08-22-2022 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, August 8, 2022 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 5 Erickson thinks they can articulate better in document form what the whole picture looks like and deal with it as it comes. He has found this incredibly exhausting and it is becoming more difficult for him. He is glad they are finally moving the ball down the field and the experts can come in and look at it and do their thing. Mr. Erickson really appreciates everyone who has been supportive and cannot think of anyone else he has an axe to grind with except the sitting Mayor right now. He thinks anyone who has been paying attention understands by now but if there are any questions Mr. Manson will be back on the 19th of the month. Mr. Erickson hopes they can get this resolved and thinks they need to decide as a City if they will endorse this message and what they will do in the future to prevent this from happening again. Jay Nygard, 1386 Rest Point Road, finds it quite comical how the public comments keep moving to the end of the schedule and all it says is that the City Council is afraid to have them. Unfortunately certain things have forced Mr. Nygard to go to the police in the community and file police reports, one of which was a couple weeks ago and previously with Mr. Erickson, when Mayor Walsh had dropped specific people in to interfere with their public comments. That is called misconduct by a public officer and Mr. Nygard had no choice but to file that police report because this is his time and from what he understands Mr. Walsh is doing everything he can to interfere. Mr. Nygard stated it was interesting in the meeting when he was speaking up to say Mayor Walsh was not telling people the truth Mayor Walsh was gaveling him. However when the person was heckling Mr. Nygard, Mayor Walsh was just looking the other way. He noted two other criminal complaints against Mr. Walsh, one of which is for criminal bribery and is being investigated by the Hennepin County Sherriff right now. Mr. Nygard stated they can laugh all they want, the facts are facts, he [the Mayor] did what he did, and they are investigating and have decided the Statute of Limitations has not expired. He does not know if any City Council Members heard at the last Park Commission meeting when Mr. Nygard called out the illegal sale of a fire lane to a sitting Planning Commissioner. He shared that he put out a video the previous night that showed State Statutes and League of Minnesota Cities advisory comments that say they cannot do what they did. He knows on the Resolution it specifically said $100,000 and it specifically said that property. Simply because they try to insert words like “unsolicited donation” is B.S. Unfortunately Mr. Nygard had to file a complaint against everyone he felt was involved including Mayor Walsh, Ms. Seals although she was mysteriously absent for every vote, and he did not include Mr. Johnson because he voted against it as it was not in public interest. He included Mr. Printup and Mr. Crosby, the law firm who are supposed to be telling the City they cannot do it, and Mr. Edwards as the City Administrator because this happened under his watch. Mayor Walsh used the gavel and noted the three minute time limit was up. Mr. Nygard produced a gavel and began gaveling the podium noting he can do this too, noting the Mayor is being investigated and will find that justice does prevail. Eddie Rice, 2550 County Road 6, spoke about the park system and noted he is at the off-leash park almost daily. He said it is fantastic with people coming from the entire metro to visit the park and pay their fees. He applauds the City Council on Lurton Park and did not know they were getting beef about the parks but stated residents from all over the west metro are packed into that park on a daily basis and thanked the City Council.