Due to the resignation of Patrick Johnson, there’s now an opening on the Shorewood City Council that will be filled by appointment. The open position will be filled for the remainder of Johnson’s term by a vote of the remaining four council members. Three of the open seat candidates have held positions as mayor, council members or both, and will likely use that experience as their primary qualification for the appointment. One other candidate has not been previously associated with Shorewood government but has diverse background, education, interests and viewpoints.* Here are a few reasons why appointing someone from the outside may be the best choice: A city council should be representative of the population

Patrick Johnson resigned from the Council in May. The timing of his resignation, less than two years from the date of the next election, does not require a special election (start at hr. 1:41:17). The period for applications closed on June 20 at noon. First applicants interviewed on 6.12.23 were Planning Commission Chair and former Council Member Nat Gorham, former Mayor Woody Love and another former Mayor Scott Zerby. Commissioner Gorham  (start at hr: 1:20:25) ran for re-election to the Council in November 2022. He lost by 10 votes. Prior to his time on the Council, he had served on the Planning Commission. Love served as Mayor from approximately 1998-2005. He dropped out of contention

The Planning Commission is charged with the in-depth study of ordinance and policy involving land use in Shorewood.  It makes recommendations to assist the Council in decision making.  Commission Chair Nat Gorham described, with great clarity, what the Commission does best (start at 00:42).  

Based on citizen feedback, city staff was asked to consider performance measurements for response time to data practice requests.    Data practice policies are driven by Minnesota Statute.  However, staff performance when responding, is not.  The comments focused on  improving staff response time. CM Sanschagrin suggested that the timeliness of responses to some data practices request has been a “pain point,” with city residents.  Mayor Labadie and CM Callies both quickly responded with altered interpretations of his comments.  Callies, as she has done on other occasions, narrowed the numbers of concerned residents down to a point where they did not matter. The two argued against a need  for such response metrics, and declined to do

At the May 22. 2023 Council meeting, CM Sanschagrin chose to abstain from voting on a bond sale.  He was challenged by the Mayor and CM Callies for abstaining. The City Attorney was asked for his opinion on the viability of the abstention. See the episode here. Note the attorney’s reply.* When can a voting member abstain? *Orono Council Member Benson recently faced a similar challenge at her first meeting. In that case, the Orono City Attorney (from the same firm as Shorewood’s attorney) correctly explained to her the meaning of an abstention. UPDATE (Jun 12, 2023): The City Attorney changed his previous opinion regarding the Sanschagrin’s “right” to abstain by saying the CM did indeed

The Legislature established the Metropolitan Council in 1967 to coordinate planning and development within the Twin Cities metropolitan area and to address issues that could not be adequately managed with individual governmental arrangements. The Metropolitan Council is the regional policy-making body, planning agency, and provider of essential services for the Twin Cities metropolitan region, including Shorewood. It provides for orderly and economical development of the metropolitan area through the Comprehensive Plan process. It is funded through the “Special Taxing District” (Line 10 of your tax statement) laws. State law requires the Met Council to create regional plans and policies to guide growth and manage regional systems for transportation, aviation, water resources, sewage and regional parks.