LINK TO: January 1, 2022 Pioneer Press article about Citizens Opposed to Municipal Water

Why are these issues so important?

It is important for the public to know exactly what is going on. Many irregularities have occurred over the past 24 months. Citizens Opposed to Municipal Water has filed a lawsuit against the West Lakeland Township board alleging the board has violated Minnesota State statutes over 55 times. Here are just some of those violations and their importance to the residents of West Lakeland Township.

Refusal to Expand Board Size

State law has required the Board to hold a referendum for at least the past 5 years and likely as much as 20 years.
Currently it only takes two votes to amend the comprehensive plan or approve anything by West Lakeland Township. We have already seen what a problem this can be with this municipal water issue.

Why Data Practice Violations are so concerning.

We have identified 11 major data practice violations.
The township has made it virtually impossible to go in and review township records as required by state law.
The township has also delayed and provided incomplete information on many data practice requests.
Minnesota has designated a full state agency to make sure all government entities provide transparency to the public. The township has already been found to have violated the state statutes. The 11 new violations are in addition to the previous violations.

Why Open Meeting Law Violations are so important.

Again, government transparency is essential. The township has hidden and ignored the very strict Minnesota State laws, set for holding public meetings.
This board has held secret meetings and we believe have had secret communications between board members between meetings. This violates state laws.
The West Lakeland township board has exceeded its budget in 2020 and October 2021 by over $270,000 without telling the residents. They have tried to hide this information from the public.

Financial Irregularities

As the board recklessly spent this $270,000, they raised your taxes by 13% in March 2021.
They overspent most of this money in just a handful of areas. They were 340% over budget with the city attorney alone in 2020 without any major lawsuits.
Significant overspending includes, but not limited to the township clerks, the township engineer, municipal water, and road maintenance. It should be noted that municipal water alone cost taxpayers $95,000, of which at least $55,000 was not reimbursed by the state. The township engineer took over 100% of the money provided by the state. As the township hired consultants, the town board chair claimed in meetings those contracts would be reimbursed by the state of Minnesota, knowing that the money was already spent with the engineer.
The township spent approximately $280,000 with one company for road maintenance in 2020 and 2021. The state of Minnesota requires spending of this magnitude be put out for bid. The board chose to pass this spending without bids, or findings, and with a simple motion. This is a huge violation of state law.

Refusal to Protect The Environment & Water Supply and Secret negotiations with PIIC municipal water.

The town board had secret negotiations with PIIC and specific plans from Prairie Island for nearly 2 years that they never disclosed.
The West Lakeland Township board refuses to discuss this issue. They are violating state laws including West Lakeland’s own Ordinances and Comprehensive Plan.
PIIC $10.4 Million municipal well is large enough to supply all of the homes in Afton, West Lakeland, and Baytown Townships.
This well is less than a quarter-mile from many West Lakeland homes with private wells and will likely impact the water supply of homes in West Lakeland and Afton.
It is less than a quarter-mile from the headwaters of the protected Valley Creek Trout stream in Afton and will surely impact the water flow of that stream. 100% of the base flow of water from that stream comes from the aquafers to be used by PIIC.
A well the size will significantly draw more of the PFAS pollutants towards West Lakeland and the Valley Creek Trout Stream.

The rest of the story behind the push for a Municipal water system in West Lakeland Township

On Friday September 3, 2021 Citizens Opposed to Municipal Water (COMW), Filed complaint in Tenth District Court seeking immediate temporary restraining order and action regarding these critical issues:

Halt all further work on any business concerning municipal water or wells, intensified development, and water treatment facility conflicting with the Comprehensive Plan of West Lakeland Township.
Commence a referendum vote to grant WLT residents the option to increase the Town Board from 3 to 5 members.
Consider office forfeiture of the current township board supervisors for many documented, intentional Minnesota statute violations.
Return governance of west Lakeland township to transparent, truthful and lawful operations representing and accountable to the residents.

The substantive issues of misfeasance, nonfeasance by the WLT board and township at issue in this case revolve around the following areas of concern:

Intentional hiding and withholding of information from the public through the 3M Comprehensive Drinking Water Plan (CDWP) process
Complicity and collusion with special treatment afforded to 1 WLT property owner – PIIC
- CDWP plan still includes new municipal well and water treatment plant for PIIC
- Serious environmental concerns and potential private well impacts have been ignored
Financial improprieties regarding contracts and expenditures
Ignoring obligation to offer residents a referendum to increase board size from 3-5 members
Regular meetings and Special meetings open meeting law violations
Data practices law violations

Many residents have generously donated to fund this effort but we need your help to ensure this citizen led effort succeeds in holding elected officials truly accountable to the electorate in our township.

You can also learn much more about each of these topics from the details section of our website in case you did not know the following: facts:

Starting on Oct 22, 2020, WLT residents were presented a draft of the 3M settlement Comprehensive Drinking Water Plan (CDWP) that called for a municipal water system as the ONLY option for West Lakeland and this plan would have taken away your well.

As resident opposition to this plan grew, culminating in a public meeting June 30, 2021, the WLT board retreated to claims of “we don’t make the decision” after initially being very supportive of the municipal water plans.

The WLT Board made the decision to recommend for ONLY a municipal water system option in WLT at special meetings Feb 27, 2020 and Mar 5, 2020, hid all these proceedings from residents and incurred numerous open meeting law violations in the process.

Sadly, the unlawful practices, and purposeful deception by the WLT board expand well beyond the Feb 27 and Mar 5, 2020 special meetings:

The August 20, 2021 final draft CDWP removed the municipal water system for most of West Lakeland, but still calls for a municipal water system (including a new municipal well and water treatment plant) for 111 acres of land owned by Prairie Island Indian Community (PIIC) for just under $10 Million.

The 111 acres owned by PIIC in WLT is still PRIVATE property. PIIC remains only a private landowner (same as you) in West Lakeland Township. But they have been treated as a local government unit (LGU) in the 3M CDWP process.

The WLT Board has been complicit with treating PIIC as a LGU in the 3M CDWP process since Feb 27,2020 AND has hidden all PIIC intensified land use plans from residents, circumvented the planning commission and ignored the WLT comprehensive plan.

No municipal water system would be needed for the PIIC land if it was developed as required by the WLT comprehensive plan. What are they planning to build?

The well associated with the proposed municipal water system for the PIIC land has not been adequately studied for potential negative impacts to surrounding private wells and the Valley Creek Trout Stream.

Finally, The WLT Board has been under MN Statute obligation since at least 2017 to offer residents a referendum to increase board size from 3-5 members but continues to ignore this requirement.

When COMW organized around the original water issue in July of 2021, we had no idea we would uncover so many instances of unlawful practices and purposeful deception. We are hoping for a swift resolution to this case and the issues identified. We know it is in the best interest of all WLT residents to see this quickly come to a close.

We understand that this is possibly difficult information to process and that we want to give the benefit of the doubt to everyone. We were shocked by what we found as well. Sadly, untruthful actions by the WLT board uncovered by COMW have broken trust. If the WLT board was willing to purposefully hide (and continue to do so) actions related to the ONLY municipal water recommendation, intensified land use plans by PIIC, and financial overruns, what else might they choose to hide from residents in the future?