City Council Votes 4-1 to Dismiss Human Rights Commission Members

In October, members of the Human Rights Commission met at their regular meeting. After discussing the September shooting of a woman Golden Valley Police say was armed, the commissioners came up with a resolution that they presented to the City Council in November that reads:

“To Form a Task Force that will Identify and Adopt Best Practices that Prevent the Use of Unnecessary Force by Golden Valley Police Officers”

When the Human Rights Commission members presented their resolution to the council , council members said they were blind-sided.

"I don't think any of them recognized the seriousness of their discussion or the legal liability they put us in," Mayor Linda Loomis said at Tuesday night's meeting in council chambers at

Last week, the City Council decided to dismiss the commissioners, and the official vote took place at the City Council meeting Tuesday night. Mayor Linda Loomis, along with council members Bob Shaffer, DeDe Scanlon and Paula Pentel voted to dismiss the members. Council member Mike Freiberg voted against the decision.

In a public memo prior to last week's meeting, City Manager Tom Burt said the Human Rights commissioners "made false statements that defamed police officers involved in previously settled civil lawsuits and violated the Data Privacy Act by publicly discussing the shooting of September 22, which is still under investigation."

The members of the Human Rights Commission dispute this, and in a statement released before the Tuesday night vote, Anne Dykstra said on behalf of Marion Helland, Tim Hepner and Terri Policy (see full statement in attached PDF):

We acknowledged that we did not have complete information on the most recent incident. Nor are we lawyers. In no instance did we indicate these cases were criminal in intent or use the word “convicted.” Our discussion was based totally on public information from news reports or from court documents available on the internet.

Council member Mike Freiberg was the only member who voted against dismissing the members, siding, in part, with the commission. Freiberg addressed the council before the vote Tuesday night.

"I don’t agree with the statements the commissioners made, but that doesn’t mean I think they all deserve to be kicked off," he said. "I listened to the meeting at issue, and what I heard was not the words of malicious lunatics determined to destroy the police department. Instead, what I heard was well-meaning citizens, acting in a volunteer capacity, attempting to address what they viewed as an important issue, acting in good faith, and attempting to comply with the laws."

Freiberg argued that the council could have chosen to repudiate the commission's statements—one of the other options suggested by City Attorney Allen Barnard. Freiberg said he was concerned that getting rid of the commissioners would send a bad message to other members of various city commissions and groups.

"The people we’d be kicking off include a 25-year veteran of the Human Rights Commission who was just recognized by the state for her lifetime commitment to the issue. We’d also be kicking off two people who attended a grand total of two commission meetings. We’d be using a meat cleaver where a scalpel would have sufficed. I object to this action in the strongest possible terms."

Council member Bob Shaffer, perhaps the most vocal in opposition to the actions made by the Human Rights Commission, said he did not want to comment on Freiberg's remarks and said he'd made his opinion clear in previous meetings.

However, council member DeDe Scanlon took issue with some of Freiberg's statement. She said they never saw the commissioners as "malicious lunatics."

"We need to re-evaluate the commission and look at its relationship with the city."

In just two weeks, there will be two new members of the council: Mayor-elect Shep Harris and Joannie Clausen. Clausen, who attended Tuesday night's meeting, said she would have voted against the measure.

"There are so many things about the legal system that the average person doesn't understand," she said. "I totally agree with Mike (Freiberg) and I just would not have done this. And it's too bad they didn't wait a few weeks, or it would have turned out differently."

Freiberg had also suggested the commission members join the citizen's police training or take a ride-along with a cop, instead of being dismissed.

"That's the right idea. We need more training for our citizens on these commissions," Clausen said. "Look at me. I'm learning so much before I take office, and I wish every citizen could see it from both sides like I'm now doing. It really puts things in perspective."

On Jan. 21, the members of the new City Council will gather with Mayor-elect Harris for a five-hour brainstorming session—something often done at the beginning of a new term. Clausen said she'd like to see the future of the Human Rights Commission is discussed.

Regardless of what happens next, Dykstra said she still has faith in the city and in the Human Rights Commission—with or without the former members.

We believe it (HRC) will continue as part of Golden Valley Government. We believe that our citizens and City Council can discuss the most difficult subjects, and even disagree, but still work for the good of the community together with our police department.