GRAND RAPIDS — Two citizens are suing Itasca County leadership over alleged federal civil rights violations.
At the Aug. 19 County Board meeting, former Commissioner Doug Carpenter served all five current commissioners, Attorney Jacob Fauchald and Administrator Brett Skyles. Auditor-Treasurer Austin Rohling and Sheriff Joe Dasovich are also being sued.
"You told me that I should do things properly, and here I am," Carpenter said as he served Commissioner Terry Snyder.
Carpenter is not one of the parties in the lawsuit.
Robert Preble and John Casper allege that the leaders are violating the First, Fourth and 14th amendments and the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. In the lawsuit, they say the county has suppressed their negative public input, selectively enforced policies, failed to respond to data requests and illegally prevented anonymous requests.
Preble previously ran for county commissioner in two different districts. He received 5% of the vote earlier this year in a special primary election for District 4. He lost by just 150 votes when he ran against District 3 Commissioner John Johnson in 2023.
“Let’s be honest, this board has broken the trust of the very people it has sworn an oath to serve," Preble said during the public comment portion of the Aug. 19 meeting.
"For months, we submitted comments under your own policy, and you ignored them. We called, we emailed, we text, and you would not respond.”
Preble and Casper are asking the court to declare their rights have been violated, force the county to fulfill their data requests and offer anonymous comment and award compensatory damages.
Administrator Skyles briefly addressed the comments, which he said he doesn’t often do, while being interrupted by Preble.
"I listen to his — what I would describe as character assassination — and he speaks out from the order," Skyles said.
" ... But I would just advise or invite any citizen who would like to have honest answers on those questions, please feel free to send me an email."
Commissioner Larry Hopkins was the only official who acknowledged the commenters at the meeting.
"I would just like to thank the folks that stood up and gave citizen input today," he said. "We don't often get people that come in and do that, so I just wanted to let you know that it was appreciated by myself."
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