Group files suit against Breezy Point City Council

Breezy Point City Council members have again been accused of violating the Minnesota Open Meeting Law by a group of residents acting as the nonprofit Let's All Get Together Inc.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, LAGT Inc. and its spokesman, David Slipy, claims city council members and the mayor illegally conducted an emergency meeting July 24 to terminate building inspection services with Conery Services, about whom the city had received several complaints. Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Mayor Doug Rach and council members Pete Sauer, Gary Bakken, Kent Brothen and Diane Williams.

Rach and City Attorney Steve Qualley could not be reached for comment.

With the lawsuit, LAGT and Slipy are seeking the court's judgment that city council members did violate the open meeting law, that each be fined $300 for violating the law, that the council members be ordered to pay attorney's fees up to $13,000 each and that the action taken by the council on July 24 be voided.

It is the second lawsuit filed by LAGT against Breezy Point city officials alleging violations of the open meeting law. In January, LAGT filed a lawsuit claiming six instances where Rach and four city council members met behind closed doors to discuss city business. Williams was not named in the January lawsuit, which is expected to go to trial this coming January.

With the most recent lawsuit, Slipy said it is his group's assertion that no emergency existed on July 24 that justified the calling of an emergency meeting. He said the council held the emergency meeting to avoid public discussion on the termination of the building inspector. He noted that at the July 24 emergency meeting Danrich Inspections Services was appointed interim building inspector and that Scott Sandusky, an employee of Danrich and brother-in-law of Mayor Doug Rach, would perform a majority of the inspections for the city, according to the lawsuit. That action was made permanent by the council at its Aug. 7 meeting.

The Minnesota Department of Administration, at the request of LAGT, reviewed the city's July 24 actions and found that the city did not comply with the open meeting law. In an advisory opinion, Department of Administration Commissioner Dana Badgerow said though there had been problems with the performance of the building inspector, the complaints didn't rise to the level of an emergency. Badgerow further stated that the Breezy Point City Council could have taken action on the building inspector at a special meeting following a three-day notice to the public.

"Following the spirit of the open meeting law that public bodies should act at open meetings with as much notice to the public as possible, it must be concluded that the July 24, 2006, emergency meeting of the council did not comply with (the open meeting law)," Badgerow said in the written advisory opinion.

Slipy said the decision to file a lawsuit against Breezy Point City Council members was made solely on the advisory opinion of the Department of Administration and not on political motives.

"If we would have got a different reaction from the state of Minnesota, most likely we would have forgot about it," Slipy said. "In this case, the state reviewed the evidence and agreed with our opinion, that it wasn't a proper emergency to hold an emergency meeting."

MATT ERICKSON can be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.