Today we had many people attend the County Board Meeting in Duluth and speak to the Board regarding our concerns with respect to the sexual harassment investigations and their lack of respect for each other, as well as their constituents in recent months. The Duluth News Tribune had an excellent article this morning that folks should take a look at http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/
It is especially important that folks continue to monitor these meetings, as well as contact their county commissioners to let them know that "We Are Watching"!
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The Duluth News-Tribune Editorial is a great comment on the recent activities of the "We are Watching" Campaign:
Did it really take a watchdog — a new one, actually — to bring the St. Louis County Board to the understanding that ethical behavior is expected of everyone who receives a paycheck from the county, including elected officials?
That appears to have been the case when, under the glare of an ad-hoc assemblage of residents not shy about speaking their minds yesterday, the board voted unanimously to begin drafting a code of ethics that would clearly include board members.
Dubbed “We Are Watching,” the watchdog group sprung out of outrage over the board’s failure to discipline Commissioners Steve Raukar and Dennis Fink after county investigators determined the two, in separate, unrelated incidents, had sexually harassed county employees. The group vowed to attend County Board meetings and publicize the proceedings to pressure the board to act on an ethics policy.
We Are Watching isn’t the only entity watching. Obviously, this newspaper and other media regularly cover the board, and even readers can bring issues to public attention, such as the writer of a letter on this page last spring who first made note of Commissioner Keith Nelson’s comment that he would have advocated for slavery if his constituents supported it (“ ‘Man of the people’ thinking only goes so far,” March 31).
The difference with We Are Watching, however, is that along with its bite of publicizing bad behavior, it’s a watchdog that can bark. About 12 observers took the microphone during the County Board’s public comment segment yesterday, something reporters, as disinterested parties, aren’t supposed to do. To a person, the speakers demanded the board adopt an ethics policy.
“We’re able to comment,” Kevin Skirwa-Brown, one of the group’s “identified spokespeople,” told the News Tribune’s editorial page staff after the meeting.
Skirwa-Brown said he’s free from any possible retaliation from board members who can hold up money for nonprofit groups, or charges that he’s representing a special interest or promoting a victim mentality.
“I don’t work for a nonprofit. I’m a white, male, heterosexual. I’m not a union member and I’m still enraged by their behavior,” he said.
Now, with the group, he’s talking about it publicly and immediately. The board members at least have to endure the group’s comments, if not act on them.
This time, they did.
At yesterday's board meeting Commissioner Fink made the charge that Censure had been discussed by the board with regard to all Commissioners in the past year. In searching for the specifics on this I found that if there was any discussion of censuring Board members, it must have been done in private meetings of two or three commissioners when they were angry at the behavior of other members. There has been NO public discussion of censuring members until the sexual harassment charges came forward.
A discussion by a majority of the commissioners with regard to censure would have had to take place in an open meeting and thus be actually business of the Board.
Mr. Fink was untruthful in his statement which implied that the board had considered censure of all members during the past year.
This statement should be placed on the web site for scrutiny by the public. Mr. Fink should not state things that are not true.
An ethical code of conduct is important for all people in any part of a society...respect for gender, respect for economic status, respect for cultural differences, respect for age differences, respect for intellectual differences. Intimidation and harassment cause ugly situations. We need a positive environment to work and play in, to gain the respect of other Minnesotans. Have we not learned from the lessons of the movie "North Country"?? CW
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