Controversial Rochester council member to face primary for her seat

ROCHESTER — The City Council member suing city officials will face a primary for her seat later this year as she runs for re-election.

Two challengers have already announced their intentions to run against Molly Dennis in northwest Rochester’s Ward 6, guaranteeing an August primary.

Mark Schleusner, a software engineer and former Rochester school board member, took his campaign public at the end of January. Now Lutheran pastor Dan Doering is entering the race.

Dennis’s controversial tenure on the council — her colleagues censured her for much of last year — is drawing candidates into the race.

“In the current situation, when there’s just this turmoil going on, you end up with people not willing to collaborate out of spite of the situation,” Schleusner said. “That’s just never a good team environment to make progress on any problem.”

Schleusner served one term on the school board from 2016 to 2020 before losing his re-election bid to Jess Garcia. He has served on the boards of a variety of education-focused groups, including Twin Cities-based robotics organization High Tech Kids.

Doering announced his campaign earlier this week at his Sunday service at People of Hope Church in southwest Rochester. He’s also served on several nonprofit boards in the community including the local Habitat for Humanity chapter and the former Rochester Diversity Council.

“Rochester is a rapidly growing city with incredible potential, and I am committed to working collaboratively with residents of Ward 6, businesses, and the entire Rochester community to build a brighter future for all,” Doering said in a statement announcing his candidacy Tuesday.

Doering did not return calls for comment.

Schleusner said he expects more candidates to step up before the election filing period opens in May.

Dennis has long said she plans to run for re-election once candidate filings open in May; she also welcomes other candidates to run and work on city issues.

She sued the city of Rochester, along with Mayor Kim Norton and Council member Patrick Keane, in January. Dennis alleges ongoing discrimination over an attention disorder, including a March 2023 council censure against her that included limitations on how she could communicate with city staff. Those limitations expired at the end of last year.

City officials say Dennis misinforms the public on issues and harasses others.

In recent weeks Dennis has publicly scrapped with her colleagues during council meetings on a variety of issues that devolve into arguments over her criticisms of the city.

At the end of February, Dennis got into a testy exchange with City Attorney Michael Spindler-Krage and fellow Council member Mark Bransford during a discussion on Rochester’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs. City officials found Dennis’s question hewed too close to her ongoing lawsuit, while Dennis maintained her questions on accessibility issues came from other residents.

“If you do not want to hear residents’ concerns, I don’t know why we’re even on council,” Dennis said during the Feb. 27 meeting.

Dennis was almost asked to leave a council meeting Monday after she brought up concerns over how she has been cut off while speaking by other council members and the city attorney in recent weeks. Council members argued Dennis isn’t being silenced, but rather she abuses her platform to go over issues she has with the city.