City crosses Gundersen Trust off the agenda; addresses marina blight and issues Cease and Desist order

WEDNESDAY, April 18, 2017 — Since our last report on Tower government the city has experienced a couple of very interesting weeks. The Tower Economic Development Authority and city council acted collectively to become aggressive on blight at the Standing Bear Marina. The city council crossed the Gundersen Trust off its agenda and, in late March, Mayor Josh Carlson unilaterally acted to prohibit Jeff Hill from entering what is commonly known as the Forestry. Meanwhile, several city residents have taken to social media to voice their concerns, admonish the city for its aggressive behavior, and question the feasibility of the city’s harbor project.

The next few months are expected to be compelling as LakeVermilion.net has learned that formal complaints have been filed and it is expected that the Minnesota Secretary of State and St. Louis County Attorney’s Office will be conducting investigations into election irregularities and other city matters.

Gundersen Trust

City streets have been rife with rumors about the Gundersen Trust over recent weeks. People are asking: “When is the last time the Trust board held a meeting?”—“Where are the Trust minutes?”—“Is there any money left?”

The public does not have any specific, clear, information about the status of the Trust and rumors are rampant across the city. Some say that the Trust was used as collateral to rehabilitate the city owned manufacturing building into the Vermilion Country Charter School building. All well and good, however, the sweetheart lease the city has with the school is not expected to last long enough to amortize the indebtedness leaving the Trust vulnerable if it is indeed collateral for some city loan.

One city councilor expected to attend a Gundersen Trust meeting in early April only to discover that they were misinformed when it turned out it was a Tower Economic Development Association board meeting. The following week citizens were encouraged to learn that the Gundersen Trust was listed as item No. 8.14 on the April 10 regular City of Tower meeting agenda only to become disappointed when, without any explanation, the city crossed the Gundersen Trust off the agenda in its first action of the evening. Many details are unknown, rumors abound and it is hoped that the city soon takes inventory and answers to the public.

Cease & Desist

In a surprise move, which many believe clearly oversteps his authority as Mayor, Josh Carlson issued Jeff Hill a Cease and Desist order on March 29. The order came following Hill’s work on cleaning up fallen dead wood in the Forestry (615 North Second Street, Tower). The order also gives warning to “any person who shall continue to use or occupy or to do any work on or about the afore-mentioned site shall be liable to prosecution.”

City residents have had a long history of cleaning dead-fall wood and trash off of city properties in efforts to diminish fire danger and clean up the city following Tower’s lengthy winters.

The City of Tower, like the vast majority of Northern Minnesota cities, retains a Weak Mayor, Strong Council form of chartered municipality. In essence this places the mayor on an equal footing with all other city councilors. The mayor, in actuality, has no more authority than any alderman. Instead, the mayor remains largely a figurehead, with equal voice in city government and, according to the League of Minnesota Cities, “In addition to general council powers, the mayor may also possess some exclusive duties set forth by statute. These duties include the power to make some appointments, power to serve as presiding officer at council meetings, and the power to execute official documents, among other duties.”

It is surprising that Mayor Josh Carlson would issue such a Cease and Desist order without any consultation of the city council. Perhaps he did consult a majority of the city council. The streets of Tower are filled with conversations regarding the city council’s apparent lax and unconcerned attitude towards adhering to Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law. Others have suggested that the mayor might not be aware that a Cease and Desist order has been issued over his name. Upon viewing the document served by Breitung Police Chief Jessie Anderson it does appear that the mayor’s signature is only a printed facsimile while the City Clerk-Treasurer’s is clearly signed by ink pen.

Children have a history of playing in the Forestry, building forts and enjoying Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer-like activities. It is now questioned if the “any person who shall continue to use” language in the order applies to all Tower citizens and visitors. It is our hope that the Mayor’s unprecedented action stirs a vigorous debate amongst Tower citizens about how to best utilize all of the city’s considerable public lands for the benefit of the general public.

Standing Bear Marina blight

Positioning himself as a new “Cap’n Blight” for the Tower community Marshall Helmberger led the Tower Economic Development Association (TEDA) to draft and recommend that the city issue a Compliance Order against the Standing Bear Marina. Indeed the marina is blighted, however, the citizens of Tower are nearly like-minded in their understanding that Ralph and Ellen Hilla have only owned the marina for one-half of its existence and a considerable amount of blight was caused by the city’s neglect over 25 years. In fact, for much of the city’s tenure it leased the property to industrial manufacturing concerns and a great deal of blight was directly caused by the city’s neglect.

Another posted on social media: “… instead of the city punishing the Standing Bear Marina for being a seasonal working marina that pays Tower’s high taxes., they should be trying to help them. Invite the Hillas in and ask them how the city could help them. There are blight situations all around the city, with neighboring property owners having to suffer, and a paid blight officer that looks the other way.”

“We have a marina that is literally falling into the water and we have residents of the community who wish to see nothing done about it. I recognize that the Hillas pay taxes, but part of the reason that taxes are high in Tower is because some property owners have not used their property to its highest value, or allow it to fall into disrepair, substantially reducing its valuation. That puts the tax burden onto others in the community,” Helmberger said on social media in an attempt to justify TEDA’s position.

Many property owners who pay Tower’s high taxes believe that they are unfairly hindered by city policies.

Many people in Tower have expressed outrage at the city’s aggressive move towards Standing Bear Marina. Orlyn Kringstad, who touts himself a developer interested in creating a “sustainable” city of the future utilizing Tower’s numerous assets, has publicly announced that he is working with Your Boat Club, LLC, a Minneapolis based company (http://yourboatclub.com/), in re-developing the marina.

Many see the city’s new stance to be a calculated short squeeze to diminish the value of the marina property while purchase negotiations are underway. It is not understood why the city would wade into this swamp at this time and what its motivations are. One thing is certain—nice people who are friendly neighbors, live in houses of prominent, late, citizens and enjoy local maple syrup on their waffles don’t utilize these types of tactics as negotiation tools. “It’s embarrassing to see the city act so aggressively and give the marina only 30 days to clean up 50 years of neglect,” one local citizen said.

Negotiations to purchase the marina property have been ongoing, however, the Hillas were taken aback when they received their copy of the compliance order this week. They said that they are interested in selling the property. Now they are forced to consider all the legal ramifications of the compliance order rather than attend to the business at hand—cleaning up the marina site and continuing their search to find new ownership.

Again posting on social media on April 15, Helmberger states, “… the original draft of the compliance order produced and approved by TEDA did make note of various financial incentives that might be available to the Hillas if they were interested in improving their property. I have little illusion that they would take the city up on the opportunity, but we wanted to give them that chance.” He also indicated that this opportunity remains open. Damage has already occurred. The public view of the City of Tower is again diminished. Without one word of any offers to help the Hillas, the City Council unanimously approved issuing the Compliance Order on Standing Bear Marina at its April 10 meeting and the order was sent by registered mail to the Hillas.

If the city is truly interested in helping alleviate marina blight it has made the situation more difficult.

To be continued as I sort through all the numerous ongoing City of Tower activities

— Anthony Sikora, info*AT*lakevermilion.net