Faribault Co. may be facing lawsuit

Local News

Faribault County officials may be gearing up for another legal battle.

For a second time this month commissioners at their May 16 meeting went behind doors for a closed-session.

This time, County Attorney Troy Timmerman was more forthcoming on what the five-member board talked about.

“We closed to discuss threatened litigation involving the Veteran Services Office,” he says.

Timmerman would not say if the possible lawsuit is related to the March 21 firing of Ryan Bromeland, who worked in the Veterans Services Office.

An investigation conducted by a detective of the Fairmont Police Department found that Bromeland violated the following four county personnel policies:

  • offensive conduct, harassment, violence;
  • data practices and privacy;
  • firearms at work;
  • and, smoke-free environment.

Earlier this month, commissioners closed their May 2 meeting to the public for what Timmerman said, “was to advise them of a pending legal matter and to discuss how the county was proceeding.”

At that time Timmerman’s explanation for holding a closed-session fell short of what is required under the state’s Open Meeting law, which states:

“In order to close a meeting under the attorney-client privilege exception, the governing body must give a particularized statement describing the subject to be discussed.

“A general statement that the meeting is being closed to discuss pending or threatened litigation is not sufficient.”

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