to cover the damage done to the city-owned light poles and the infrastructure of Your Boat Club's dock, which totaled $23,100, Adams said. 'The force of nature is incredible,' said Forest Lake City Councilmember Jeff Larson, who lives on the lake north of Lakeside Park. 'My neighbor has lived here for 22 years, and he's never seen anything like this.' Larson, whose own shoreline was damaged, said the ice ridges formed almost overnight. 'I was gone for a couple of hours, and I came home in the afternoon, and it was already starting to, like, roll,' he said. 'It kind of rolls the soil and the sod up. At first, it wasn't too bad. It was only maybe about six, eight inches at the time. But then over time, it just continued with the pressure and stuff, so I actually have two rolls of that heaving. There's two separate sections of it.' Ice ridges, also called ice heaves or ice jacks, occur in years where there is little snow cover on lake ice to insulate the ice, said Dan Scollan, east metro area hydrologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Cracks form in ice with water rising to fill in the gaps, expanding the ice sheet as it freezes, he said. During subsequent warm spells, the ice was able to expand, Scollan said. The additional expansion exerts 'a tremendous thrust against the shore,' according to the DNR. 'The expanding ice sheet moves soil to create ice ridges as high as 5 feet or more. Alternate warming and cooling of an ice sheet causes additional pushing action that possesses enough power to nudge masonry bridge piers out of plumb and push houses off their foundations.' Local News | St. Paul police arrest 3 after group assaults student outside High School for Recording Arts Local News | St. Paul: Alliance Bank Center's commercial tenants given less than 48 hours to vacate Local News | New West Seventh Street transit plan ready for public input Local News | Forest Lake: MnDOT to host public meeting on $17M construction project Local News | St. Croix Valley Big Read is 'Nothing to See Here' 'Someone described it to me as 'an underground tsunami,' which I thought was a really good description,' Scollan said. A resident who has lived on White Bear Lake for decades said this winter's ice heaves 'were by far the worst she's ever seen,' Scollan said. City officials in White Bear Lake said there was no damage done by ice ridges to city-owned property. Residents of Forest Lake who have had damage done to their shoreline should contact officials with the Comfort Lake-Forest Lake Watershed District, the Washington Conservation District and the city before doing any work, Scollan said. Anyone who owns more than 200 feet of shoreline would also need to contact the DNR for a permit, Scollan said. What can be done to prevent ice ridges in the future? 'The more natural vegetation you have both in the lake and on your shore can help buffer your shoreline from ice action,' Scollan said. Forest Lake's long-term plan for Lakeside Park includes additional natural shoreline work, including the planting of more trees and shrubs, said Aidan Read, land management specialist for the Comfort Lake-Forest Lake Watershed. 'Those are the kinds of things that we like to see to try to prevent this type of damage,' he said. 'What we see most effective long-term are really well-constructed, healthy, natural shoreline buffers with perennial, deep rooted vegetation, especially woody vegetation and a shallow grade.' Roots aren't necessarily going to hold all the soil in place, but they can help to limit some of the damage, Read said. 'It's hard to say that any of that would have prevented something like this, but it's possible,' he said as he surveyed the damage earlier this week. 'You can look at this cross-section (of soil) here, and there's nothing.' The light posts, which had probably 2- or 3-foot footings underneath, moved, but a nearby tree, with 'probably 20 feet of roots, didn't move an inch over there,' Read said. Adam Hjelm, the watershed district's education outreach coordinator, said enough people contacted the watershed about ice-ridge damage that watershed district officials decided to hold an informational workshop later this month. It's the first time the watershed has held such a workshop, he said. Watershed district officials can offer technical assistance in the form of actual design work, and the district has some limited financial assistance that it can offer shoreline landowners, as well for installing natural shorelines, Hjelm said. Zerita LaFave, 80, and her son, Dwight Emerson, both of Ham Lake, surveyed the damage at Lakeside Park earlier this week and marveled that ice could wreak so much havoc. 'That's Mother Nature for you,' LaFave said. LaFave and Emerson come to the park a couple of times a month to eat lunch and walk, she said. Local News | Washington County township elections: Incumbents hold seats in May, West Lakeland Local News | Washington County approves $4.5 million settlement in 2018 fatal shooting Local News | Forest Lake: MnDOT to host public meeting on $17M construction project Local News | St. Croix Valley Big Read is 'Nothing to See Here' Local News | Backyard meteorologist? Minnesota is looking for volunteers to help monitor rainfall. 'We'd like to see them save the pavers because there've been a lot of Forest Lake people who donated the bricks,' she said. 'You can walk around and look at everybody's name that lived here before. I hope they get it fixed soon.' The Comfort Lake-Forest Lake Watershed District will hold a free Shoreline Ice Ridge Informational Workshop from 6-8 p.m. March 26 at the Forest Lake American Legion in downtown Forest Lake. Speakers include DNR staff, watershed staff and local lakeshore landscapers. Anyone interested in attending is asked to register by March 21. For more information, go to
CBS News
13-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Minnesota bill would require cities to cooperate with federal immigration officials
A proposal in the Minnesota Legislature would require local governments to work with federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump's administration vows the deportation of undocumented immigrants. The GOP-backed bill would mandate that county attorneys report people without legal status who are arrested on suspicion of violent crimes to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, regardless of whether they're ultimately charged. It would also override cities and counties that choose to implement policies or ordinances the limit or prohibit cooperation with federal immigration officials. Some local governments in the state — including the largest cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul — have their own rules keeping city employees from inquiring about immigration status or being used for immigration enforcement. Supporters of this proposal say its goal is to boost public safety. Chief author Rep. Max Rymer, R-North Branch, noted that Minneapolis officials and police recently doubled down on their policy forbidding officers from asking about immigration status, according to MPR News. "It's a very narrowly focused bill. Ultimately, we had an election in November that was primarily adjudicated on illegal immigration. It was a number one or number two issue for most Americans and what this bill does is help keep our communities safe," he said in a news conference Wednesday. But opposition is strong from immigrant rights and victims groups, as well as local governments. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter wrote to the House public safety panel that the proposal would divert critical city resources away from local needs and "bullies us to handing over local resources to a sector of enforcement that has never been our responsibility." The League of Minnesota Cities, which represents more than 800 cities across the state, wrote in a letter to the committee that discussed the legislation Wednesday that the proposal would "unnecessarily" interfere with local decision-making and could erode the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities. "This legislation threatens to compromise good relationships between city officials and immigrant communities. Local law enforcement agencies work cooperatively on a regular basis with ICE, while recognizing that immigration enforcement is primarily the federal government's responsibility," Anne Finn, intergovernmental relations director of the League of Minnesota Cities, said in a letter. Rymer reiterated that the proposal only targets individuals accused of violent crimes, not all undocumented immigrants. "Some of the feedback I've gotten back on this bill is what kind of door does this open up? It doesn't open a door. It is very narrowly focused in its scope and making sure we're first and foremost matching what the Trump administration said when it said we're going to primarily deal with violent criminal offenders," he said. In order to advance, it needs support from Republicans and Democrats as the House stares down a return to a tie next week. Rymer noted that the Laken Riley Act, which expanded the types of crimes for which noncitizens should face mandatory detention, received bipartisan support in Congress before Mr. Trump recently signed it into law. "I think this is a very reasonable proposal that should get broad bipartisan support as well," Rymer said.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Boncher's proposal for lobbying against unfunded mandates gains no support
Jordan Mayor Pete Ewals knew the votes weren't there for Councilmember Thom Boncher's proposal to write a collective letter in opposition to the state handing down requirements for which it doesn't pay. Government officials like to call the requirements 'unfunded mandates,' and they are a regular topic of whining and complaining at city halls and county boardrooms throughout the state. This month, Boncher proposed that the city of Jordan list the unfunded mandates it opposes and forward a letter to each of state Rep. Mark Buesgens, state Sen. Claire Robling and Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton. The councilmember wrote letters addressing the lack of funding for pay equity implementation and reporting, development and permit fees reports, flood plain management, forfeiture of unclaimed utility deposits, purchasing American-made equipment and uniforms, tobacco compliance checks, predatory offender registration and tracking, firearms permit acquisition, and fine distribution for enforcement of state laws. 'The state of Minnesota has a history of well-run, responsible government. That reputation is, in our opinion, being tarnished by the drive to mandate actions, while pushing costs down the government chain,' the letter stated. It asks for the state to fully fund or eliminate the mandates it has imposed. The League of Minnesota Cities (LMC), an organization of which Jordan is a member, also opposes many of the listed items, with the exception of three additional suggestions Police Chief Bob Malz made when asked. 'I appreciate the effort,' Councilmember Joe Thill said of Boncher's letters. 'I would've picked some different ones.' Thill said he supports LMC's position on the subject. Councilmember Mike Shaw said LMC is doing the lobbying for the city. 'They draft a letter,' Councilmember Tanya Velishek agreed. LMC also details its stances for the legislators, she added. 'The League is a strong voice at the legislature,' City Administrator Ed Shukle said. 'They represent all cities in the state.' Boncher offered to hand over his draft letter to the city staff and ask staff to incorporate any additions offered by councilmembers. 'We have a voice, and we have an obligation to use it,' Boncher said. Ewals suggested that the council try to agree about which unfunded mandates are the most important to repeal. 'When you send a letter, it has a big impact,' he said. Velishek said that since each councilmember has a different opinion, separate letters could be sent. A letter from the council would be 'reinforcing what's already there' – a redundancy, Shukle said. 'Are we going to put a sock in this?' Boncher asked. '(If so) this group will no longer have the right to talk about unfunded mandates.' Ewals saw the writing on the wall, and didn't ask for a motion or second on the matter. 'I don't think anyone wants to change their minds,' he said, 'so we can just move on.'
Axios
29-01-2025
- Business
- Axios
Trump's funding pause plan sends Minnesota officials scrambling
President Trump's proposed federal funding pause sowed confusion and concern across Minnesota on Tuesday. The latest: A federal judge temporarily blocked the president's attempt to halt federal grant, loan and financial assistance programs just minutes before it was supposed to take effect. That administrative stay, which expires Monday, came just about an hour after Minnesota announced it would join about two dozen other states in suing the Trump administration over the cuts. Why it matters: Tens of billions of dollars in federal funds flow into Minnesota each year, fueling everything from new roads and police officer recruitment to cancer research and health clinics. Catch up fast: The temporary pause, outlined in a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget, is designed to give the new administration time to review agency spending. The announcement caused widespread confusion and panic among groups and governments that rely on the funds, even as the White House clarified that it didn't apply "across the board" and said it wouldn't impact programs like Social Security, Medicaid and student loans. Threat level: Gov. Tim Walz said at a Tuesday press conference that while Minnesota is still looking for answers on the extent of the impact, more than 1,000 programs and employees could be cut off without additional guidance. A full stoppage of federal funds could create a monthly budget hole of between $800 million and $1.9 billion, his top budget official said. Zoom in: Some recipients of federal funds were bracing for impacts of the potential cuts before the temporary block was announced. U.S. Rep. Angie Craig posted on social media that two cities in her suburban district had been notified that grants for their local law enforcement agencies have been put on hold. Longer term, local governments are concerned about "far-reaching impacts" on budgets and projects, a lobbyist for the League of Minnesota Cities told the Star Tribune. What they're saying: Walz said he and other governors had spent the last 24 hours seeking guidance on how to comply with what he characterized as a "reckless" and "unconstitutional" order. Adding to the confusion, top state budget officials said they were temporarily unable to access portals for Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance and the Head Start early education program on Tuesday. The other side: GOP U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, a staunch Trump ally, told Politico that the president is following through on his pledge to shake up the status quo. GOP state Sen. Eric Pratt urged patience, saying he expects more clarity and guidance that will help the state ensure "vital programs are uninterrupted." What to expect: More legal action and a pitched political battle over the plan. Axios' Andrew Solender contributed reporting.
