Carnahan declines to resign as mayor of Nisswa as actions are scrutinized

NISSWA — Nisswa Mayor Jennifer Carnahan declined to resign during a crowded Council meeting Tuesday, Dec. 16, as her conduct in the role is under scrutiny.

The Nisswa City Council is still expected to consider a vote of no confidence and a motion to censure its mayor at a meeting in January.

Carnahan said the planned actions are a violation of her First Amendment rights, and she hadn’t violated the city’s code of conduct.

“When a resolution conflicts with the Constitution, the Constitution always prevails,” Carnahan said. “And last time I checked, we were living in America, not communist China.”

Carnahan accused a Nisswa resident of assaulting her outside of a business during the city’s holiday lighting event in November. Prosecutors declined to bring any charges twice. Carnahan is also being scrutinized for allegedly having a loud conversation about how to remove fellow council member Jesse Zahn at a Nisswa restaurant.

Zahn responded to Carnahan’s accusations of politicizing the situation.

“This is not any political stunt, as you have alluded to, Mayor Carnahan,” he said. “This is simply, again, accountability."

In the time Carnahan has served as mayor of Nisswa, the city has lost its administrator and clerk, and two interim administrators left within a matter of weeks, according to the Echo Journal.

Carnahan was ousted as chair of the Minnesota GOP in 2021 over allegations of creating a toxic workplace, as well as her connections to convicted sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro.

She moved to Nisswa, where she also owns a boutique, following the death of her husband U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn in 2022. She was elected Nisswa’s mayor in 2024.

Months into her stint as Nisswa mayor, she also ran for the open seat in the Minnesota state Senate created by Justin Eichorn’s resignation.