The anti-Vikings stadium gadfly is back at it.
Minneapolis resident Doug Mann, whose legal challenge over the funding of the $1 billion behemoth briefly delayed the state's sale of $462 million in bonds last month, has filed an appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court. He's seeking to overturn a Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling from last month.
Mann originally filed suit in Hennepin County District Court in July, claiming the Minneapolis city charter requires a referendum for the use of more than $10 million in "city resources" to build the stadium. (Minneapolis is on the hook to pay $150 million of the $1 billion in stadium construction costs.) In November, District Judge Judge Philip Bush dismissed the petition.
On Jan. 10, Mann, a former mayoral candidate in Minneapolis, his wife, Linda, and one-time city school board member David Tilsen, filed a petition with the state Supreme Court calling for the impending bond sale (raising funds for the stadium) to be suspended. But the court dismissed that measure, as well.
The bonds were sold in late January.
On Jan. 9, Mann also filed for a "writ of mandamus" -- a legal maneuver generally used when all other judicial remedies fail -- with the state Court of Appeals calling for a reversal of the lower court decision. That was dismissed by the Appeals court on Jan. 21, because, the court said, Mann could have filed an ordinary appeal. On Friday, he filed a petition for the Supreme Court to review the Appeals court's decision.
Mann is arguing that an ordinary appeal was not adequate, partly because it may have required him to post a $10 million surety bond, an a mount he says he can't raise. He also wants the state's highest court to review the Appeals court decision.
Court spokesman Kyle Christopherson said the Supreme Court decides whether or not to take a case. There's no deadline for making a decision, but he said the court usually decides within 60 days of the petition's filing.
