Who wants to be mayor? Two Harbors City Council announces vacancy

TWO HARBORS, Minn. — This city on the North Shore is officially in search of a new mayor — the vacancy was declared during Monday's City Council meeting — but the position won't be filled until at least February 2023.

State law requires that the five-day filing period for the position opens no more than 98 days before the election and no fewer than 84 days. The council's first meeting since the primary election, when residents voted out controversial Mayor Chris Swanson, fell fewer than 80 days before November's general election.

Council members tabled deciding on the details of the special election, including whether a primary is necessary. The earliest date this could happen, City Clerk Patricia Nordean said, is Feb. 14.

The resolution declaring the position's vacancy passed quickly and without discussion.

Residents were clear in their decision to oust Swanson — more than 86% of voters opted to recall him midway through his second term. He has been out of office, and Council President Ben Redden has taken over mayoral duties, since the tallies were verified on Aug. 12.

"We're feeling good, in general," said Uriah Hefter, who was part of the grassroots Resign or Recall campaign that collected voters' signatures to get the recall on the ballot. "It's been a very quiet couple of weeks, actually, which has been nice. We've all taken a collective break, which has been a good thing.

"We're still meeting regularly, doing what we can to keep people informed of what's happening."

Swanson's chair was empty on Monday — a vacancy that had become commonplace in council chambers. He had largely stopped attending meetings in mid-June, after a Silver Bay, Minn., mother spoke in the parking lot outside the chambers about how Swanson had sexually abused her 5-year-old daughter, Lindsey Christenson, when he was a teenager — a poorly kept secret between the two communities on the North Shore. Shortly before the election, Swanson admitted to serving probation.

Swanson was at the Aug. 8 meeting, the day before the primary election, but arrived about six minutes late.

He was mentioned little during Monday's meeting. The former mayor sent a letter "in appreciation" of the work he and the councilors had accomplished together, Nordean said.

Two Harbors residents became increasingly disenchanted with Swanson, who beat Randy Bolen in 2016 and ran unopposed in the most recent election. After word spread about his plans to build an underwater hotel in Lake Superior earlier this year, his constituents looked more closely at how his business dealings overlapped with his elected position. The city attorney, Tim Costley, agreed. He offered a written opinion that Swanson had violated the city's communications policies and that he used his position for personal gain.

Melissa Giles has spent six years working on behalf of Christenson, her younger sister. Giles took her story to Facebook in 2016 and captured community interest. In June, she stood outside Two Harbors City Hall alongside her mother, Nancy Christenson, to tell their story out loud in front of an audience for the first time. The family wanted him out of the limelight so they could heal, they said repeatedly.

Now that Swanson has been recalled, Giles is taking a break.

"It felt very good," Giles, who lives in Duluth, said of the election results. "I'm very glad he's going to be out of the public eye. I'm so tired from all of this stuff. It just felt good knowing that we weren't going to have to talk about it anymore."