Orono Wind Turbine Owner Blasts Judge, City Following Latest Court Battle

To the editor:

I am writing this in response to the story in the StarTribune of June 27, 2013 titled “Homeowner must disassemble wind turbine on his property in Orono, court rules.” As the party involved in this matter, I believe it is important that my position be included in review and reporting of this matter and that the City of Orono's actions be out in the open for all to see.

Many incredulous things have happened since we won in the appeals court. The most glaring of which is that the City of Orono has chosen to ignore the Appeals Court Opinion (ACO) and continues to oppose my family's efforts to go green, even though they have no basis in city ordinances to prevent our green energy improvements. The appeals court reversed Judge Rosenbaum's original ruling, holding that the basis for denying our efforts to put up our urban wind turbine were wrong and insufficient. The matter was remanded for review to the City of Orono consistent with the Court's ruling that there was no basis in Orono's ordinances to deny the installation of the wind turbine, as the installation of the wind turbine is the same as installing a flagpole, basketball hoop or clothesline which populate the city in an unregulated manner. The ACO was very clear that our wind turbine does not fall within the Accessory Structure section of the Orono ordinances, yet that is what the City of Orono continues to use taxpayer money to prosecute us with.

Related posts:

• Orono Wind Turbine Owner Continues Legal Sparring Match With City
• Lake Minnetonka Wind Turbine Owner Fights Orono City Hall—and Wins
• Blog: Orono Usurps Property Rights of All Residential Property Owners to Continue Wind Turbine Battle.

The most frustrating part of this ongoing litigation is both the District Court's and City's apparent lack of knowledge concerning the issues, and their apparent lack of efforts to educate themselves on the issues, such as property rights and zoning, city ordinances and green energy. During the most recent summary judgment hearing, Judge Rosenbaum stated, “I don't do this, obviously, for a living. I don't do zoning or ordinance work.” She then ordered us to remove the turbine in 30 days even though there is a 60 day appeal period. I have to wonder why a sitting judge would rule on issues that she herself has admitted she knows very little about.

The latest ruling denied our motion to leave the wind turbine up until after our new appeal since we won on appeal the last time. We are not surprised by the ruling given Judge Rosenbaum's past decisions on this matter. The crazy thing is that she ordered actions that were not even properly requested for by the City of Orono, and did this through soliciting testimony from the lawyers, most notably the City of Orono lawyer, Soren Mattick. I have been ordered to physically remove the turbine itself from my property because the City of Orono did not like the manner in which it was legally placed on my property when I took it down last time. Where am I supposed to put it? City hall? What if I buy a Harley that they don't like, do I have to remove that as well?

Through all of this, the City of Orono has threatened me with criminal prosecution for installing legal flagpoles, the Orono Police Department has secretly recorded me on my property and I have seen the Orono attorney testify to the fact that I have two front yards in order to win full removal of our turbine from our property (Orono code specifically denotes that each house has only one front yard). As for Soren Mattick and the City of Orono, If they want to control wind turbines in their city, they should follow proper procedure and adopt ordinances to do such and not continue to attempt to control us at all costs while usurping our property rights.

We are proceeding with our appeal in this matter and will prevail again as the city still has no ordinances on which to stand. Nothing has changed. Furthermore, we will be asking that Judge Rosenbaum be recused from any further civil issues we are involved with. In my opinion, the only danger to public safety here is a legal process and local government that will not fully educate themselves on the issues before them.

I will say this as fact, we won. The City of Orono is one of the worst losers that I have ever seen, and they continue to fight at the expense of the taxpayers ….. and my sanity.

Jay T. Nygard

Orono