Total: $6,658.08

First Month of Fees for "Investigator": $519.69*

Second Month of Fees for "Investigator": $815.69**

Third Month of Fees for "Investigator": $3,516.69**

Final month's bill, requiring special city council approval, after you've received the finished "investigative report" $1,806.01***

Hijacking a municipal government to execute your personal vendettas: PRICELESS.

*Check #70316, dated 7/5/06 (in Approval of Claims, 7/10/06 council meeting packet p. 36)

**Check # 70725, dated 8/29/06 (in Approval of Claims, 9/11/06 council meeting packet p. 40) for "Investigation - June" and "Investigation - July"

*** The approval was added to the agenda of the 9/25/06 meeting as item N1, "Legal Costs in Excess of $5,000," as you can see in the minutes. Cave made a motion to authorize payment of the bill, Longrie seconded, and only Juenemann voted Nay. It was paid by check #71028, dated 10/10/06 (listed in the Approval of Claims in the 10/23/06 council meeting packet, page 16).

Not-So-Secret Agenda

The Schwieger Report, which is now part of the public record on account of the related court proceedings, is full of whoppers. But of all of them, I think this is my favorite -- it is found right at the top of page 60:

Ms. Le and many of her supporting witnesses throughout this investigation have tried to make this an investigation of Mr. Copeland, and secondarily, an investigation of the new Council Members and Mayor.

Let's break that down. Schwieger claims to be performing "an investigation of hostile work environment claims made by Sherrie Le" (page one). She reported that the hostile work environment was due to Mr. Copeland, the new Council Members, and Mayor. But Schwieger takes umbrage at various witnesses who assumed he would be investigating the people allegedly responsible for the hostile environment.

Clearly, Schwieger recognized that he had been given a different mandate when Copeland hired him. The "investigate her complaint" story just was a cover -- his real job was to investigate the complainant, to give Copeland a rudimentary paper trail for her firing -- and Schwieger seems remarkably surprised that not everyone was in on the secret, including Le herself.

A Rumor About Hot Dogs

Dear Rebecca Cave:

I heard a rumor the other day.

The rumor is that hot dogs are made by sweeping the stuff up off of the floor of the meatpacking plant and throwing it into sausage casing. Kind of makes you sick to your stomach, doesn't it.

I heard another rumor.

As a council member, you are supposed to hold your office with some integrity. No, that's not a rumor. Here is your rumor...In the Schweigert investigation (see page 46), you were spreading juicy salacious rumors about Ms. Le, the sort of projection that reveals a lot about the gossiper. Your lack of integrity makes me sick.

I heard another rumor.

This one was something about me voting for you in the last election. Bleah!! I just threw up.

Funny what happens when one tries to digest a Schweigert investigation.

Good Luck in November Rebecca!

Shameless image stealing

Happened to see this at FireDogLake. Thought we could use it for something...

Erik, Put That Rock Down

In last year's background report, we learned that city manager Copeland had a record of failing to pay his property taxes on time. More recently, we heard about city employment attorney Bethel being late to pay his taxes as well. And today we see on Maplewood Voices another nugget — apparently Mayor Longrie herself was, shall we say, less than timely in paying for her own bills for ads in city publications (or perhaps she negotiated net 360 terms on that first invoice).

So I guess you can see why the mayor, looking around at all those brittle glass walls, would ask Erik Hjelle if he might stop and think before throws any more accusations about delinquent payments around. Who knows what other news he might break in the process?