#DuluthDownload 25.6
Following the happenings of the 2025 Duluth City Council and more.
Good afternoon and happy July!
This has been one of the busiest events seasons I can remember since I moved here for college in 2006, with Grandma’s Marathon, 4th Fest, the Air Show, and now Festival of Sail over a four-weekend stretch. Tourism season can be tricky to navigate when headed downtown and to Canal Park, but these events pay the bills and buy down the cost of taxes for the year-round services we all depend on. So, a heartfelt thank you to the organizers, promoters, staff, volunteers, and city workers who all come together in seamless fashion to help Duluth always put on a good show!
One of those silent heroes I’d like to highlight is retired DPD Lt. Chad Nagorski, who was honored in June with the Rudy Perpich Public Service Award for his many years of service keeping marathon goers safe in Duluth. Thank you to all of you Chads out there!
Staying Focused Amidst the Noise
As we hit the mid-year checkpoint for council, there are a lot of exciting things in process that you won’t see get the social media traffic of other topics (we’ll get to that later). We’ve got a comprehensive review of Duluth’s development code in process with the laser-focused goal of building more housing across the city as the foundation for it. For the first time in city history, the council passed a policy on how and when we use tax incentives for development. A hard look at the skywalk system to help boost downtown safety is still under way. Lester Park Golf Course could get a second lease on life with potential developments being considered (I’m hopeful we could even have a vote on it before the calendar flips to 2026). And hard work that has been going on for years is starting to pay off with tent encampments down significantly this year as safer options for those struggling with homelessness have come online and we are enforcing our community norms and ordinances.
This is the “meat and potatoes” work of city government as my late friend Renee Van Nett used to say. It isn’t usually sexy, but it’s the stuff that elected officials and staff have to keep focused and disciplined on to make Duluth a better community for the long-haul despite whatever distractions try and take us off course in the current moment. I’m proud of the work your council is doing this year to make progress on the quiet things that will make a big impact!
Understanding the “Right to Repair” Issue
Last month, we talked about the proposed "Right to Repair" ordinance, which will be on the ballot this November. This idea, pushed by a group called TakeAction MN, would require landlords to fix tenant complaints within 14 days. If they don't, tenants could get the repairs done themselves and bill the landlord.
While the idea seems simple, your City Council had concerns about how it would work in real life. That's why Councilors Randorf, Tomanek, and Nephew proposed an alternative. Their plan aimed to crack down on bad landlords with stronger enforcement and similar timelines for emergency repairs, making it more practical for our city.
At our last meeting, the Council voted on both proposals. The TakeAction MN proposal failed with a 2-6 vote, while the alternative passed 6-2. However, because TakeAction MN collected over 3,000 signatures, their "Right to Repair" proposal will still appear on your November ballot, despite the Council's vote.
Why Most of the Council Had Concerns
I usually keep my speeches short, but I spoke at length about this issue because I believe it's important. One of my main worries was the lack of collaboration. The "Right to Repair" proposers didn't seem to work much with key groups who would be affected, like other tenant rights organizations or landlords. Laws written without input from everyone involved often run into problems.
It felt more like a political campaign than an effort to work with the Council and other stakeholders to create a workable law. Councilor Randorf spent many hours trying to find common ground with TakeAction MN, but their "my way or the highway" approach meant the majority of the Council couldn't support their flawed proposal, which likely has legal gaps.
A Bigger Concern: Duluth's Unique Ballot Laws and Special Interest Groups Taking Advantage of Them to Duluth’s Detriment
But my biggest concern hasn't been talked about enough. TakeAction MN is a political action committee (PAC) that's been trying to push its agenda in Duluth for years. They've supported policies that I believe would harm our community, like the rent cap in St. Paul, which led to higher taxes, lower property values, and a freeze in new housing development.
Because they haven't been able to elect enough like-minded councilors (they amazingly campaigned against me two years ago on the premise that coaching my kid’s baseball team was somehow a dereliction of my council duties), they're using a unique loophole in our city's charter to bypass the Council and Mayor. Many cities allow citizen-proposed ordinances on the ballot, but these laws can usually be changed later by the elected council if problems arise. This just happened in St. Paul, where the rent cap passed by ballot initiative had to be fixed by their council years later.
Duluth is the only city in Minnesota where laws passed by voters through a ballot initiative cannot be changed or updated by elected officials. This creates a "super statute" — a law above all others — that can only be fixed by another costly and time-consuming public vote. If "Right to Repair" passes, I believe we'll see more campaigns like this from well-funded special interest groups from outside of Duluth (TakeAction MN reported revenues of $5 million in 2023).
This means impactful decisions could be outsourced to groups with their own agendas and lots of money, instead of being made by your elected officials who are accountable to you. I don't believe this is better for Duluth. As I have reflected on this topic since the last council meeting when Right to Repair was discussed, I don’t believe we should remove ballot-approved laws altogether. Having a path for voters to push for change directly is important as a principle. But we should change our city charter to put them on the same footing as all other local laws so your elected Council and Mayor can address issues as they arise (like every other city in MN that has ballot-approved laws). I hope this is a conversation we can have as a community and council after the Right to Repair vote plays out in November. Look for fancy campaign literature with a “paid for by TakeAction Minnesota” tagline coming to a mailbox and social media site near you.
On the Duluth Coffee Thing
I debated not even bringing this up today, but given how much social media chatter there has been on this, I will give you my $0.02. Council President Terese Tomanek is a dear friend and someone who serves with integrity, dedication, and professionalism. As elected officials, we should be held to a higher standard, and she issued an apology that I thought was gracious to the other individual in this story. But what I will say is that we see a lot in our roles as elected officials that we don’t talk about or bring up publicly. As an example, this is a post from 2024 of Terese with dead bodies in the background (viewer discretion) that came from a group associated with the citizen involved in the coffee situation:
I’m glad Council President Tomanek responded to the coffee shop story with the grace and integrity an elected official should in a situation like this. But harassment of elected officials is unfortunately also becoming increasingly more common. Councilors should be mindful how our interactions can come across to others. And I would argue citizens also have a responsibility for their own interactions with elected officials. And finally, and to no one’s surprise, there’s always more to these stories than what you see on social media.
Important Things to Know
The council will be voting in August to replace former 2nd District Councilor Mike Mayou, who resigned in June. Best wishes, Mike!
DFD has dealt with a number of structure fires over the last few months. Shoutout to our firefighters for their everyday work to keep us safe!
Budget season will soon be upon us for city government. We will have impacts from the Big Beautiful Bill. The county has also shared some of their concerns.
Mark your calendars: the Primary Election for council and school board seats is August 12th.
Thanks folks! Have a great Sunday.
Informational, as always. 👍
I want to publicly apologize to Arik for him having to see murdered Palestinian bodies and hear uncomfortable truths.
I do however prefer the term accountability over harassment, but I understand that being coddled with the privileges afforded to white men in power (and being backed by deeply concerning conflicts-of-interest) that the two terms can be confusing.