Rochester’s controversial council member faces 3 challengers in primary next week

ROCHESTER - The City Council member who’s suing the city here must stave off a primary challenge next week if she wants to continue as an elected official.

Molly Dennis’ Ward 6 seat is up for grabs in arguably the most-watched local race in the region as three other candidates vie to replace her.

All of her challengers — Dan Doering, a Lutheran pastor; Mark Schleusner, a Mayo Clinic programmer; and Becca Dyer Tesch, a sales and marketing manager for a hotel company — say Dennis is too combative. They want to see more collaboration on the council. All the candidates largely agree on city policy issues, from encouraging more economic growth and keeping taxes low to securing more housing in the area, but they say Dennis is hindering the city’s work.

“It’s a distraction we don’t need right now,” said Dyer Tesch. “It’s not helping anyone. There’s a big budget and many projects coming up, and we need to get along, we need to find a way through.”

Dyer Tesch, a lifelong Rochester resident, said residents she’s spoken to while door-knocking for the past six weeks are calling for calmer relations on the council.

“They are calling for respect brought back to the seat,” Dyer Tesch said.

Dennis touts her record on the council as standing up for her constituents, working on progressive issues and raising questions about how the city spends taxpayer dollars.

“I will not rubber stamp staff policy or bow down to big money or powerful corporations,” Dennis said in an email. “This is a full-time job; my priority and my allegiance has been and will always be with the residents in ward 6.”

But the upcoming election may be more about Dennis’s relationship with her colleagues on the council and city staff.

Dennis is suing the city, as well as Mayor Kim Norton and council member Patrick Keane, for discrimination. She alleges the city and her fellow council members have intentionally ostracized and bullied her because she processes things differently.

Her problems stem from a March 2023 meeting where the council formally censured her for inappropriate behavior. The censure, brought forward by Keane, claims she harassed staff and acted inappropriately as a public official, limiting her interactions with other staff for the year as a result.

The city later outlined several instances where Dennis allegedly acted in a hostile manner toward others, including a July 2022 meeting between Dennis, City Administrator Alison Zelms and City Attorney Michael Spindler-Krage that ended poorly.

The city last year hired an outside investigator to look into Dennis’s claims the censure was a reprisal over her attention disorder. The investigator’s report found no cause to Dennis’s claims, but it also included comments from Norton on how she felt Dennis “micromanages and abuses her authority” by getting personally involved in incidents rather than directing residents to staff members. She also told the investigator Dennis has tried to fix parking tickets in the past, demanding information on confidential police matters.

A federal magistrate judge is reviewing Dennis’s lawsuit. Attorneys for the city of Rochester pushed to dismiss Dennis’ suit in a court hearing in May, arguing Dennis doesn’t have grounds to sue the city.

Dennis has publicly scrapped with her colleagues in recent months during meetings over various issues, from her treatment on the board to criticisms over city spending she disagrees with. She was kicked out of a board meeting in May after arguing with Spindler-Krage and Council President Brooke Carlson.

She was almost kicked out of a meeting Monday while arguing over concerns about meeting process and council rules — Carlson asked her to leave, but seconds later chose to ask her colleagues to adjourn the meeting.

Dennis said she was cut off by city staff and other colleagues while trying to make a larger point about the city’s decision to turn off comments on social media posts, which she condemns as a huge policy change made by staff rather than elected officials that cuts off residents’ abilities to make their opinions heard.

If re-elected, Dennis said she’d continue to work on government transparency issues as well as supporting small businesses and addressing housing.

“Instead of orchestrated smear campaigns, propaganda, or empty campaign promises, I hope residents look deeper at what I have done with a proven voting record and my full-time commitment to their needs being addressed,” she said.