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Reposted by Anders

Tom Basgen, Mr. Saint Paul @tombasgen.bsky.social · 2m

More on today’s closed door from Ward 3:

Today, I voted, very reluctantly, in favor of Resolution 26-1659 to appoint the law firm Fisher Phillips as Special Counsel to represent Mayor Her in the lawsuit brought by Chief Henry against the Mayor and the City.
It is my understanding that state law creates a presumption that public employees, including the Mayor, will be indemnified and provided a legal defense in matters such as these unless there is a legal basis to deny that defense. Additionally, the City Attorney cannot represent the Mayor in this case because of the conflict of interest created by her role as both an appointee of the Mayor and a fact witness in the litigation.
Ordinarily, the determination of whether the City will indemnify and defend an employee is made by the City Attorney. However, because of this conflict, the City will retain an outside firm through action at our next council meeting to conduct an independent indemnification analysis and determine, through a quasi-judicial process, whether the Mayor is entitled to indemnification and defense by the City.
Until that determination is made, it is my understanding that the City must continue to comply with its obligations under state law.

Based on the legal advice provided to the Council, voting against this resolution could have exposed the City to additional legal risk by failing to meet those obligations. There is a process in place to determine whether the Mayor was acting within the scope of her official duties during the conduct that gave rise to this lawsuit, but that analysis will take time and could not be completed before this vote. We also have a timeline to respond to the lawsuit that we must comply with.
I am deeply disappointed by the situation we find ourselves in. As a councilmember, I have a responsibility to protect the City from legal risk, but I also have a responsibility to safeguard public resources and protect the City from unnecessary financial harm. I have serious reservations about whether this is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. I also have concerns about how this particular law firm was selected.
Like many residents, I am still waiting to see the full report from Resolute Law which I have formally requested. My colleagues and I were forced by legal timelines to make significant decisions without having access to all of the information we would have preferred to review. That is not how I make decisions, and it is not how the City should make decisions.

I know I am not alone in my frustration. More than 100 public comments on this resolution were overwhelmingly opposed to the City paying for the Mayor's legal defense. Our office continues to hear from constituents who are disappointed by the Mayor's alleged conduct and are asking questions that I am still unable to answer. The expectations of our community are not being met.
Trust in government depends on transparency, accountability, and confidence that public dollars are being spent in ways that reflect our shared values and priorities. Right now, many residents feel those standards are falling short.
I remain deeply frustrated by this situation. Our residents deserve better. Our city employees deserve better. And our City deserves better.
I will continue to closely oversee this developing matter and use the authority afforded to my office under the City Charter to pursue the transparency and accountability that residents expect and deserve. In the meantime, I will remain focused on serving Saint Paul and continuing the work of building the city our community deserves.

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Reposted by Anders

Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 6h

Wow, it's true lol. If you ask the Trump administration's new stupid America.gov chatbot to "play Minecraft" it goes completely insane. Just tried it.

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Anders @derzquist.net · 2h

"Who chose" is something I haven't seen clarity anywhere. My speculation is that this detail is part of the mountain of info that continues to be kept hidden from the public, and apparently the Council!

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Anders @derzquist.net · 2h

Mayor Her should resign. And I am still unclear what pressure it would take to force that to happen. She already has a system in place to insulate herself from tough public pushback when it comes to topics like the encampments. So, honest question, who says "It's time." and she listens?

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Anders @derzquist.net · 2h

That's only when it became more widely known! Had to have begun who knows how many weeks earlier

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Reposted by Anders

Wes Burdine @wesburdine.bsky.social · 2h

Mayor Her needs to resign today. Full stop.

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Reposted by Anders

Molly Coleman @mollycoleman.bsky.social · 2h

Sharing my comments from today’s meeting of the City Council, related to the hiring of outside counsel to represent Mayor Her in the lawsuit brought by Chief Henry. The full audio of the meeting is available here: stpaul.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=....

On April 1st of this year, the City was notified by Chief Henry’s attorney that the Mayor was being accused of engaging in illegal conduct toward City employees, and that litigation was reasonably foreseeable.

Today, one day shy of six months later, the City finally saw fit to discuss the matter in a closed door session with this City Council.

In the six months during which the Council and the public have been kept entirely in the dark by the administration, an external law firm has already been engaged at tax payers expense to investigate the allegations of repeated sexual harassment and other inappropriate workplace conduct by the Mayor.

Neither the Council or the public has been informed of the total cost of that investigation. Neither the Council or the public has seen the report.

While vague media reports have circulated that the report will be made public soon, we’re left with the allegations in the Chief’s 73-page complaint and the investigation summary prepared by an employee of the Mayor herself that finds that the Mayor engaged in “offensive and inappropriate behavior,” “created an uncomfortable work environment” for City employees, and “sent inappropriate text messages” to at least two City employees.

Today, the Council is effectively being asked to write a blank check with taxpayers’ money to a law firm that, frankly, is a law firm that I take great issue with—just minutes, literally minutes, after this body was provided for the first time was provided with any sort of update related to this matter.

This is no way to run a city. The lack of transparency, the refusal to provide the Council with the information necessary to fulfill our duties as a co-equal branch of government, and the lack of respect for the residents of the City is unacceptable. And yet, as the Council President explained, we effectively have no choice in this matter. If we choose not to retain outside counsel today, then we are opening up the City to additional liability and the risk that the Mayor herself could sue the City for refusing to hire outside counsel.

We are in a horrible position and we have very few options. I am incredibly frustrated by the vote that we are being asked to take today. I am incredibly frustrated by the timeline on which we are being asked to take it and the fact that we will be spending unknown sums of money, significant sums of money, defending against claims we know nothing about—despite the fact that our money has already been used to investigate those very claims.

So while I will vote yes for this resolution today, I want to be very clear about the legal limitations that require, from my perspective, that vote—and the immense frustration and disappointment at being asked to take this vote today.

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Anders @derzquist.net · 4h

Neighbor with a sauna/Neighbor without a sauna

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Anders @derzquist.net · 4h

If everyone says "I cannot build a union until after it is a better structure internally" then we all won't get anywhere fast.

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Anders @derzquist.net · 4h

I took the target audience to be mostly for folks who are favorable to unions yet not currently (or ever) in one. And certainly someone like that can have an opinion about internal union democracy, however one cannot have much more than an opinion until they are actually involved in labor organizing

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Anders @derzquist.net · 4h

Couple decades of polling show that somewhere between 60-75% of US workers favor unions and would like to join one. If just a third of that number dedicated the next two years to organizing a new union, or building up a current one, we would have a revolutionary situation on our hands.

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Anders @derzquist.net · 4h

I've organized a union from nothing, and I've helped others as a professional organizer. Both have taught me that yes support matters a lot, and yet all the support in the world amounts to nothing without people in the workplace ready to take the responsibility of agency to keep things going.

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Anders @derzquist.net · 4h

Good read. To emphasize & expand something at the end; Even if the top ten obstacles to unions were removed & tons of resources were poured into organizing efforts, no matter what a better world through unions still requires a person like YOU making a commitment to build the union in your workplace.

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Anders @derzquist.net · 4h

George Costanza on toilet paper

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Anders @derzquist.net · 5h

Sometimes a fresh perspective is all it takes

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Anders @derzquist.net · 5h

Excited to automate digging through the old comics & local history section at the used book store

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Anders @derzquist.net · 5h

If putting a zero in front of another number is just the same number ( 01=1 ) then I'm pretty sure I have solved this little conundrum

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Anders @derzquist.net · 6h

This pattern was already evident in the roll out where the Mayor would never appear in public on this topic and send someone from her office.

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Reposted by Anders

ele @elen-jayne.northsky.social · 9h

Saint Paulites, leave your comments on the StP city council meeting around appointing a law firm to represent Mayor Her. It won't change the outcome, as she'll need to be represented as mayor, but it's good to have a record of opposition nonetheless.

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Anders @derzquist.net · 7h

The *real* 5G Conspiracy

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Anders @derzquist.net · 7h

Lisa Demuth's face shopped onto Scumbag Steve

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Anders @derzquist.net · 9h

I'm excited to see what new layer of abstraction they build off of this for the next series of advertisements. What could be stranger than the current figure? I do not know, yet I am eager to learn.

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