Mower County, Minn., Feedlot Controversy Headed to Court Again
By Tim Ruzek, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Jan. 5–Attorneys on both sides of Mower County’s feedlot-officer controversy are expected to spar again Wednesday in civil court.
Mower District Judge Donald E. Rysavy will hear motions at 10 a.m. from the defense attorneys to dismiss the civil complaint as well as from the plaintiffs’ attorney to make a summary judgment, or ruling before a trial, in their favor.
Jim Peters, a Glenwood, Minn., attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Friday he’s also seeking to amend the original complaint to add what he calls “previously undisclosed” information about a July 2006 purchase agreement between Santos Group official Nicholas Holden and Franzen and his wife, Barbara. Peters also said that he will ask the judge to require Franzen to submit a deposition that Wednesday.
Defense attorneys, who say that purchase wasn’t undisclosed, argue in court documents that Mower County’s lone feedlot officer, Lowell Franzen, followed the proper permitting process for a big hog feedlot on property he sold last spring in Lyle Township.
A group of 18 rural Mower County residents, however, are asking the judge to stop the feedlot operation and strike down its feedlot authorization and zoning permit because the documents allegedly came wrongly before a state environmental assessment. A bench trial is set for June 30.
The plaintiffs allege Franzen illegally received approval for his own 14-acre feedlot proposal, misrepresented his plan for the operation and sold it to Santos Group for more than $240,000 above the land’s market value. The sale occurred in April, two weeks after the state approved a feedlot permit for Franzen.
The citizens filed the complaint in August against Franzen — in his county job and individually — as well as the Northfield-based hog producer Santos Group and Mower County. Santos Group’s feedlot was planned for a 4,064-sow gestation barn and a farrowing barn for up to 768 sows and 1,280 nursery pigs.
If the plaintiffs don’t get a summary judgment, they will ask to amend their original complaint to add new information and request a jury trial.
Under the July 9, 2006, purchase agreement, Franzen agreed to get the necessary permitting for a 5,000 head sow facility from the county and state. If permitting couldn’t be obtained, the agreement would be null and void, except Holden would pay for incurred expenses, Peters stated in court documents.
Peters stated Franzen misled the public in the permitting process by claiming he’d construct, own and operate a finishing operation at the feedlot and never disclosing the July 2006 agreement.
Dustan Cross, a New Ulm, Minn., attorney representing the Santos Group, wrote in court documents that Franzen complied with notice requirements and didn’t have any duty to identify Holden in his new feedlot notification. Franzen was the land’s owner until the April sale, he stated.
Cross has argued that none of the plaintiffs participated or objected during the state’s environmental review process last spring for the project.
Peters has said the plaintiffs didn’t participate because they were misled by Franzen about the project and that Santos Group used Franzen’s role as feedlot officer to buy intimidation over his neighbors.
Peters said in court documents that Franzen’s alleged misrepresentations of fact were “clearly willful in the circumstances or malicious.”
Franzen followed the correct permitting process for the project and didn’t do anything illegal, said St. Cloud attorney Michael Ford, who represents Franzen.
“We believe he’s going to be ultimately vindicated when this is all over,” Ford said.
Ford also has stated in court documents that the plaintiffs’ complaint contains allegations against Franzen that are “immaterial, impertinent and scandalous.”
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