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Secede from Hennepin County? The north metro city of Champlin is considering it.

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Officials in the north metro city of Champlin say they are frustrated with Hennepin County’s lack of responsiveness to their city’s needs and are contemplating a dramatic solution: attempting to secede from Hennepin County.

Champlin, which is across the Mississippi River from Anoka County, has a population of 23,000.

“As mayor, I’m extremely serious [that] something needs to happen,” said Ryan Sabas, Champlin’s mayor, in an email. “We can’t keep paying in without a return here in Champlin.”

Sabas said the city first discussed the idea Monday in a council work session because of Champlin’s “inability to gain any ground” in getting Hennepin County to help fund capital improvement projects — particularly road projects — the city desperately needs. Still, any bid to sever Champlin from Hennepin County faces significant legal hurdles.

Champlin, Sabas said, is getting no money from the county over the next four years for any capital projects. The city has asked to partner with the county on road projects multiple times without success, he said, mentioning a proposal to share the cost of constructing a roundabout at the intersection of French Lake Road and County Road 121.

Dayton Road, West River Road and Winnetka Avenue “are all inadequate when it comes to use and safety,” he said.

“Time and time again, Hennepin County fails to be a partner in any capital projects, even when it comes to their own infrastructure,” Sabas said. “Where are Champlin’s share of county tax dollars going?”

Joining Anoka County would be the most logical option, Sabas said, but the city hasn’t had any formal conversations with county officials there. And a Hennepin County spokeswoman said officials have had no outreach yet from Champlin.

Anoka County spokesman Erik Thorson confirmed in an email that the county has not discussed the issue with Champlin leaders and noted that “the process of altering county jurisdictions is complex and should be approached with careful consideration of the interests and needs of all involved parties.”

The point of the work session was to find out if secession is even an option, Sabas said, and determine how to improve the city’s relationship with Hennepin County so the county can see the “inequities that are occurring year after year.”

There was no direction given to city staff at the work session, he said, and next steps include simply having more conversations on the topic. After that, one step might be to form a resident commission to weigh pros and cons of secession.

Hennepin County spokeswoman Carolyn Marinan said in a statement that the county “wasn’t aware of what transpired” at Champlin’s meeting this week.

“We have had numerous conversations over this past year with city officials about transportation, other issues and opportunities,” she said. “We value Champlin and all our city partners and residents in Hennepin County.”

It’s not clear what steps Champlin would take if it does decide to attempt to leave Hennepin County.

Sabas said that according to the city’s attorneys, one option would be to get Champlin’s legislative delegation to sponsor a bill related to Champlin seceding from Hennepin County. But that idea is unrealistic, Sabas said.

Another possibility would require Champlin to get 25% of the voters in the last Hennepin and Anoka county elections to petition for a secession question to appear on both county’s ballots, he said.

“That would be a very huge undertaking,” he said

In 2000, Pine County — about 60 miles north of St. Paul — tried to create a new county but 78% of voters were against the idea, a Champlin memo said.

Sabas said officials from other outer suburbs of Hennepin County also feel they get “stiffed on funding” from the county.

Dennis Fisher, mayor of Dayton, said though he thinks the secession idea is a little far-fetched, his city has similar concerns about county support for road work and other projects.

“I know exactly where [Champlin] is coming from and my guess is a lot of the municipalities on the north side [of the county] would say the same thing,” Fisher said.

“We dump a lot of revenue into the county,” he said, citing the city’s median home value of almost $500,000.

The county seems focused on core cities and suburbs, he said.

“It just seems like the county is slow to come to the table,” Fisher said.

He told a Champlin City Council member to keep him posted on what their city figures out, because several council members in Dayton would probably consider the secession idea.

“I know the residents would take a serious look at it,” he said.



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Former Hubbard County official, school bus driver gets six-year sentence for sex crimes against students

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A former Hubbard County commissioner and school bus driver was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for sex crimes involving minors.

Daniel J. Stacey, 60, was charged in April 2023 with criminal sexual conduct and electronic solicitation of a minor, both felonies, in Beltrami County District Court. He was then charged in November with nine additional felony counts related to criminal sexual contact with a minor.

Stacey pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts as part of a plea deal that dropped the remaining charges. His attorney, Joseph Tamburino, declined to comment Friday on the sentence, and officials with the Nevis school district did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

Stacey resigned from the Hubbard County Board in January 2023 and was placed on leave from his school bus job during an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) that began after the parent of a Nevis student filed a complaint.

In an email Friday, Hubbard County Administrator Jeffrey Cadwell said he had no comment other than that Stacey’s actions “did not occur within the course and scope of his duties with the County and the County was completely unaware of them.”

According to a criminal complaint, Stacey offered to mentor a 13-year-old male on his bus route. He brought the boy to his property, asked him to watch pornography and tried to touch him in a sexual manner, court documents state.

The boy told investigators that Stacey told him not to tell anyone, and helped him rehearse what to say about doing chores at his property. Investigators said they found footage showing times Stacey would deactivate the school bus camera when the boy was the only student left on the bus.

A second criminal complaint outlines similar allegations against Stacey with a minor who was 14 years old.



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Woman charged as investigation into attack on north Minneapolis homeless shelter continues

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A 33-year-old woman has been charged with two felonies in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced 54 women and children to relocate last week.

Eureka D. Riser, 33, of Minneapolis, is charged with second-degree rioting with a dangerous weapon and first-degree damage to property, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. She was in custody Friday, a day after Minneapolis police confirmed her arrest.

Riser, also known as Eureka Willis, is alleged to have been in a group of at least three people who on Sept. 5 went to St. Anne’s Place, 2634 Russell Av. N., and threatened residents, smashing doors with a baseball bat.

Residents were forced to vacate the shelter, leaving it boarded with plywood and watched over by armed security. Building managers estimate that property damage amounts to more than $10,000, according to the county attorney’s office. Additional charges may be brought against others involved.

“This violent attack on some of our most vulnerable community members, unhoused women and children, in a place where they had gone to seek shelter and safety cannot be tolerated,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.

Hoang Murphy, the CEO of People Serving People, which operates the shelter, said earlier this week that the four-hour episode was the culmination of an argument between shelter residents and neighbors over street parking that started days earlier and spilled over into violence.

According to the criminal complaint, which cites surveillance footage, Riser allegedly swung a baseball bat against the shelter’s doors, shattering glass while residents were inside. Another member of the group pointed what appears to be a gun at the front door of the building, the complaint says.

Residents have since been relocated to a hotel for safety reasons, costing People Serving People $9,000 a night — a figure that Murphy called unsustainable.



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6 months in jail for man shot by Minnesota deputies while resisting arrest

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A man who was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies in east-central Minnesota while resisting arrest received a six-month jail term Friday.

Leo H. Hacker, 71, was sentenced in Pine County District Court in connection with his guilty plea in two cases of assault, and obstructing and fleeing law enforcement in connection with his clashes with deputies in February 2023.

Hacker’s sentences will be served concurrently and includes Judge Jason Steffen setting aside a three-year sentence sought by the County Attorney’s Office. Steffen’s terms also include five years’ probation and community work service.

According to the charges in each case and related court documents:

On Feb. 21, deputies tried to pull over Hacker’s pickup truck on a gravel road about a mile from his Pine City home. As two deputies approached his vehicle, he drove toward them. Both deputies opened fire on Hacker and wounded him.

Hacker was wanted at the time on charges of second-degree assault and obstructing law enforcement in connection with allegations that he pointed a gun at a deputy outside his home on Feb. 14 and angrily defied orders to drop the weapon.

At one point, Hacker warned the deputies that if they did not leave, he would return with “something bigger,” the charges quoted him as saying.

The deputy was there to seize Hacker’s SUV stemming from a dispute over his unpaid attorney fees, the charges read. However, law enforcement outside the home “determined that based on the totality of circumstances, it was in the interest of safety to leave the scene at that time” and instead seek a warrant for Hacker’s arrest, the criminal complaint continued.



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