The City of Crookston Ways & Means Committee meeting got off to a bad start Tuesday night and ended on an even more negative note. The mayor called the meeting to order only about 90 seconds after the conclusion of the City Council meeting while several members of the council were engaged in conversations with members of the public who had spoken during the open forum at the council meeting.
Regularly several minutes will pass between meetings, but Mayor Guy Martin called the meeting to order with three council members out of the room while another didn’t appear to notice the mayor hastily called the meeting to order during his discussion with two members of the public while in the room. Asked for comment after the meeting Martin said he had to get home to dinner. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten who was present for the start of the meeting and Councilman Clayton Briggs, who was having a conversation with Steve Krueger who had spoken during the open forum, both said they had no comment as to why the meeting was started without all members present.
Despite the meeting getting off to a poor start, things progressed rather neatly until near the end of the meeting when Councilman Dale Stainbrook addressed what was said by a Councilman Bobby Baird at the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) meeting last week. “I’d just like to make a comment regarding last week’s CHEDA meeting,” said Stainbrook. “A councilmember that I just felt that what he said was not the place and time. It was uncalled for. I guess if he would’ve done his homework, he could’ve come and talked to Mayor Martin. The Mayor did deal with that issue.”
A few minutes later when Baird got a chance to respond, he and Stainbrook got into a back and forth on the subject when Baird tried to ask if the City Administrator, Shannon Stassen, was on board with what the council passes for resolutions. “Dale to your response, I’m going to ask this questions,” said Baird. “Is our City Administrator, are you on board with what the council passes for resolutions?”
Stainbrook retorted, “it was dealt with. Mayor Martin dealt with it. Maybe if you’d done your homework and talked to the mayor.”
Before Baird cut in to ask, “When was this dealt with Dale?”
Stainbrook responded, “about a week after, a couple of days after.”
Martin added, “a couple of days after.”
Baird then asked, “how was it dealt with?”
Stainbrook replied, “you can have a conversation with Mayor Martin after how he dealt with it. I feel it’s between the Mayor, maybe Shannon if you want to know what the outcome was.”
Baird then said, “that’s fine. I’m just asking the question are you for what the council passes for a resolution or aren’t you?”
Stainbrook then stated Baird was out of line, and Baird said he wasn’t a couple of times before Stainbrook said, “I know I could bring up some facts about you in the past that was not right either.”
To which Baird replied that he could do the same about Stainbrook. “I can bring a lot too about you, so don’t start with me.”
Finally, the rest of the council broke in to cut the two off and changed the subject before the meeting ended shortly thereafter. Stassen, whom Baird initially seemed to pose his question to remain silent throughout the affair.
The actual agenda items passed rather smoothly with the four councilmembers active for the start of the meeting approving the May 13 meeting report. There was a small discussion about the items that the City was preparing to either sell at surplus or dispose of as junk with Police Chief Paul Biermaier explaining that how forfeited vehicles by state law are split up with some to the department, some to the prosecuting attorney and some to the State of Minnesota. He also explained that part of the money for drug task force forfeited vehicles is still sent to the State of Minnesota and prosecution but within the drug task force policy that the primary dollars go to support the task force which is used for a lot of their operations.
The committee also passed both the arena lease agreement and pool use agreement with the Crookston School District on to the next City Council meeting. The district will pay $30,000 a year over the next eight years for the pool and $112,584.00 over the next two years for the arena lease with an increase after that matching the Minnesota State Legislature’s general educational aid formula increase.
