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The images above were both taken at about the time I was censured by the Duluth School Board. I like to think of the fist pounding pic as my Mr. Smith Goes to Washington moment.
The School Board wanted to remove an ornery board member Art Johnston. I made such a stink about their stink that they simply censured him. Although the details were legion I tried to expose the precarious grounds they stood on after spending $15,000 to blacken his name. My critique was in a column titled the Stinking Fish.
A couple weeks later I gave the board an excuse to censure me as well. I revealed the price we had negotiated for the sale of Duluth’s Central High School. The next day when I realized my mistake I wrote a “Mea Culpa” in my blog.
Our slippery Red Plan Superintendent, Keith Dixon, had assured Duluth the land would sell for $30 million dollars. It was part of his fantasy that his half-billion-dollar Red Plan would pay for itself.
My mistake allowed a furious school board majority to hide its fury at me for defending board member Johnston by claiming my loose lips could have cost us a ten million dollar sale. There was justice in this claim and I voted for my own censure but the buyer changed his mind for other reasons. By the way, the land today is burning a hole in the pocket of the developer who eventually bought it. As for the Duluth School District. Every year that the school wasn’t sold we spend half-a-million dollars maintaining an empty building. The most precious land in Duluth earned the school district a paltry few million bucks. Ever since I’ve worn my censure like a badge of honor.
As for Art. Mr. Johnston was a cross I bore from my first meeting him in 2008 right up until today. I told Art repeatedly that every time I defended him I lost support in my eastern end of town. He could never fathom that. And that was the least of my complaints. He chewed on my ankles for the way I led the fight to get a referendum on the Red Plan, for the way I attempted to hire an attorney and then to raise money for a court case. When he ran for the School Board he didn’t want me in the camera when he was in it. My better half blames him for my going to the emergency room in those days thinking I was on the verge of a heart attack. I wasn’t but I was under constant stress. I can understand why the rest of the school board was fed up with him. However, the simple fact was Art was innocent.
But even Art took a step too far for me. In 2020 when he lost his reelection in the Trump defeat Art claimed, as Trump did, that his votes had been miscounted. So did Donna Bergstrom who was running for the legislature. She is now the Deputy Chair of the Minnesota Republican Party. These two aided and abetted Donald Trump’s attempted coup d’etat. I have more complaints against Art but they are all petty compared to his treason.
