Hugo's Mike Ericson describes the type of worrisome citizen behavior that's given him pause in his long tenure as a city administrator: "Extremely angry to the point of red-faced, shaking, blood vessels popping. They're mad, they're impassioned about something."
In Hugo and other cities across the metro area, city leaders are reviewing security and meeting procedures in reaction to the fatal shootings of five people at a recent City Council meeting in Kirkwood, Mo. They're striking a delicate balance between public safety and free speech as politics becomes more confrontational, budgets get tighter and emotions run higher. While stopping short of speculating whether such violence could happen at a public meeting in Minnesota, city and county leaders nevertheless are looking hard at how to prevent outbursts that could lead to trouble.
"The shooting was a tragic reminder of what could happen at any time despite the best of plans," said Trudi Moloney, director of council operations for St. Paul. "We continuously are assessing and changing security plans as appropriate."
In Kirkwood, a resident convinced the city was persecuting him killed two police officers, two City Council members and the city's public works director. The gunman, Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, also shot and critically wounded Kirkwood's mayor before being killed by police.
"From my standpoint, that was a hard story to read," said Stillwater Mayor Ken Harycki, who met with other city officials the morning after the shootings to review security.
"People can get very frustrated with the rules they think are silly or petty or whatever," said Harycki, who, like mayors in Oakdale, Edina and many other cities has an electronic button at his chair to summon police in the event of violence. "We're dealing with people's homes, very personal issues to them, and people can get very upset."
That's because people increasingly think their government leaders don't listen to their concerns, said Victoria Hoffbeck, a member of We The People, a taxpayer protest group in Hugo. "People are getting absolutely frustrated that their government is acting outside what they want and they don't know what to do," she said.
Nearly every city in Minnesota has unruly residents and in most cases they're harmless, said Jim Miller, executive director of the League of Minnesota Cities. He said he couldn't recall any deaths or serious injuries, but said meetings tend to be more contentious these days because more citizens hold hardened opinions and fewer seem willing to work for the common good.
