Star Tribune
Falcon Heights will continue policing contract with Ramsey County Sheriff
Both Falcon Heights and the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office have sought to end an agreement to have the sheriff’s office police the city.
But the arrangement will continue — at least temporarily — under a contract approved Tuesday by the Ramsey County Board. Meanwhile, the city will continue to look for alternatives, including the possibility of re-starting a relationship with St. Anthony Village, a city it cut policing ties with after a St. Anthony officer killed Black motorist Philando Castile in Falcon Heights in 2016.
The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office has been policing Falcon Heights since 2018. But in 2020, Sheriff Bob Fletcher began suggesting Falcon Heights look for alternatives.
The issue is geographic, Fletcher said: The sheriff’s office can have one deputy in Falcon Heights, but these days, he said, there are more calls for things like shots fired and domestic violence that require a second officer to respond. When a second officer is needed, they’re typically coming from a non-contiguous jurisdiction such as Little Canada, Shoreview or Vadnais Heights.
“It’s typically two miles-plus at high speeds in order to get there,” Fletcher said. He has suggested Falcon Heights contract with a nearby jurisdiction, form its own police force or find a hybrid delivery model.
“It really comes down to safety for the officers, and not just the officers, but the citizens, to have adequate response there in a timely fashion. The first two minutes of a call are always a critical time,” he said.
Falcon Heights has been exploring alternatives since 2021, City Administrator Jack Linehan said.
Aside from pressure from the sheriff’s office to find another partner, Linehan said the city has heard from residents who want a more community-based policing model.
He said the city is thankful to the sheriff’s office and its deputies who have served the city. “It’s not dissatisfaction by any means. It’s just finding a best fit for the next many years to come,” he said.
In March, Falcon Heights notified the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office it did not intend to renew its contract. In November, the city asked the sheriff’s office to continue providing services after negotiations with the city of St. Paul fell through over staffing and liability issues, Linehan said. St. Paul provides fire and EMS services to Falcon Heights.
The new contract, approved by the Falcon Heights city council last month, is substantively similar to the old one, with some changes in liability. But Linehan told council members at a January meeting the contract highlights that both parties don’t want the agreement to go past the end of 2024 unless obligated. If Falcon Heights can find an alternative, it can request to terminate the contract early.
The new contract will cost the city about 25% more in the first quarter and go up slightly after that. The increased cost stems from the need to use overtime deputies to cover Falcon Heights. Fletcher has said that because Falcon Heights notified his office it sought to terminate the agreement, staffing to cover the city wasn’t included in the sheriff’s office budget.
For Falcon Heights, the annual cost is $1.64 million, billed monthly, through March, with a 5% increase kicking in April 1.
On Thursday, the Falcon Heights and St. Anthony Village city councils will hold a joint workshop to discuss a potential renewal of their policing partnership, which started in 1994 and ended in 2017 following Castile’s traffic-stop killing by then-St. Anthony Village Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez.
Falcon Heights highlighted St. Anthony as a potential fit because of service level, proximity, logistics and finances, according to a city press release.
“Obviously there’s a lot of history there,” Linehan told the Star Tribune. “It’s a challenging process (that’s) opened up a lot of old wounds for both communities,” and will require buy-in on both sides and time for community input.
He said St. Anthony Village Police have gone through a rigorous rebuilding and reimagining, working with the Department of Justice through a community policing grant.
“Through that work, they were able to adopt a lot of new policies, new procedures that really align with the vision of our community,” he said.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
