City of Greenfield hopes for new era -- with no chaos

With new leaders soon to take office and an unpopular city charter proposal soundly defeated, the citizens of Greenfield are hoping to put years of civic mayhem behind them.

Last Tuesday they elected a new mayor, Jerry Hertaus, who lost a 2008 bid for the office to Jill Krout, who subsequently resigned under fire last year. Two new council members, Tom Cook and Brad Johnson, ran unopposed.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposed charter backed by Krout that would have required a referendum practically any time the City Council wanted to significantly increase the budget.

Greenfield voters also disbanded the fractious charter commission itself, a group that has seen several resignations and whose videotaped meetings have the makings of YouTube cult classics.

That doesn't mean that the postcard-pretty community of 3,100, lining the banks of the Crow River in rural western Hennepin County, is out of the woods.

There are still the lawsuits filed against the city by Krout and two City Council members. The city has paid more for insurance since the League of Minnesota Cities dropped Greenfield as a bad liability risk.

And it still has two city halls, which most everyone agrees is one more than necessary.

That may not be enough to silence critics like Krout, a small-business owner who claims that past leaders have been too free with the city's pocketbook.

The voters who turned down the charter, Krout said, "just voted for unlimited spending. I hope they're happy ... [because] that's what they're going to get."

Charter brouhaha

A year ago, Greenfield lost much of its insurance when the League of Minnesota Cities took the unusual step of restricting its liability coverage. The league said it had paid out more than $800,000 in claims involving City Council actions in the previous five years.

The city now pays a private insurer about $35,000 a year for a policy that carries a $100,000 deductible but doesn't cover all contingencies -- such as open-meeting law violations.

After denying the charges, they and Krout last summer sued the city for violating their privacy rights. The case isn't yet settled, but the city lacks insurance to pay for damages.

Lund had been appointed as mayor after Krout resigned at a City Council meeting packed with residents urging her to quit. Among other issues, she had fired an interim city administrator after he had already resigned over issues with the City Council.

Krout and others on the charter commission developed the proposed charter that voters rejected last week. It would have changed Greenfield from a "statutory" city with powers granted by state law, like most Minnesota cities, into a charter city that could set limits on the City Council's authority.

The proposed charter would have barred significant budget increases and bonding without approval from a majority of the city's "eligible voters" and four of the five council members. A budget increase that would be subject to such a referendum would have had to be greater than the percentage rise in the consumer price index, plus the percentage growth in households in the previous year, plus 3 percent.

A review by the League of Minnesota Cities said the proposed charter "may act to prevent any measure from being passed -- no matter how meritorious."

Hertaus said the city doesn't have a spending problem. Greenfield's budget has grown by perhaps 15 percent in the last 10 years, and it's now about $1.1 million. There isn't a lot of discretionary spending beyond basic needs, he said.

"We still want to be in the news, but we want to be in the news for good reasons," he said. "We hope to tell stories in the next few years that things have settled down and that Greenfield's a great place to live."