Mower Board Approves Settlement With Feedlot Officer
By Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Mar. 11–The Mower County Board approved a $56,000 financial settlement on Tuesday with Lowell Franzen, the county feedlot officer embroiled in lawsuits over his role in the permitting and eventual sale of a hog operation he owned.
County Coordinator Craig Oscarson called it an “economic settlement,” saying that it would be a long and costly process to try to terminate Franzen, a union member and a veteran. The county had paid about $40,000 in attorney fees through the end of 2007.
Franzen will also receive $8,800 for accrued paid time off, which he would have received regardless of the settlement. The settlement also releases Mower County from all claims against it by Franzen.
Oscarson told the county board that it was time to move on and restore the program’s standing. During Franzen’s leave, feedlot officers from other counties have done the work instead of Franzen, the lone Mower County officer.
In August, people accused Franzen in civil lawsuit of illegally getting approval for his own 14-acre feedlot proposal, misrepresenting his plan for the operation in the permitting process and selling it to Santos Group, a major hog producer from Northfield, 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 suit was against Franzen — in his county job and individually — along with Santos Group and Mower County.
Plaintiff attorney Jim Peters has argued that Franzen told neighbors in fall 2006 that he’d build, own and operate a finishing operation for hogs but never disclosed a July 2006 purchase agreement he made with a Santos Group official for the feedlot.
Santos Group then built a $6.5 million hog operation, with plans for a 4,064-sow gestation barn and a farrowing barn for up to 768 sows and 1,280 nursery pigs.
The plaintiffs allege Franzen negligently or intentionally misrepresented facts as a public official about the project, such as ownership, construction and operation.
On Feb. 14, Mower District Judge Donald E. Rysavy ruled the permits for the hog feedlot were obtained legally and dismissed Santos Group from the citizens’ lawsuit. The citizens’ lawsuit, however, will continue with a damages claim against Franzen and Mower County.
Franzen was on a paid leave of absence with the county since Aug. 3 after residents who live near Franzen’s property in Lyle Township made allegations of misconduct against him. He was switched to an unpaid leave of absence Feb. 18. He was not immediately available for comment.
In November the county received a report from a private attorney it hired to investigate the complaints regarding Franzen. The attorney, Scott Anderson of Minneapolis, said Tuesday that Franzen could do what any member of the public could do, but that it was inappropriate with the “regulator doing financial dealings with the regulated.”
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