UPDATED: Board appoints familiar face as supervisor

Editor's note: On Dec. 8, appointee David Sunnarborg resigned his new position so the board could rewind its selection process after the Minnesota Department of Administration ruled that they had violated open meeting law when they illegally closed a meeting to narrow the original list of six applicants to three. Read more about that decision in next week's Pine Knot News or here: https://www.pineknotnews.com/story/2022/12/09/news/thomson-town-board-rewinds-supervisor-selection-process/8447.html.

Following months of an empty seat and controversy surrounding the appointment process, the Thomson Township board of supervisors appointed David Sunnarborg to fill the vacancy on its board during its Dec. 1 meeting.

After interviewing three candidates at its previous meeting, board members were asked to rank each candidate to determine who would be appointed to the vacancy. The board was tasked with the appointment process after supervisor Jason Paulson, a pilot, resigned in August due to his busy work schedule. His resignation came after the deadline to put the vacancy on the midterm ballot.

Township attorney David Pritchett counted the board’s votes and reported that Sunnarborg received three first-place rankings from the board. The other two candidates interviewed by the board were Gary Bonneville and Eric Rish.

Chairperson Ruth Janke thanked all of the candidates and explained the board’s selection of Sunnarborg was “probably due to his 18 years of experience.”

Sunnarborg was immediately sworn in and took his seat on the board for the rest of the meeting.

Sunnarborg, a lifelong Thomson Township resident, has served nearly 20 years on the town board or other committees for the township. Sunnarborg thanked the board for the appointment and said he was happy to be back. The appointed term will run through 2024.

The board’s appointment comes after supervisors narrowed down the initial applicant pool from six candidates to three during a closed meeting on Sept 8. The board’s agenda disclosed that the closed meeting was for a “personnel issue,” which was a violation of Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law.

The board has received correspondence from different sources regarding the violation, but has not read any of the statements on the record during their meetings or discussed the matter during an open meeting to date. John Bergman, one of the three candidates who was not selected for the interview process after the closed meeting, emailed the entire board Nov. 15, requesting they delay their final decision until they got a ruling on the legality of the closed meeting from Minnesota’s Commissioner of Administration.

“The whole process was and is fatally flawed due to the illegal closed session meeting and should be re-started from the beginning, including starting with re-application and fully open selection meetings,” Bergman wrote, alternatively suggesting they hold a special election to fill the supervisor seat. His letter was included in the Nov. 17 meeting packet, but not read aloud as he requested.

In other business, the board scheduled a public hearing regarding the proposed sewer rate increase that was presented by township engineer Joe Jurewicz earlier this year. The public hearing will be held 6 p.m. Jan. 5 prior to the board’s regular meeting. Jurewicz’s presentation explaining the increase can be found on the township’s website.

The board meets on the first and third Thursday of each month.

Pine Knot News editor Jana Peterson contributed to this report.