Locally Grown Northfield

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Former City Attorney hired to fulfill Goodhue Cty data request on Lansing investigation

By Griff Wigley, on January 14, 2010, 6:30 am

dollars flowing out

More dollars are going to be flowing out the door at a time when the City of Northfield can least afford it.

Jane McWilliams, observer for the Northfield League of Women Voters, has blogged her report on Tuesday’s City Council Work Session. The last paragraph (links are mine):

Lansing investigation: Walinski reported that he had received a substantial data request from Goodhue County to be submitted by January 29. There have been 2 or 3 previous similar requests. He has asked former City Attorney Maren Swanson, because of her familiarity with the case, to review the documents for privilege and confidentiality. This will involve several thousand documents.

7 comments to Former City Attorney hired to fulfill Goodhue Cty data request on Lansing investigation

1

kiffi summa says:

January 15, 2010 at 7:56 am

The Judge, in the last court proceeding, has ordered these documents to be delivered.
He stated that he had expected it to be done after the previous proceeding but since the parties had not complied with his direction, he was now ORDERING it to be done.
Non-compliance would result in “contempt of court”…

If the involved parties had delivered all they should have, and accounted for it properly, this would not be happening now.

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2

Jane Moline says:

January 16, 2010 at 10:47 pm

This is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer’s funds to prosecute 7 misdemenors–what a waste of court and attorney time.

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3

David Ludescher says:

January 17, 2010 at 5:43 pm

I agree Jane. It is long past time for the Council to take control. Does anyone know if the City is paying the prosecution, and how much?

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4

Carol Overland says:

July 1, 2010 at 6:54 pm

It’s particularly troubling where they’re prosecuting, and the City is not complying with Discovery. Wasn’t Maren Swanson still the City Atty. when this was ramping up and when Discovery was served and pending some time ago?

These legal issues in the City of Northfield are a bit much, and it’s hard not to weigh in. There have been problems for years, but so many areas are exacerbated at the same time now. League of MN Cities cancelled its coverage of one city recently — is Northfield next?
(Carol Overland is a blogger. See a recent post titled PEPCO is Zack’s “Bear of the Day-”)

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5

Ray Cox says:

July 1, 2010 at 7:49 pm

I was going to start out with “Only in Northfield could this take place” but then I considered it can probably take place in many cities or counties. This is the full force and hammer of the government coming down on someone. At what point do the thoughts of the taxpayers enter the picture? What good is coming of all this? And as Carol points out, why, if these documents were requested under Discovery, were they not delivered?

We have a wonderful, free country with some of the best access to legal remedy in the world—-but there are times when it runs askew.
(Ray Cox is a blogger. See a recent post titled Family Room Addition Framing)

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6

Ross Currier says:

July 2, 2010 at 8:16 am

Carol and Ray -

Perhaps I should curse you for opening this old wound in our community; I’m sure most people would have preferred that you’d remained silent on the topic. However, I’ll thank you for reminding us about something that many have chosen to forget.

When we had then-Councilor Scott Davis on the LoGroNo Radio Show, who knows how many years ago, it was not long after Al Roder suddenly burst out of an office down at City Hall where he had been meeting with Lee Lansing for 18 months and shouted, “Something’s rotten in river city”.

I said on that show that I wanted to hear both sides of the story.

Al Roder has now been gone for two years. We spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on Greene-Everett and we’ve spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on David Lillehaug, bringing, as Ray put it, “the full force and hammer of the government” down on Lee Lansing.

In an effort to defend his reputation, Lee Lansing has been forced to rely on his own dollars to counter Al Roder’s accusations. However, as Carol points out, the City is apparently not complying with the judge’s order for Discovery.

It seems to me to be an unfair fight and that the City is not fighting fairly.

And we still haven’t heard the other side of the story.

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7

Griff Wigley says:

July 2, 2010 at 8:38 am

Um, did something happen this week to reignite this issue? If so, I missed it.

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