The Grand Marais Harbor isn’t full of tea bags yet, but it could be.
Commissioner Frank Moe called on citizens to take back their county.
Appearing on WTIP Radio on Wednesday, Nov. 30, Moe said he thought the proposed 19.88 percent levy increase was too high for many lower income folks or for people living on a fixed income to pay. He asked county residents to take their tax statements to the Truth In Taxation meeting held the next day and complain.
Moe also responded to WTIP interviewer Jay Andersen’s questions about the vote taken by his fellow board members to dissolve a committee formed the week before to look into Administrator Jeff Cadwell’s comments to him during an intermission break that was caught on film.
At that Nov. 22 meeting commissioners voted 3-2 to form a committee to investigate whether comments made by Cadwell to Moe should result in disciplinary action.
Voting for the action was Garry Gamble, Frank Moe, and Ginny Storlie. Commissioners Jan Sivertson and Heidi Doo-Kirk voted against the motion. Moe asked that he not be included on the committee and it was agreed commissioners Gamble and Storlie along with Cook County Human Resources Director Judy Hill and Cook County Attorney Molly Hicken would meet with Cadwell to discuss the situation and report back to the board in a quick time frame.
However, before the committee could meet it was dissolved.
Cook County Commissioner Jan Sivertson, reading a prepared statement at the board’s Nov. 29 meeting, called for an action to rescind a motion to end a committee commissioners formed at their Nov. 22 meeting.
Commissioner Sivertson said she had reviewed the tape several times and didn’t see anything disrespectful or inappropriate from Cadwell toward Moe. She said she was offended by the board’s action to form a committee, and felt that Cadwell’s words were taken out of context. She also said that if the committee met it could be hurtful to the county administrator as well as damage the reputation of the county, especially in the recruitment of new employees.
Meanwhile, at the same meeting Commissioner Storlie voted with Sivertson and Doo-Kirk to stop the committee from meeting, although her reasons for changing her mind weren’t clear.
Earlier, to start the commissioners’ meeting several members of the Cook County/Grand Marais EDA and Chamber of Commerce came forward during public comments. They were invited by Sivertson to speak on behalf of Administrator Cadwell at the board’s meeting in an e-mail she sent to them on Nov. 26.
Speaking for Cadwell were Hal Greenwood, Jim Boyd, director of the Cook County Chamber of Commerce, Linda Jurek Kratt from Visit Cook County, Scott Harrison, Mary Somnis and Howard Hedstrom from the Cook County/Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) and Charles Skinner, one of the owners of Lutsen Mountains ski hill.
One of the key elements to making the county work better, said Skinner, was the hiring of a county administrator. “Jeff Cadwell is smart, skilled. I don’t think you will find a better county administrator,” Skinner said.
Moe felt comments Cadwell made to him during the Nov. 22 break were disrespectful and violated the personnel committee handbook. That is why he called for a committee to look into the matter and make a judgment that would be brought back to the county board for review.
When it became apparent that no action would be taken to resolve the dispute between Commissioner Moe and Administrator Cadwell, Commissioner Gamble said, “It is clear that we do not have the will or appetite to address difficult issues. We would like them to go away.”
As for Commissioner Moe, he felt Sivertson’s motion was procedurally incorrect. He also noted, “it is clear that Commissioner Storlie has changed her mind. …
“As far as the issue itself, it is clear that some on the board and I have a difference of opinion. I thought I made a thought-out decision to bring this forward. We had a grievance process that was going to the next step. In pushing that issue, I think the board needs to hold people accountable for their actions. This is not about the budget. It’s about the actions of one person. I am very disturbed that business leaders and their surrogates come and shake their fingers at this board. I don’t think my constituents want me to ask the Chamber of Commerce for advice before I go through with something.”
After the meeting, Moe came to the Cook County News-Herald. He said he didn’t know what to do, but he didn’t feel the action taken was respectful of his position, or respectful to him.
The next day Commissioner Moe met with WTIP and talked about the Truth In Taxation hearing scheduled for the next evening. He said he was alarmed by the 19.89 proposed levy and felt many in the county couldn’t afford such an increase in their taxes.
“It seems to me that the county board isn’t hearing the people who can’t afford to pay their property taxes,” he told WTIP interviewer Jay Andersen.
When Andersen asked about the board’s decision to dissolve the committee looking into the administrator’s behavior, Moe responded by saying Cadwell’s behavior was inappropriate towards him. He said the administrator had alienated many of the county workers, but to the movers and shakers in the county, Cadwell was their guy, and his behavior shouldn’t be evaluated.
“It felt like a public lynching. I just am asking for the people to take their county back. I don’t want us to be a county (board) that represents just the wealthy but to be a government to serve everybody.
“Maybe the problem is me. Maybe I’m a rabble-rouser. Maybe I should sit back and rubber stamp everything.”
Moe urged people to come the next day to the Truth In Taxation hearing with their tax statements.
“It’s my last effort to reach out. If what I am asking doesn’t represent you, then I’m the problem, then I will go away.”
Or maybe the harbor will fill with tea bags.
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