The Crookston City Council met on Monday night, where the City Council voted 5-2 to move the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau under the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) temporarily. However, Mayor Dale Stainbrook vetoed the resolution. The veto was one of the first used in recent memory by a Crookston Mayor.
Following the mayor’s action, the second vote requires three-quarters approval of the full Council to override the mayor’s veto, but the vote was again 5-2, resulting in the motion failing. Councilmen Bobby Baird, Jake Fee, Steve Erickson, Joe Kresl, and Tom Vedbraaten voted for the move while Clayton Briggs and Don Cavalier voted against the move. Councilman Dylane Klatt was not present.
AmericInn Manager Cory Dallager said the hotels were hoping the vote would be to allow the CVB to move forward by going under CHEDA. “We’ve been going through this month after month here since the COVID stuff has been going on,” said Dallager. “We’re trying to move forward, and hopefully, everything starts going back to normal. And we can start marketing Crookston, the hotels, having overnight stays, getting more business in town. We want to move forward with CHEDA. We were hoping that would be the vote that passed, but it got vetoed.”
Stainbrook said he was vetoing the resolution due to the conflict that seemed present between the CVB and Crookston Chamber, as well as the fact that CHEDA also wouldn’t have a board set up yet, so they’d be in the same position. “At Ways & Means a week ago, it was a close vote 5-4 because I also have a vote,” said Stainbrook. “Also, I feel there is a little bit of conflict, and I’m hearing from one of the motel owners it is going one between Chamber and CVB. They need to work parallel with each other and work out their differences. If there is a conflict between the two parties, they have to figure it out. I feel if it goes over to CHEDA, it’s going to take them longer to move the process forward. They haven’t had their CHEDA meeting yet to see if the board is going to improve it. But everything is in motion, working and moving forward. All they have to do is bring who they want on the board for council approval. Everything is there, Angel (Weasner, City of Crookston Finance Director/Interim City Administrator) has been open with all the needs they’ve wanted up to this point. That’s kind of where it’s at.”
Cobblestone Manager Lisa Tadd denied Stainbrook’s claims that there was tension with the Chamber with what she called a personal vendetta. Cavalier also commented during the meeting that he’d talked to the Crookston Inn and was told that the CVB wanted to go with the City. Tadd vehemently denied the hotels wanting the CVB to stay with the City as well as any personal vendetta existing against the Chamber. “They are trying to make it too personal,” said Tadd. “It’s not personal; it’s business. Our goal for the CVB to move forward is to put the funds where they need to be to help the community, not just our hotels. We don’t benefit from that we collect it for the community. Every meeting we’ve been to, it goes back to conflict. Well, there’s no conflict. We’re not the ones starting a conflict with this. We’re just trying to get our board finished and established. What (Cavalier) stated in there that he’d talked to the Crookston Inn, and we wanted the City involved in it. That’s a lie, a flat out lie. We’ve discussed this every day for the past two weeks. We’ve wanted to get on board with CHEDA for many reasons. It has nothing to do with a personal vendetta; it’s just business.”
AmericInn Manager Cory Dallager also disagreed with Stainbrook’s statement that things have been open. He said he’d heard some concerning things about the finances for the CVB, and that he believes multiple requests for open records haven’t been completed. “With the financials of the previous CVB, several people from the public have asked for the records of the CVB from open record laws,” said Dallager. “We haven’t been given that information yet. That’s why we’re concerned with what’s in the account of the CVB money right now, if stuff’s been spent, what’s going on, what’s happening with that money. That was some of our concern, why we wanted to move to CHEDA; hopefully, more people were looking at it.”
A request for the lodging tax and visitor’s bureau financial records from 2018 to 2020 was submitted Monday night by KROX.
Vedbraaten asked what would be done next with the CVB, and Fee said if the CVB wasn’t moving to CHEDA, the City needed to get things set up right away. Dallager also said they wanted things to move forward and not be pushed back as it had been month after month. Stainbrook said Weasner would meet with the hotels Wednesday, and possibly have a temporary board set up by Monday. “Angel is meeting with the two owners of the motel on Wednesday, and they’re going to get the information they need and bring their board to us,” said Stainbrook. “We’re having a council meeting on the 31st, a week from today, and we can have that on the agenda to approve their board members. If I appoint two council members or see who wants to serve on that board. Once they get their non-profit, they still have to come back with their mission statement or by-laws for the CVB. That also has to be approved by the Council.”
POSSIBLE OPEN MEETING VIOLATION
Baird pulled a resolution from the consent agenda to approve an extension of the 15 percent salary increase for Weasner as interim City Administrator through December 31. Baird questioned whether the Council could authorize the resolution because the recommendation was made at the Special Ways & Means Committee last Monday.
Baird said he’d been told that items couldn’t be added to a Special Meeting agenda, and asked City Attorney Corky Reynolds whether that action was legal. Reynolds said the recommendation is permitted, but it may be an open meeting law violation. He added that a violation wouldn’t void the action, but are violations. “That’s my opinion that although it was not properly noticed for the meeting, the action is not void,” said Reynolds. “It still holds true; it’s still enforceable; they just didn’t notice it properly. It doesn’t set it aside.”
Reynolds said if anyone brought forward an open meeting violation claim that would need to be decided. Vedbraaten questioned whether it would be better to send it back to Ways & Means. Reynolds said it wouldn’t change what had happened, calling the action effective but not clean.
Stainbrook took responsibility for the mistake, saying he was informed after the meeting. “That was all my fault,” said Stainbrook. “Angel has been the interim city administrator for the last few months and gets her salary plus 15 percent on top of that. I threw it out to Council, and it wasn’t on the agenda that with a new city administrator coming on board, there was going to be a lot of questions. I just wanted Angel to continue to take her salary plus 15 percent until the end of the year. That’s where it was at.”
Given Reynold’s information that the action was still valid, the Council voted 6 to 1 to approve the extension of the 15 percent additional salary through December 31. Baird was the only no vote.
The City Council also held two public hearings for a land vacation by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, and for the City’s Housing Incentive program for seven properties to abate taxes for two years, and passed subsequent resolutions approving both actions. The properties under the Housing Incentive Program receiving abatements were:
- 547 1st Ave NE
- 520 3rd Ave NE
- 1021 Eickhof Blvd
- 1217 Eickhof Blvd
- 1324 Eickhof Blvd
- 922 Groveland Ave
- 1615 Hoven Lane
All remaining consent agenda items were also passed, including an agreement with the Crookston Blue Line Club to make ice available at the Crookston Sports Center beginning September 14 and approving the guidelines for business grants with the CARES Act. The deadline to apply for the business grants is September 18, and the guidelines are below.
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