Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Resolution to a dispute between Forest Lake City Council and its human rights commission will have to wait two weeks.

Despite a push Monday night for action to suspend activities of the commission, the council voted 4-0 with Mayor Terry Smith abstaining to table action on the commission for two weeks. The matter will come back to council Monday, May 23.

The delay, requested by Councilman Rick Ashbach, will give council time to review information presented by the mayor Monday night and allow City Attorney David Hebert to further review the city ordinance establishing the commission in 2001.

Mondayís action came six weeks following the first council foray into the topic when activities of the commission rubbed some on council wrong.

At this weekís meeting, Smith said a one-hour meeting with the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and a deeper review of the Forest Lake ordinance convinced him action was needed now.

ìHow much more time do we want to give them?î Smith asked. ìItís not a legal ordinance.î

After meeting with the state commissioner, Smith said he was convinced the scope of the city human rights commission was misdirected and the ordinance change allowing commission members from outside of the city was improper. Smith said he firmly believed the job of investigating human rights violations was the job of the state, not the local commission.

Friction has developed within the community over HRC attempts to obtain juvenile records from city police and become involved in school matters involving juveniles.

ìThe city has no authority to say the school district is in violation,î Smith said.

Others disagree

But Smithís push for a resolution Monday night did not sit well with others on council.

Councilwoman Susan Young said she was ìdisappointedî that Smith did not continue dialogue with the commission before coming back to the table with an action plan. At a special meeting April 19, council specified no time table for addressing the topic.

During a brief report to the council Monday, HRC Chairman Dale Swanson said the commission was being ìblindsidedî by the Smith proposal.

Councilman Rick Ashbach, who moved to table the matter, said he was frustrated by the inability of the HRC and council to work together. ìThis is an incredibly confusing situation,î Ashbach said.

Smith found some support from Councilwoman Judy Bull in his plan to suspend activities of the HRC, review the ordinance and restart the commission at a later date.

ìI want to see it continued,î she said of the HRC. But Bull said she was troubled by the decline in commission members to three and what she called the lack of a positive direction.

ìWe need to go a different direction ó a more positive one,î Bull said.

After at first refusing to acknowledge the motion by Ashbach to table and Youngís second, Smith agreed to allow a vote.

ìI need more time to understand it,î Ashbach said. He added it was significant to have a legal review at this point.

Councilman Dick Tschida expressed disappointment in the ordinance and the fact the council did not have a legal document in place that steered the city clear of potential trouble. ìWe slipped through the cracks a little bit,î Tschida said.

With Smith abstaining, members Ashbach, Young, Bull and Tschida voted to table the matter until the May 23 meeting.

Smith reiterated his opinion that it was the stateís role and not the local agencyís job to determine human rights violations. And the city should have say in defining the school districtís responsibility, he said.

ìWe are not the gatekeeper of the school district,î Smith said.

Swanson, speaking to council during the open forum segment of the meeting, said he could find no public record of complaints against the HRC. Swanson said he filed a data practices request with the city on April 22 and learned from City Administrator Chip Robinson that there were no records of complaints.

ìDid they exist?î Swanson asked.

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Forest Lake Times
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880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
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