Anoka City Forum

Sivarajah & Skogquist + McDonald

Star Tribune on 7-20-08 reported Anoka County Commissioner Rhonda Sivarajah avowing, "I have never talked to people about running against fellow board members."

But the Tribune also reported that Anoka Mayor Skogquist- now running for county commissioner- claimed "Rhonda approached me" about running against Dan Erhart.

Sivarajah confirmed to the Tribune that well, yes, she "did encourage him".

Hopefully the Tribune didn't have to resort to waterboarding to get these confessions.

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Sivarajah & Skogquist in cahoots and playing politics goes back to at least 2002.

"Elect Rhonda" was listed in the Coles Information Services Directory at 408 Van Buren, Anoka MN, Skogquist's residence.  The phone number listed was Mayor Bjorn Skogquist's. Sivarajah's district is Lino Lakes in the far east of the county.

408 Van Buren was also the residence of a Bonnie McDonald. (Maybe currently 8-08 -signed a petiton 408 Van Buren #2)  This is the renter-girlfriend-fiancee-ex-whatever of Skogquist's that was hired at the Anoka County Historical Society even though she did not meet the minimum requirement of five years experience. And, in fact, was a student back east at the time of the job posting.  See McDonald's profile on www.LinkedIn.com.

Only two applicants were interviewed (ACHS board minutes 5-02). One man had the required five years museum management experience. The other applicant, the-girl-with-no-experience, was hired.

This was the year the Minnesota Historical Society's funding was cut 25%, sites were closed, many qualified historic types were forced into other jobs.

But McDonald was a tireless door-to-door campaigner for "Skogquist for Mayor". ( Also Dori Schumacher and Michael Gundlach's literature was tucked in with Skogquist's) She was in a close personal relationship with the Mayor of Anoka. It was determined she was a "better fit" for the job of executive director.  June 2002.

2002 was also the year Skogquist declared his occupation: "to me, being your mayor is a full time job."  Salary $6,800. He was somehow able to purchase 408 Van Buren.   August 2002.

It was probably a helpful benefit to have county taxpayer money via McDonald contributing to Skogquist mortgage payments in those lean years.

Comment: Bjorn Skogquist recent job at ATC (Anoka Technical College) should be investigated. While we appreciate Anne Weyandt taking the little guy in, he's not exactly qualified for the job.  Unless it's another one of those spoils hires. Being mayor the major qualification?

Unnecessary Wards

Letter to the editor 10-3-08.  Permission to post on the Anoka City Forum was not requested nor obtained as it was taken from the public record:

On this small patch of land we call the City of Anoka, we as residents have darn good access to all five city council members.

They are all close.  The whole town is only seven square miles.  All of them would welcome a letter from a resident with something to say.

I have never been refused an email address or a cell phone number.  They are all accessible every few days at one of the many published meetings at city hall.

If you don't seem to get along with one, you can talk to another one.  And if you don't like that one, you can choose from three more.

Furthermore, if you don't like the entire council, and that opinion is popular, then you as voters can overturn the majority of the council every two years!

If the people who signed the petition (for a ward based voting system) feel that others have to come to your doors to get your opinion, then you need to get involved.

Streaming video is online ( www.ci.anoka.mn.us ).  City meetings replay several times a day on local cable for the next two weeks.

The City of Anoka ensures that the electronic packets are available for review online by Friday before the next scheduled meeting.  Minutes for meetings are also available on the city website for up to two years.

There are constant vacancies on our boards and commissions.  Many of the public meetings are under attended.

I'll make a personal challenge to all who read this, fill some of the empty chairs yourself.  Did you think all you had to do was vote to be well represented?

Pat Walker

Anoka

Erik Skogquist the Collaborator ?

Erik Skogquist-for-mayor campaign rhetoric asks why Anoka's City Council "is killing car shows, farmer's markets and amphitheaters".   Abc newspaper 8-29-08.

For the record these three things are all still out there, alive and active:

• Anoka has had a car show for four months almost every Saturday every summer for the last six years.  The Anoka City Council (8-18-08) unanimously approved the car show through 2009 - to be run by council candidate Aaron Barr's organization. Members include Mark Peterson and Andrew Boho.

• We have also had a very nice farmer's market for many years. ---Thank you to St. Stephen's Church and Lyric Arts for this year's improvement with the added visibility and easy parking.  It's wonderful.  Fifth and Main. Thursday afternoon 2-5:30. Through October 16. Get there early for the sweet corn.

• Erik's amphitheater project is still advertising events and collecting donations.  He shouldn't be doing that if it was "killed", should he?

Erik Skogquist promises to work collaboratively should he add to his brother's eight years as mayor.

Hopefully casting inaccurate aspersions and spreading wrong information is not Erik's idea of being collaborative.

Letter to the editor. . .submitted by Linea Kirchner. . .censored by Peter Bodley.

Continually spreading misinformation is one of the accusations behind the councilmember recall effort in St. Francis.

Comment:   At what price credibility?  At what price character?

A quote usually attributed to Lincoln:  "If you can forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.   It is true that you can fool all the people some of the time;  you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time."

Comment:  Stirring up strife for political gain just hurts the candidate and it hurts the town. It seems that Erik is going to be exactly like his brother in his frequent departures from the truth and reality. One wonders what he is telling people door-to-door when he gets this strident in a public statement.

His brother had told people that the former mayor "made money off of land deals."

Wary of Wards

There has been a petition circulating in the City of Anoka requesting a ward based voting system be installed.

Paul Pierce, Bjorn Skogquist and Dori Schumacher are the only three ever elected officials to sign the petition.  Rather than public hearings and debate first, they went straight to the at-the-door limited presentation and signature gathering.

Wards can work in very large cities with diverse populations.

Wards for Anoka would be a big step backward. Council/manager government came about to curb abuses and dysfunctions of wards.

The petition to amend the charter in favor of wards is not a minor tweaking, but a major change.  This is huge.

In Anoka a vote for a wards system is a vote to give up your full right to vote, your full right to choose representation. (50-75% depending on how you count it.)

Shorewood, MN tried wards and is turning back.  They found a ward system reduced voter turnout and made elected officials less responsive and less accountable. 

See  http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=19747624

See http://www.ci.shorewood.mn.us/pages/election/election.html

Shorewood felt that returning to an at large system with all residents voting for all officials was more democratic.

Skogquist Legal Troubles Back Story

An earlier post on the Anoka City Forum referred to campaign fraud investigation of Mayor Bjorn Skogquist. He answered a public query with, "The County Attorney dropped it on my behalf."

Skogquist revealed that the investigation went on for seven months and characterized it as frivolous.

Most of us have more confidence in our County Attorney's office than to believe they would waste seven months on something that was totally without merit or frivolous.

Some general information has come dribbling in: "Elect Rhonda" was run out of Skogquist's duplex in the City of Anoka in 2002, listing Skogquist's phone number. Rhonda Sivarajah is an Anoka County commissioner; but her area is on the far east end of Anoka County. Mayor Skogquist attended her inauguration.

There is some relationship between the former county attorney, R. W. Johnson, and Bjorn Skogquist.  They were both mentioned in an obituary for a James Farrier: Johnson as an honorary pallbearer and Skogquist as a relative.

The Anoka City Forum has heard about two letter-to-editor writers who had R. W. Johnson, former county attorney, suggest to them that it was inappropriate for them to be writing about Mr. Skogquist.

Is it possible he would attempt to influence his son, the current county attorney, on Mr. Skogquist's behalf?  Mr. Johnson, (R.W.) didn't seem to hesitate to attempt to influence two ordinary citizens and their freedom of speech and statements of opinion.

The campaign violations investigation was largely based on self-reported information, supplied by Mr. Skogquist. Anonymous cash found on his back step. There was a near miss on "Skogquist for Mayor" signs on Leon Fischer's (moneyed landlord) fire truck. Mr. Fischer's out-of-town relatives also suddenly became interested in donating money to Anoka's mayoral race. All perfectly legal.

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Update:  Bjorn4Commissioner is pretty outrageous:  Skogquist says "start listening to citizens".  In the city of Anoka 80% of the residents polled in a survey ordered out-of-order by Skogquist himself were in favor of rental licensing.  Skogquist blocked and stalled for special interests. It was five years and changes on the city council to get this routine housing regulation.

Moneyed out-of-town and predatory landlords were Skogquist contributors, sign locations and personal friends.

If this kind of political ego goes further than the little mayor's seat he's dominated for eight years. . .well, Anoka, be afraid, be very afraid.

Dodged a Bullet: defeated Gundlach

The following is a letter to the editor from abc newspapers and reprinted here, permission was not obtained, as it is of public record.

To the Editor:

November 2005:  Taxpayers in the City of Anoka dodged a bullet last election (2004) by keeping newcomer Mike Gundlach off the city council.

The Pierce/Skogquist council did succeed  in appointing him, a resident of only four months, to the city's HRA (Housing Authority) -consistent with their pattern of installing new and non-residents to make decisions for the city.

Gundlach was also named to the Charter Commission just before the new ethics rules were in place.

At the November 14 meeting Gundlach, a former appraiser, expressed concern about the assessed value of a specific home related to it's possible higher current market value.

Citing this historic residence in zone 4, Gundlach said, "The city is losing tax revenue." Then he directed staff to look into it and report back.

I wonder whose crystal ball you could use to do that. . .to predict and then tax some future highest value of any given property?

Many historic homes could not be preserved under such a punishing and speculative tax scheme.

Letter to Editor November 2005   Anoka County Union

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Comments:  Where and how does Skogquist find these guys? Or do they find him?  This particular tax scheme was one commonly used by the early political bosses to go after political rivals.

The historic residence cited was owned by the Weaver family. Why wasn't Gundlach concerned about property north (Medved's and Corriveau's)?  Or even the Pierce holdings south?  Could it be because these men are political allies of Mr. Skogquist and himself?  Gundlach and Skogquist campaign signs were on these properties.

There's that arbitrary and capricious conflict-of-interest-thingee again.

Comments:  One idea floated out there was to redevelop those old useless concrete ruins (already owned by Anokans and doing no earthly good) aka amphitheater, along with those old crummy sober houses.   With that footbridge already connecting the street to downtown, it would be a nice looking thing, like that nice three-story into the hill across the river and north from city hall.

Bonthuis Betamaxed by Aaron Barr

Betamaxed= to be overtaken by an inferior but better marketed product. As in "Microsoft betamaxed Apple right out of the market."

Whoever did Aaron Barr's campaign should be offered:

1. Kudos. It was brilliant. Aaron Barr's only been in town since 2002. There was the newspaper account of him circulating rumors and a petition with falsehoods to "protect his property values". So he's a  somewhat compromised (302 across the alley!), unknown mumble mouth. He was dead last of the four candidates after the primary. And yet he passed up an articulate, unblemished superior candidate: Borgie Bonthuis. And was, in fact, only 21 votes behind Carl Anderson.

"Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills."

2. Condolences. So close. Some say it was that sloppy letter he mailed to every house in town. The quality of that letter was nothing like the quality of pieces turned out ahead of that. Plus he drew unnecessary attention to his main liability: 302 Fremont boondoggle. By referring to some short letter buried deep in the paper that few even read.  "Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation?"  Protest too much?  Even so, condolences  need to be offered to the political genius behind Mr. Barr.    So sad.     Better luck next time.