The StarTrib and the Daily both declined to print this. It occurs to me
that the only people interested in it are readers of this list anyway.
Tony Hill, Logan Park
***
The resignation of Brian Herron in the wake of an extortion
conviction is a severe departure from the usual standard of good
government in Minneapolis. In fact, it has been 72 years since a mayor
or council member has resigned due to scandal. The corruption scandal
of 1929 involved seven members of the city council, four of whom were
convicted of accepting bribes.
The first indictments came down just before Christmas in 1928
against two North Side aldermen, Fred A. Maurer and Frank E.
Giebenhain. Maurer, a restaurateur, was convicted of accepting a $600
bribe to benefit a Standard Oil station at Broadway and Fremont, and
Giebenhain, son of a pioneering St. Anthony schoolmaster, was convicted
of accepting $50 from a grocery store at 4500 Logan Ave. N. Both
accepted plea agreements and were sentenced to two years in prison.
Maurer was also convicted for taking a $1000 bribe to favor a dance hall
license for the Stables nightclub. (A grand jury had declined to indict
Giebenhain the year before for bribery involving the purchase of sewing
machines for the city workhouse.)
Ald. Louis N. Ritten from the First (now Third) Ward, a former
council president and successful trader in the Chamber of Commerce (now
the Minneapolis Grain Exchange), resigned from the council and turned
state's evidence. He was given immunity by Hennepin County Attorney
Floyd B. Olson.
The indictment against Ald. J. Russell Sheffield was dropped, but
three others chose to stand trial. Charges against Ald. W.H. Rendell
were dropped after two trials ended in hung juries. Aldermen Edward J.
Sweeney and John P. Ekberg, a former police officer then in the ice and
fuel business at 3755 Minnehaha Ave., were convicted by juries, Sweeney
for accepting a $405 bribe on the purchase of a truck flusher and Ekberg
of accepting a $600 bribe from Harold Schaefer, who wanted to sell cars
to the police department. Both Sweeney and Ekberg were sentenced to the
maximum 10 years in prison, with fines of $2500 and $1500,
respectively. (Maurer and Giebenhain were apparently wise to plead.)
There were two aldermen elected to staggered four-year terms from
each ward from 1891 until 1953, and there was occasionally friction
between the two in the affairs of the ward. Maurer and Sweeney
represented the Third Ward (which is now roughly the Fifth Ward), and
Maurer is alleged to have said, "My election cost me thousands of
dollars and I have to get it back somehow, but I can't do it with
Sweeney in there." Sweeney claimed he turned down many large bribes,
which he claimed were instigated by Maurer.
The convicted aldermen each served about 18 months in Stillwater
prison. The sentences of Sweeney and Ekberg were commuted by the Board
of Pardons to two years. Interestingly, this happened at the first
meeting of the board for Olson, who was by then Governor. (The
convictions helped him win that office.)
The scandal did not lead to permanent disgrace for the men. Ekberg was
later elected president of both the South Side Picnic Association and
the Twelfth Ward Civic and Industrial Association. Sweeney went to work
for the USDA and eventually went into the real estate business. Maurer
even got a license from the council to operate a gas station at Sheridan
and Broadway (on a 12 to 11 vote) less than three years after his
conviction. His restaurant at 507 Washington Ave. N. (now Cuzzy's)
stayed open the entire time, and it was still known as Maurer's Caf� and
Bar for a time after his death. The Louis N. Ritten Co. was one of the
most prominent houses on the Grain Exchange for several more
generations.
In sending Maurer to prison, Judge W.W. Bardwell said, "... in
sentencing a public official who has betrayed a public trust, the
question of leniency is to be given slight consideration..."
The scandal apparently taught the city's civic leaders a lesson.
Eric G. Hoyer served on the council from 1936 to 1949 and as mayor from
1948 to 1957. Before he died in 1990, he told me in an interview that
no one ever offered him a bribe.
The Herron scandal is several degrees more serious than the graft of
1929, and not just in the dollar amounts involved. What Herron has
confessed to is tollgating at best and a shakedown at worst. We can
only hope no other people are involved this time.
May it be another 72 years before a criminal officeholder again
betrays the public trust of Minneapolis residents.
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