City Council pressures northeast Minnesota mayor to resign

TWO HARBORS, Minn. — At a gathering that solely obliquely referred to the allegations in opposition to him, officers on Monday requested embattled Mayor Chris Swanson to step down.

Metropolis Council members voted 6-0 to ask Swanson to stop his put up. Their decision isn’t legally binding — councilors don’t have the authority to fireplace Swanson — and the mayor is already set to face a recall election in August, however councilor after councilor repeated basically the identical message: They need him out.

“We have now work that must be carried out, and for the final six months it has been almost not possible for our metropolis to maneuver ahead on something,” Robin Glaser, the council’s vice chairman, stated in a crowded council chambers, claiming it will take years for town to be revered once more. “If the mayor actually cares concerning the neighborhood, he would step down and let the therapeutic start.”

Swanson himself was absent. He stated earlier this month that he doesn’t plan to resign.

Different council members on Monday echoed Glaser’s sentiment, claiming that it had been tough to conduct metropolis enterprise over the previous few months.

“It’s divided us, and I believe it’s time for the mayor to resign,” Councilor Miles Woodruff stated. Final month, the council voted 6-1 to authorize a recall election later this summer time. The lone “no” vote was Swanson himself.

Every councilor who spoke earlier than and after their symbolic vote Monday stopped wanting explicating any particular misgivings with Swanson.

Nonetheless, an opinion authored by metropolis legal professional Timothy Costley and a certificates submitted to metropolis directors by petitioners who prompted the August recall vote shed loads of gentle.

Costley concluded that Swanson repeatedly used his place “for private profit or enterprise curiosity” and violated Two Harbors’ metropolis code, its communications coverage, or each on 5 separate events:

• An look on a podcast to tout his plan for an underwater lodge in Lake Superior
• A 2017 incident during which Swanson reportedly used data advised to him in confidence, as mayor, to affect his spouse to purchase the Lou’s Fish Home constructing
• When the mayor used his mayoral electronic mail handle and title to solicit cash for the Associates of the Bandshell Park nonprofit. The group was reportedly paying Storage Begins, an organization that listed Swanson as CEO on its web site, to assist increase cash for a public performing arts middle
• When Swanson solicited buyers for the underwater lodge by way of a web site that claimed “Mayor Swanson can be in contact.”
• And when he tweeted about eager to create an official Two Harbors cryptocurrency as a supply of metropolis income and promoted Storage Begins, an organization that listed Swanson as its CEO on its web site.

The grievances outlined by recall petitioners overlap considerably with those Costley analyzed for town. In addition they take challenge with the bandshell fundraising, the web site, Lou’s buy, and the podcast look, however allege “severe malfeasance” on Swanson’s half in two additional cases:

• When he urged the council to vote to authorize a letter of assist for town to host the Competition of Sail a couple of month after his daughter fashioned a nonprofit to arrange the occasion. 
• And when Swanson “repeatedly promoted” on Twitter a nonprofit for which he was a board member.