On August 25, 2025, the Shorewood City Council voted to authorize travel to Washington D.C. by Mayor Jennifer Labadie, contingent on funding provided from a private lobbying group, The Minnesota Transportation Alliance (MTA). This creatively named “scholarship” money became available “out of the blue” only after it was clear that the majority of the city council was not going to approve using taxpayer money to send Labadie on this dubious trip. See Rubber Stamp Rebellion
Besides the clearly questionable ethics of this arrangement, a simple Google search would find that under Minnesota statutes, this whole scheme may not even be legal. In Minnesota, elected officials are generally prohibited from accepting gifts from lobbyists and principals, which are entities that employ lobbyists. MTA is such an organization. (See here)
Minnesota Statute 10A.071 CERTAIN GIFTS BY LOBBYISTS AND PRINCIPALS PROHIBITED is unambiguous:
“A lobbyist or principal may not give a gift or request another to give a gift to an official. An official may not accept a gift from a lobbyist or principal.”
“Gift” means money, real or personal property, a service, a loan, a forbearance or forgiveness of indebtedness, or a promise of future employment, that is given and received without the giver receiving consideration of equal or greater value in return.
“Official” means a public official, an employee of the legislature, or a local official.
See also Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board – Gift Ban Primer
Perhaps an argument can be made that the statute cited above does not apply to this scheme as, technically, the city would accept the money. Structuring this as “pass through” funding does not remove the clear appearance of a conflict of interest.(1) Labadie is still the direct beneficiary of this money.
One particularly disturbing aspect of this was the lack of any guidance or discussion by the city’s highly paid professional staff regarding the obvious issues around accepting these funds. Despite easily available information, neither the City Administrator, Marc Nevinski, nor the City Attorney said anything about the propriety, let alone the legality of this. One of their duties is to provide the Council with any and all information that will allow it to make an informed decision, and in this case, they failed. Watch the council discussion here. Chapter 8C on LMCC site.
The sudden appearance and nature of this “scholarship” money raises a lot of questions. The city should not accept outside funding from a lobbying group no matter what the purpose or the worthiness of the cause. If the council thought this trip was worthwhile it would have approved it using city funds.
This is an easy call to make: The Shorewood City Council must refuse the “scholarship” funds from MTA. If Labadie insists on going on this trip she should pay for it herself.
(1)The City Engineer is an employee of Bolton & Menk, the sole “Platinum Sponsor” of MTA. Additionally, a Bolton & Menk employee is the secretary of the MTA Board of Directors.
