More than 150 West St. Paul residents, many carrying boxes of maxi pads and tampons to drive home the point, flooded a City Council meeting Monday night to protest what they say is ongoing sexism by several male council members.
Mayor Jenny Halverson was among nearly 20 women who spoke for nearly two hours outlining what they said was a pattern of misogyny at City Hall.
"This is not political. This is about sexism," Halverson said at the top of the meeting. "It is about the ugliness that permeates the entire environment."
Halverson, elected the city's first female mayor in 2016, said her experiences as mayor and on the council have extended to outright harassment. In her six years in city government, she said, other city officials have put words in her mouth, commented on her appearance and taken credit for her ideas.
People have driven past her house or followed her, Halverson said, among other intimidation tactics. The incident that ignited the current controversy was just the tip of the iceberg, she said.
It began at the April 23 City Council meeting, when the council rejected one of three Planning Commission candidates Halverson had appointed. All three were women.
Council Member Jay Bellows said he objected to Samantha Green's appointment when a current commission member — a man — was seeking reappointment. He suggested that gender had influenced Halverson's choices.
The mayor said she had picked the appointees because they were qualified, and noted that Bellows had championed the mayor's right to appoint commission members three years ago when the mayor was a man.