City gives a vote of confidence to City Clerk over Helmberger accusations

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LakeVermilion.net is beta testing recording and posting YouTube videos of the Tower City Council Meetings. It is our hope that sufficient interest is shown locally so that we can continue and expand our efforts to cover all Lake Vermilion area government meetings. Ideas? Thoughts? Concerns? Email us at Info*AT*LakeVermilion.net or comment on our videos at YouTube.

MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019 — Mayor Orlyn Kringstad’s new City of Tower administration is lumbering off to a slow start. Since the mayor, and new city councilors were sworn into office on January 7 the council has conducted two meetings and the city council has twice tabled entering into closed sessions to discuss employee misconduct complaints.

This left the city rife with rumors led by speculation that City Clerk-Treasurer Linda Keith has filed a harassment complaint against Mayor Kringstad almost simultaneously with his taking the oath of office.

There is also a pending employee performance evaluation requiring a closed meeting of the city council.

When he called a short handed council to order (Steve Abrahamson was absent) for its regular Monday January 28 meeting Mayor Kringstad announced that he was seeking changes to the agenda and would address them when he came to them.

“I have several things that I thought I might ask to change but I will make comments to them when we come to them on the agenda,” Kringstad said, before he was reminded that the council must first accept the agenda, by vote, by Deputy Mayor and city councilor, Kevin Fitton.

“Because Steve Abrahamson is not here and he figures into a lot of committees on the reorganization we are moving the closed meetings until Monday of next week,” Kringstad said.

Fitton objected, explaining that the employee misconduct allegations have twice been on the agenda—having been tabled before—and that he would be unavailable to meet with the city council until its regular meeting on February 11. Fitton explained that his calendar was always very full and that he would, throughout his term, mostly, be unable to meet on short notice, excepting emergencies, to conduct city business.

After further discussion, including an extended conversation on the need to address several of its Reorganization tasks, Kringstad agreed to consider his recommendations for committees and city boards and agencies and to accomplish as much towards reorganization as the council could.

Over much of the past year the City of Tower, its employees, volunteers and the city council have been the subject of vitriolic Timberjay “news” coverage, demanding emails, and aggressive, in-your-face after meeting confrontations with its publisher Marshall Helmberger to the point where witnesses have said that they “have had their fingers ready to dial 911,” over concerns about his combative behavior.

Helmberger has been accused of harboring a vendetta since his unceremonious removal, more than a year ago, from the Tower Economic Development Authority (TEDA) and stands accused of manufacturing news and false reporting. The Ambulance Service, and Ambulance Director and City Hall, and City Clerk have been Helmberger’s main targets and he has repeatedly claimed in his newspaper that the city clerk falsified TEDA loan guidelines in an effort to bolster accusations coming from the community that he rushed a $126,000 TEDA loan to promote Kringstad’s Tower condominium development efforts.

In late December Keith demonstrated a clear chain of 12 documents, date stamped by the city computer they were written on, demonstrating the public chain of events, public reviews, and all of TEDA and city council actions and approvals granted between the time period of February through May, 2017—evidence which directly contradicts Helmberger’s claims. Keith also explained that the filing of these documents are done by the deputy clerk, and that she does not herself scan the minutes and documents.

Keith again presented her electronic-trail of evidence to the new council saying, “I am asking this council to stand up for your clerk—these are the guidelines whether you like them, or not—they are the guidelines which were approved.”

Both Fitton and Councilor Brooke Anderson agreed that the city records clearly reflected consistent language throughout the process and made, and supported a motion to acknowledge that the current loan guidelines are true and accurate and were created with due process. Kringstad acknowledged that within the documentation he noted that there was a letter from him, and one from his wife, Marit, so that he would abstain from voting. The motion passed 3—0, and the mayor’s abstention.

The city council, in other action:

Approved paying Oberg Fence for work completed at the airport, holding back $400, to assure a punch-list repair is made to a fence pole in the spring
Learned that city engineers reviewed the land involved in a sale by Immanuel Lutheran Church and advised that the city’s alleyway and trail easements are declared in the abstract and in good order and approved a new easement agreement between new owners Mark and Nicole Welch and the city
Learned that the city recently renewed its web site maintenance and hosting contract for three years with Tech Bytes when Kringstad said he would like to call for proposals for web service

Approved policy guidelines for handling requests for keys to city hall by employees including prior demonstration of a real need for access
Accepted the resignations of Ariana Picard and Tera Kultala from the Tower Area Ambulance Service because they have been unable to make runs following their moving away from the service area
Learned that the city was the beneficiary of an increase of $775 to an annual grant to groom the Howard Wagoner Ski Trail from the Department of Natural Resources. The city was advised of other ski trail grant opportunities available
Approved paying for new City Councilor Rachel Beldo and Mayor Kringstad to take Leadership Conference training in Brainerd and for Kringstad and Abrahamson to travel and stay in St. Paul for the Legislative conference for Cities in February
Closed out the final paperwork on 2016 airport projects