Clinic purchase contentious as Lonsdale area candidates participate in forum

The purchase of a former clinic in Lonsdale to be turned into a new City Hall was the most contentious topic for local candidates during a public forum Tuesday.

The forum was organized by the Lonsdale Chamber of Commerce, held at American Legion Post 586 and moderated by New Prague lawyer Mike Herrmann. Questions were submitted by the public through an online form.

Current City Councilor Scott Pelava, Michael Konyu and Tom Berg are looking to win the center seat at Lonsdale City Council meetings, and become the mayor. Vying for one of the other seats on the council, incumbent Cindy Furrer, Mike Harding, Kari Miller, Wesley Mousel and James Vosejpka.

Along with New Prague School Board candidates and an unopposed candidate for Tri-City United School Board, the unopposed candidate for Rice County District 5 Commissioner, Charles Peters, was there to answer questions for his likely future constituents.

Both Minnesota House of Representatives District 58A candidates were in attendance as well. Republican Rita Hillmann-Olson had the advantage as it pertains to the voting block in Lonsdale, but incumbent DFLer Kristi Pursell didn't let that keep her from the forum.

Mayoral candidates

Nearly every chair was filled as the evening kicked off with the three candidates looking to fill the well-worn shoes of Mayor Tim Rud. The candidates were asked four main questions, and the first was a fairly pointed one.

"Given the existing budget constraints, and also knowing that residents have stated that taxes are getting too high, how do you plan to stretch taxpayer dollars and still provide public safety and other amenities to this community," Herrmann asked. "And if possible, how would you try to do that while either lowering or maintaining the tax base?"

Berg said he'd like to get new voices in positions of power.

"I think we need to create a standard, and stop just following one man's vision, but it's following what the community wants," Berg said. "Not investing in amenities that are just on the trend, but it's also investing into a financial board or an advisory position, so then that way we can get this budget under control. We spend our grant dollars properly. It's all about getting new voices in and new ideas and new experiences."

Kanyu said he'd host more events to bring people into town and court small businesses, but not major chains. He also said there's only two revenue sources for the city, Lonsdale Liquor and taxes.

"I don't mean businesses like a Super Walmart or something like that," he said. "No, no, no. We don't want that because we want to stay Lonsdale, what makes us unique. But what we do need to do is that court more businesses to come and court industry to come in, to see things like incubators get built and finished, where we can actually have additional taxable revenue coming in from the business side into the city, in addition to more creative ways to actually bring revenue in."

Pelava noted the water and sewer fund are examples of other revenue sources, and noted the business park that will soon house Advanced Exhaust Solutions, which will add $20 million to the tax base. He then corrected Berg, noting that there is already a Financial Advisory Board in Lonsdale.

"To create another level of government is not actually going to help anything," he said. "That's what the council and the advisory boards are supposed to do. All we're doing is creating another level of bureaucracy that I don't think is completely necessary."

The next question was regarding what the candidates feel the city is doing right.

Kanyu said he likes the parks and trails. Pelava said he likes the long-term plans and capital investments, and noted inflation is rising quicker than the tax levy, while the tax rate consistently decreases. Berg didn't answer, instead saying the forum was meant to talk about the issues.

He said the purchase and financing of the clinic was wrong for the city to move forward with, since the public wasn't consulted. He also said he wants to ensure city employees are paid fairly.

"We can talk about all the great things that this community does, but honestly, this is just glossing over a whole bunch of issues that this town really has," he said. "It's a one-man vision. We need to bring the community back, and we need to make it a thriving community, versus being a bedroom community, and that's why I'm here tonight."

The crowd erupted in applause, which appeared to have been started by Kanyu. After Herrmann asked that the applause be held until the end of each group's questions, he asked the next question.

"We have heard many residents say that larger-dollar projects should be put to a vote," Herrmann began. "What is your stance on this? And if you believe that these projects should be put to a vote, what's the dollar amount that would trigger such a vote, or what specific standards or types of projects do you think would qualify?"

Pelava didn't beat around the bush, immediately pivoting to the purchase of the clinic as an example for why he didn't think it would qualify for such a vote. He said, because it was a fairly new building in a suitable location for the city campus, the council had to make that call.

"This isn't a democracy — this is a representative republic that we live in," Pelava said. "If we want a democracy, you guys better get ready, because nothing's going to happen. It takes time. So if you want to elect people that will take responsibility for what they've done, and I will fully take responsibility for things that maybe didn't go right, I admit it, but you know what? That's what we're here for. We're elected for make those decisions."

Berg said it didn't need to be on a ballot, and that it should've been discussed at a public forum. Kanyu said the $1.3-million remodel should also be discussed, and he'd support referendums or forums for anything affecting the taxpayers.

City Council

After the council candidates took their seats, the conversation immediately went right back to the clinic purchase. Furrer said it'll be an investment for the future.

"There are many people who say it's overkill," she said. "Well, for right now, probably yes, but we need to be looking for the future. Having that facility, the space that will have, there'll be a council chambers that will be able to probably almost hold this type of thing. I might be exaggerating, but it will also give us an opportunity to have a meeting room in there."

Harding felt like he was in the dark about the clinic purchase.

"Honestly, [the current City Hall] works," he said. "We just spent money on it here not too long ago to fix things in it. Why do we need to upgrade already? I think that it's just a waste of money to my personal opinion, and I think the city should have been notified. I think everybody in the city should've had to say whether we wanted it or not. That was a lot of money."

Miller, while in agreement that she also felt out of the loop, she could see the vision.

"I'm just more about communication; that's my goal," she said. "I want to have a 'City of Lonsdale' Facebook page for social media. I think a lot of people would use that. Not the 'Lonsdale Happenings' page — that is for entertainment purposes. I'm talking like official city business, so that we can share agendas, minutes, upcoming events and collaborate more with the chamber on promoting that as well."

Mousel said the project was "a little foolish" because he feels a medical facility will be a need in the near future, and he would like to further explore the idea of still using it as a clinic. The mayor and council have stated previously they tried reaching out to many groups, but they're all closing small-town clinics.

"Moving forward, I would try to see if there'd be some way to utilize it for what it's meant to be," he said. "I passed by on [Highway] 19, just earlier this week. A Northfield Hospital ambulance and two paramedics were sitting in the parking lot. Pulled in, and I asked them, 'Is this building opening back up?' and they said, 'No, we just eat lunch here.' So it can be utilized, but dropping all that additional money into it kind of seems like a little bit of a bad idea."

Vosejpka said he believes the sign is supposed to have been taken down, according to city ordinance.

"Did we need it? Probably not," he said. "Would it be nice? Yes. But we can learn from this. Also, we shouldn't be spending that much money without letting the taxpayers know. It's our money too."

Transparency became a topic of conversation throughout the rest of the council forum, as well as employee retention. The meetings are streamed live on the "City of Lonsdale" YouTube channel, and have been since Oct. 8, 2020.

Similarly, Lonsdale City Council meeting agendas are available on the new website (www.LonsdaleMN.com) on the homepage. Open the page, scroll down to the calendar and hover over any date in green, click the meeting, then click the PDF file to see the upcoming agenda.

Furrer noted the city has budgeted for a compensation study to determine if the city employee's wages and benefits are up to par with neighboring and similarly sized cities.

State & county

Peters gave some brief statements about his candidacy for Rice County Commissioner, and is running unopposed. Herrmann asked him what the biggest issues are for the district.

"At the Planning Commission, we get a lot of issues with the farmers running seven days a week, sometimes 24 hours a day, and you have somebody that moved out to the five-acre plot who complains about it," he said. "So that seems to be an issue to find that balance around here. Also, the heavier traffic flow. I think we need to improve some of our infrastructure here, which they're doing. It's just going to continue to grow infrastructure and services."

The candidates for House only had three questions to answer. The first was simple: Do you support Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state? In the same vein, do you support the North Star Act?

Hillmann-Olson said she doesn't support the North Star Act, but does feel immigrants should have faster, easier mechanisms to become citizens and a form of identification for keeping track of traffic violations.

"I believe immigration is vital," she said. "We have a shortage in our workforce. We can absorb immigrants into our country. I would rather see the federal government enlarge the quota. I would like them to speed up the process to admit people into our country."

Pursell clarified that the North Star Act was among the 5,000 bills introduced in the last Legislative Session, and was in the majority of bills that didn't get passed.

"We did pass the North Star Promise, which is, if you are under a certain household dollar amount, [the state pays for college]," she said. "There's a young man from New Prague who I've been in touch with, who helps with my campaign and has a single mom. He is going to University of Minnesota without cost this year, and is incredibly grateful. And no, we do not discriminate about where you were born, but more about if you can afford college."

The next question was about taxes, and how the candidate would lower them for the middle class.

Pursell said the only taxes that went up, in the last session, were for the top tax bracket and for corporations. She said, for the middle and lower class, taxes have decreased since the 1990s.

"I went door knocking two years ago in New Prague, and there was a fellow who didn't live at the house," she said. "But he said, 'I moved to Iowa two years ago. Then, I came up here, and I forgot how good the roads are. … We reduce our tax burden and, like, what services then are we also going to be reducing? A lot of that money goes to our infrastructure, our roads."

Hillmann-Olson said the structural deficit in the state budget means people are taxed too much. She said, as the state with the highest corporate tax rate, Minnesota disincentivizes business.

"As I look out on this audience, it breaks my heart to think how much you struggle with inflation, how much you struggle in order to be afford your housing, the food," she said. "Everybody knows when you go to the grocery store, what that you know what you used to be able to buy. … Every single dollar that you send to the state of Minnesota in the form of taxes is one less dollar you have for your groceries, for your housing and to pay for your kids' needs."

Hillmann-Olson added that Social Security should be tax-exempt.

Hillmann-Olson and Pursell agreed mental-health investments could help curb gun violence and school shootings. Both are gun owners, who don't agree with taking guns away. Pursell doesn't feel laws like banning straw purchases or red-flag laws to keep guns away from criminals and the mentally ill infringe upon gun rights. Hillmann-Olson said the violence is largely due to social media.