FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE _________________________________________ 9/5/2024 Twin Lakes (Freeborn County, MN)
Mayor and City Clerk of Twin Lakes Minnesota sued for violating Mn Public Data Requests An area resident has waited since early May for a simple public data request on 3 Certificates of Deposit, from a veiled mention at a spring city council meeting. At the May 6th 2024 Twin Lakes City Council Meeting, City Clerk Lisa DeRadd mentioned that three different certificates of deposit were about to mature. One of the council members asked for a few specifics concerning the dollar amount, the rate, and what rate would be offered if they were renewed and got a vague response with no details. Mayor Kathy Benschoter verbally claims to not know the “law” on it. Citizen Advocate turned Investigative Reporter Keith Haskell filed a written data request the same week for the information which is deemed as “public information”. Haskell gave the City until May 20th, 2024 to answer the simple data request. To date, the request has gone unanswered. Haskell originally sent the request to not one, but two published email addresses for the City, even though a typo resulted in failed delivery of one, which was later corrected and re-sent. The June meeting public comment section included softly-spoken reminders that he had not yet received the public data requested; there was no feedback or input from the council to Haskell's reminders. After the same input was given by Haskell in July’s Twin Lakes City Council meeting, there was no indication the City felt like they had done anything wrong, or that they intended to respond, although legally required to do so. Tenacious, Haskell followed up with additional phone calls and emails to City Clerk DeRadd, who stated hers was a very part time position which holds no regular or posted office hours due to her full time position as a Rice/Steele County 911 Operator/Dispatcher. On June 18th Clerk DeRadd assured Haskell and his team of investigative reporters would receive the data within the next week. DeRadd never responded with the data, and never followed up with Haskell. On July 22nd, 2024, some 45 days after the expired deadline, The State of Minnesota’s Office of Administration, who oversees Public Data Requests, reached out to DeRadd, that the city was “at the outside window” of being in compliance with responding in a “reasonable time”. Haskell has been told on no less than three occasions by the Clerk, that if she sees an email she does not recognize the name or e-mail address, she simply deletes it. This action violates not only public data laws under State Chapter 13, but also statutes concerning record retention of official business. The Office of Administration also had an e-mail dialog with local Attorney Matthew Benda, the contracted City Attorney informing him of the specifics of the data request. Benda reached out to Haskell via e-mail and Haskell immediately responded the following day on August 1, 2024. Haskell has not heard back since. In a last attempt to get the City to understand the gravity of the situation, and the potential financial loss, Haskell again spoke at the August City Council meeting and met with DeRadd for over 30 minutes August 3rd, 2024 explaining and reading the process and statutory obligation when DeRadd finally stated she had not forwarded the information to Haskell, but to the City Attorney. The City Council was not only not aware and has not authorized DeRadd to involve the Attorney. On Tuesday Night September 3rd, Haskell spoke at the City Council Meeting outlining more of the legal shortcomings of the Mayor and Clerk, who have since violated more, unrelated statutes. Haskell stated he was out of options, and filed a civil court case in Freeborn County Court, seeking full remedy through the court of punitive and compensatory damages, up to $90,000.00, in addition to an order compelling the City to release the data, and go through additional training on the States Public Data and Open Meeting Laws. There is no court date yet for the case, file #24-CV-24-1431. Haskell is suing DeRadd and Benschoter in personal capacity, sometimes acting in the role of their prospective positions.Start writing today. Use the button below to create a Substack of your own
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