City Attorney discusses municipal legal challenges with council
South St. Paul's City Attorney Corey Land addressed the city council on December 15, discussing the broad responsibilities of his office and the complex legal hurdles the city has navigated in major development projects. The discussion offered insights into how municipal government operates and advice for residents considering public service.
Land outlined the diverse responsibilities of a city attorney, explaining that the role extends far beyond prosecution to include daily legal counsel for multiple city departments, elected officials, and various municipal services. He described the city as operating like a multi-product business, with police, fire, public works, parks, and administrative functions all requiring legal guidance. "A city may have eight different widgets," Land said, illustrating the complexity of advising on such varied operations.
One of Land's primary focuses is community-level legal work that creates tangible neighborhood improvements. He explained that his favorite prosecutorial work involved addressing problem properties through nuisance violations and code enforcement. "Those really spoke to me on how you can immediately make a difference in an entire neighborhood if you get to clean up a property," he said. However, Land acknowledged a persistent challenge: distinguishing between private disputes and issues the city should address. "Not every problem is the city's problem to solve," he noted, describing these as among the toughest conversations his office handles.
Land detailed the legal complexities surrounding The Yards and The Backyards, a major redevelopment project in South St. Paul. The project proved exceptionally challenging due to fragmented historical land records, un-vacated streets, and an unexpected federal encumbrance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He credited developer Ryan Garcia with the resilience needed to keep all parties engaged through these obstacles, noting that many developers abandon projects when facing such difficulties.
For residents considering running for elected office, Land offered practical guidance. He emphasized that council members are "one of seven" and cannot make unilateral decisions, urging candidates to manage public expectations accordingly. He stressed the importance of a "global sense of responsibility to your community" rather than focusing on single issues, and warned of the significant personal sacrifices required for public service. Land also appealed to residents for understanding regarding government transparency limitations, explaining that state laws like the Open Meeting Law and Data Practices Act sometimes mandate non-disclosure or redaction of information, which can be misinterpreted as a lack of transparency.
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Notable Quotes (8)
My favorite part about prosecuting, and this is going to sound really odd, I didn't like the DUIs. I didn't like the domestic assaults and all the traffic things. I liked solving the problem properties. So, the nuisance violations when you had had code violations, those affect people. They affect the people that live there obviously that are creating the code violation, but it affects the city staff. It affects the neighborhood. And those really spoke to me on how you can immediately make a difference in an entire neighborhood if you get to clean up a property, right?
A city may have eight different widgets, right, that they're making because you have police, fire, you have engineering, public works that are doing roads and sewer and water, right? Uh you have park and recck department that's trying to, you know, make people happy with parks. And then you have admin and all of the things that go along with just administration of government, not to mention the elected officials. That's a whole another layer of people.
Those are some of the toughest conversations, the gray ones, the gray areas. And and they're not always gray. They're just difficult. Um because you have two neighbors that are going at it and you they're they're talking to their council representatives and they want somebody to solve their problem and not every problem is the city's problem to solve and that's a tough u acceptance.
So, that project was so challenging because it had it was so many different lots. First of all, it it's not like it was just a parking ramp lot, right? It had never been like platted. And so it was all these tiny well it would have been plotted 100 years ago but it was these tiny little lots or portions of them and there were vacations of streets in them or sometimes there were streets that had not been vacated in them. And then we discovered that actually um the HUD had a a encumbrance on them accidentally.
Um Ryan and Garcia was amazing in that role. He was just the perfect fit at the right time. Yeah. To put that together and to he had the right personality to keep all the parties at the table because it so many times developers will get too frustrated and walk away. Right. It's just too hard.
First of all, you're one of seven so you don't make any decisions on your own and only time decisions can be made is when you're all in the room so I think that's a key thing to to recognize is that you can't go out in public and say I'll make that happen uh I'll see what I can do u because you're one of seven.
Um you have to have a more global sense of responsibility to your community. Truly believe in your community, not just I want this or I see a problem with this. Can't be a one-stop shop. It it needs to be a bigger goal.
Um I think I would ask the public and the residents to just give a little bit more grace to the council and to staff and even to my office. Um it it sometimes feels like everybody is is accusing um the council of hiding information or not saying things and they should be more um transparent, right? That's a favorite word. we need to be more transparent. Um that there might be a reason why we can't fully disclose or we need to redact or we can't share information about things.
Ordinances & Resolutions (5)
General term for city laws that the city attorney helps craft and ensure are enforceable.
Legal classification of South St. Paul, implying additional specific rules and governance structures beyond general state law.
State law that dictates how public governmental bodies must conduct meetings, posing transparency challenges for council members.
State law governing access to government data, another complex rule for elected officials and city staff.
An accidental legal claim by Housing and Urban Development on city lots, which required significant effort to release for The Yards project.
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Other Topics from This Document
Economic Development and Redevelopment Projects in South St. Paul
Guidance and Considerations for Aspiring Municipal Elected Officials
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