In the late 1980s, I was playing in pro am golf tournament with a District Court Judge (now retired). I asked him why it was so hard to make any concrete changes in City policy and why they would never work with us in the private sector. His response was that unfortunately, if you want to make change in the City of Minneapolis, you have to sue them.
Well that is what alot of us have had to do. I won 9 smaller suits against the City during the 1990s. Most of them were negligence cases, and 2 of them actually forced changes in City ordinances. One big case that I funded on behalf of the MPRAC attacked the constitutionality of the 249 ordinance and how the City was taking property from private owners and not compensating them for it - a violation of our State and Federal Constitutions. After a 2 year battle, I eventually lost on a technicality that stated that any decision of the City Council is a "quasi judicial " decision and must be appealed directly to the Appellate Court by a writ of certiori. But as part of the suit, the City admitted that they were not following state law nor their own ordinance. This suit helped stop the wholesale destruction of properties in Minneapolis before the new city council members were elected in 2001. The still evident litigious attitude of the City is not in my opinion caused by any of the current City Council members. It rests directly at the feet of Jay Heffern, the head City attorney. He has instructed his flock of city attornieys not to settle anything! The last case I won in 2000 was for a whopping $1,630 against the City water department for negligence. Rather than pay, the City spent thousands of taxpayer's dollars to appeal to the Appellate Court. Until the Council and or mayor instruct Mr. Heffern to try to work out differences in good faith, the lawsuits will continue. Let me give you all a quick example of how the City still will not compromise. 2 1/2 years ago the City water department shut the water off to my office on the corner of 26th and Girard by mistake. When they came back to turn it on, they broke my stopbox. They have refused to fix it, so I have had no water and a nice 2 bedroom remodelled apartment above my office has been vacant. I have also had no garbage service (obviously) and the City picked up the one cart I had 3 months later in July, 2000. The have still charged me for garbage pickup for the 2 1/2 years and just assessed the amount ($1,860) to my 2003 taxes. At the Kangeroo Court hearing 3 weeks ago, I had one of my employees there to testify - no water and no garbage pickup, it did not matter. Their head kangaroo, Jack Vigoren, as usual ruled against me. Until they set up a real impartial system, there will continue to be numerous lawsuits. I will win this lawsuit, the City will be forced to pay me thousands of dollars and the taxpayers will pay tens of thousands of dollars in City attorney fees. Anyone care to disagree or place a bet on the outcome? Steve Meldahl Jordan (work) ----- Original Message ----- From: "WizardMarks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Mpls Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2002 1:37 PM Subject: Re: [Mpls] Legal Actions against the City > Victoria Heller wrote: > > >The Minneapolis DFL leadership routinely forces citizens into Court as > >"punishment" for resisting their political agenda. The former Council's > >attitude led by Jackie Cherryhomes was - If you don't like it, sue us! > > > WM: For all we know that the same attitude remains in city hall and will > in the future. > > WizardMarks, Central > > >_______________________________________ > > > >Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > >Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org > >Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls > > > > > _______________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
