Lawsuits, shouting and censures prompt Minnesota cities to set new rules — for their city councils

At the end of last year, the split Brooklyn Center City Council approved a code of conduct detailing the behavior expected of council members — as well as a path toward reprimanding them for not following it.

One month later, a new member was sworn in, shifting the board’s dynamic. As one of its first actions, the new council tossed the code out, divided over whether to govern each others' behavior.

“We can see how things go for the next year, and see how many or few complaints I continue to receive and have nothing to do about it,” Mayor April Graves, who supported adopting the code, told the council after the 3-2 vote to repeal it.

Throughout the Twin Cities metro, more cities are debating standards for elected officials to follow, including suburbs that have seen heightened tensions among members. In some cases, the cities addressing acrimonious relationships want to outline clear consequences of unacceptable interactions among council members, the public and city staff. In others, mostly harmonious councils hope to ward off future tensions.

The moves comes as some cities throughout the metro have been putting their existing policies to the test, leading to legal threats and several councils in recent months censuring members over accusations of misconduct.

In Brooklyn Center, Graves argued the code was needed because there have been complaints filed against some officials, but the city hasn’t had guidance for addressing them. But opposing council members argued it wasn’t clear enough what could lead to a reprimand and worried that members could use the code for political gain.

“I see this as a potential for division,” Council Member Dan Jerzak, who voted to repeal the code, told the council.

In Orono, where council meetings have devolved into shouting matches and questions about land deals sparked controversy, a mostly new crop of elected leaders is considering rules to outline how they should interact with each other and avoid conflicts of interest.

Leaders in other cities, including Long Lake, Champlin and St. Francis, are more proactively considering adopting rules for elected officials after watching dysfunction in other suburbs.

“We have a good council that works well together,” Champlin Mayor Ryan Sabas said. “But there have been many other communities that have had issues amongst the council that have risen to a very public situation. We want to make sure we can stay out of issues other communities are facing.”

Codes of conduct for elected officials have been around for a long time, but some cities throughout the metro are creating them for the first time.

“A code of conduct is each council’s own choice of how they are going to operate,” said Amber Eisenschenk, research manager for the League of Minnesota Cities.

“If a city is experiencing a ton of conflict, adopting a code of conduct doesn’t necessarily fix all that conduct,” Eisenschenk said, but it can provide some agreed upon ground rules for how council members will interact with each other.

Some Orono leaders hope to create a code of conduct as four new elected leaders begin their work this year.

“I think, not just the citizens of Orono, but people everywhere are just looking for more civility,” said Mayor Bob Tunheim, who ran last November on a platform of trying to change the tenor of local politics. “If this is what we need to do to show that we’re serious about civility, then I think it is an effort very well worth the time.”

Tunheim hopes the council will vote on the proposed code of conduct, which could include provisions aimed at addressing issues in Orono, within the next month.

Brooklyn Center City Manager Reggie Edwards said when he has received complaints about officials or commissioners in the past, the city has investigated, but the process has usually ended there.

“As a result of not having a policy in place, there was nothing that could be done at this particular time, so those investigations have been closed out,” he told the council.

The policy the council had adopted specified that officials should not cast personal attacks or lobby on behalf of an individual or developer. It also outlined consequences, including a verbal admonition, a written reprimand or an official censure.

Now that it has been repealed, Graves, the mayor, said the code of conduct could not be reconsidered for one year.

Some city councils and school boards with codes of conduct on the books have been leaning on them recently, including in Brooklyn Park, where the council decided to censure two members last year over misconduct allegations.

Council Member Maria Tran remains under a censure over a staff member’s complaint against her. Tran, who feels she was unfairly targeted, is now suing her fellow council members and the city, saying they violated her constitutional rights.

In Blaine, where the council voted to censure a member last year, the council is now considering updating its code of conduct, partly to include more details on accountability measures.

City leaders in some nearby cities, who say things have been quieter on their boards, are now considering adopting rules for officials, hoping to prevent similar issues.

“It used to be that those in government either hired, appointed or elected, were expected to act at a higher standard for actions and accountability. A high standard of local pride and professionalism was maintained,” St. Francis City Administrator Kate Thunstrom said.

“That is changing and becoming a liability in many cities, which is a direct impact to the work and the services residents are expecting to be completed.”

Council members in Long Lake are also in the early stages of creating a code of conduct, partially in response to the drama that has unfolded in neighboring Orono in recent years.

“We just want to get ahead of it,” Mayor Charlie Miner said. “We don’t have any major issues now, as far as conflicts of interest or just outbursts or things like that.”

“Most folks have some kind of code of conduct they need to adhere to, and why shouldn’t city councils as well?”