Judge issues $5,226 judgment against Greenwood Township

JANUARY 31, 2017 — A judgment order favoring John J. and JoAnn Bassing has been issued against Greenwood Township in the amount of $5,226.13 by Sixth District Court, Hibbing, Judge Mark M. Starr. This order comes as the final action in a lawsuit filed in October 2015 by the Bassings. The suit accused the township of open meeting violations and violations of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA) when the Bassings sought to obtain the responses from a survey conducted by the township planning department as it worked on developing the Greenwood Comprehensive Plan.

The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee and the township had elected to keep the survey data private because of numerous unsavory comments, including racist attacks against minority residents of the township, against the manager of a township business and comments pitting neighbors against neighbors. Both Minnesota Association of Township’s attorneys and staff at the Iron Range Resources Rehabilitation Board told Greenwood that the survey was not public data. The survey project also did not have access to the significant amount of funds it would take to properly redact all the objectionable content. John Bassing, in correspondence to LakeVermilion.net, refuted the accusations of racist comments within the survey responses. “I have read the survey several times and I fail to find racist comments written about a minority in the Township,” Bassing wrote.

The Bassings filed suit in October. On November 10, at the township’s regular board meeting, Greenwood decided to move ahead and redact any offensive comments and people’s names and then release the survey to the public.

When the matter was heard by the court in February 2016 the open meeting violation claim and common law right to information claims were dismissed, although the court affirmed that the township had indeed violated the MGDPA.

In a memorandum, included as part of the judgment, Judge Starr wrote that the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act was only part of the Bassing’s complaint which was argued before the court. The Judge noted that within three weeks of the complaint the defendants (township) resolved the data request and suggested that any request for the total amount of legal fees was excessive. “As a starting point, the plaintiffs are entitled to, at most, one-third of the attorney fees requested for the period prior to the February 2106 motion hearing …”

Judge Starr wrote that based upon the hourly rates and fees presented to the court by the Bassing’s attorney, Erick John Honkanen, in December of last year, the cap on fees and costs becomes $15,678.38. “Even that, though, would be excessive based on the timeline of events which occurred,” Judge Starr wrote.

The defendants, Greenwood Township and the Greenwood Town Board were represented by Jessica E. Schwie and Tal A. Bakke.

Dr. John J. Bassing is currently serving the township as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors and Dr. JoAnn Bassing is running for a seat on the town board.

In learning of the final outcome of his case, John Bassing said, “What is important from this case is that now it is the law of the land.  Any grant received by a Minnesota township, regardless of its location, with any state agency requires it to be subject to the Mn. Data Practices Act.”

The entire settlement will be paid by the Minnesota Association of Townships Insurance Trust (MATIT) which provided the township with coverage at the time of the complaint.

This article was updated to correct our error, incorrectly reporting the name of the Bassing’s attorney, and to include John Bassing’s statement. The insurance carrier was also identified in this revision.