Kt Jacobs and her 14-month fight to remain on the Columbia Heights City Council took another turn on Sept. 21 when she filed a lawsuit to halt an election that could remove her from office.
The suit was filed in Anoka County District Court by her attorney Greg Joseph. The suit against the City of Columbia Heights claims a petition calling for the election was filled with flaws and did not meet Minnesota standards for establishing malfeasance by Jacobs. The suit is expected to have a hearing in four to six weeks, Joseph said.
The recall election is slated for Feb. 13, 2024.
Jacobs and Joseph held a press conference on a noisy sidewalk outside the new City Hall on Central Avenue that drew four reporters and a heckler.
“I just want to be treated fairly,” Jacobs said. “I don’t want anybody else to go through what I’ve had to go through.”
Joseph said Jacobs was simply refusing to be bullied. He said the city council had been warned repeatedly that the petition by Columbia Height residents had many errors and should not proceed, but the council ignored those warnings.
In the lawsuit, Joseph said the petition had at least ten flaws including no date for when a resident signed, no birth dates for signers, and no signer’s oath. In addition, he said a petition for recall must demonstrate malfeasance or nonfeasance by the office holder.
Calls to city officials and City Attorney James Hoeft from the Northeaster were not returned.
The controversy began with a phone call in the summer of 2022, during an election for the city council. The two-hour call was placed to candidate Justice Spriggs and allegedly asked him about his ethnic background. Spriggs was later elected.
At the press conference, Jacobs said she did not make the call but she has taken full responsibility for the call, which she said during an investigation by the city was made by a family member using Jacobs’ phone.
Since that time, the council has voted twice asking Jacobs to resign. A petition was circulated this spring and 321 pages were turned over to the city on July 28. The city originally denied the petition because it didn’t have enough valid signatures, but when it was resubmitted July 17, it was accepted. On July 24, the council called for the recall election.
Jacobs said at the conference that she has faced numerous false claims about her actions, and that she has received death threats. She said she is now seeing a cardiologist and neurologist because the ongoing effort to remove her from office has affected her health.
Joseph called the council’s actions to remove Jacobs “a weaponization of government.” He said it was not strange that the petition was full of errors, but it was strange that the city council ignored the errors and called for the election.
“It’s time to put the law back above politics,” Joseph said.
A bystander at the press conference, Chris Finlayson, while holding a baby, continually interrupted the event, calling for Jacobs to resign. Jacobs and Joseph at first tried to respond to his comments, and then ignored him.
It is expected that the special election will cost the city about $30,000.
The next step in the process, Joseph said, will be a response from the city.
Attorney Greg Joseph tells a press conference outside Columbia Heights City Hall that a petition to recall Council Member Kt Jacobs was flawed and that a lawsuit to stop a recall election had been filed. Jacobs is at center and her husband Jake Jacobs is at right. (Al Zdon)