FAIRMONT– On Monday the Fairmont City Council, the canvassing board for city elections, canvassed the results as law requires the city to survey the returns within three to 10 days after an election. City Clerk Patty Monsen shared some statistics for last week’s general election.

Monsen said the council, or board, needed to certify the names of the persons receiving the votes and the number of the votes received by each office voted. The council members were given the abstracts of votes cast.

“For this general election we had a 67 percent voter turnout. We had 3,915 voters (out of 5,835 registered voters). It was a very busy day. I can compare it to a presidential election, there was that many people,” Monsen said.

She said that despite the long ballot and high turnout, no one needed to wait too long to vote. She also said that the county has had some turnover in its office and had problems getting statistical information out there, but will be canvassing results on Wednesday.

The final totals for Mayor were: Lee Baarts, 2,303; Charles Pearson, 1,333; write-in candidates, 27.

In Ward 1, the results were: Jay Maynard, 615; Jon Davis, 533; write-in candidates, 1.

In Ward 3, the results were: Deb Foster, 371; Randy Lubenow, 343; write-in candidates, 1.

Council Member Randy Lubenow asked Monsen how people in the community would know about the status and progression of the election prior to 8 p.m., when voting ends. He asked if election judges have information on ballot totals.

“No, Randy… I do not know and I don’t think they did have results. Our results don’t even include the mail-in ballots and absentee ballots. What we would have aren’t even the accurate totals,” Monsen said.

She asked Lubenow if he had a specific example he wanted to share. Monsen noted that there has been a good amount of misinformation out there, which she called harmful. She specifically mentioned rumors surrounding absentee voting at Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center.

“There’s three voters at Lakeview. Two judges from separate political parties administrated the voting for the three people. Myself and the activities director witnessed it,” Monsen said.

She then spoke to the actions and security that happened following the absentee voting there and noted that the three people who voted there were in Ward 1.

Approving the city of Fairmont 2022 election results passed 4-1 with Lubenow voting no.

In other news, the council considered providing additional funding to the Fairmont Charter Commission.

At the Sept. 26 council meeting, the council voted to deny the Charter Commission’s request for an additional $2,500 in funding for its 2022 budget. At that time the Charter Commission had $726.70 remaining in its budget for the year.

“As you heard during public comment, they (Charter Commission) did run an ad with the Fairmont Photo Press and the cost was $1,075. We did authorize the $700, which left them with a remaining balance of $26 in their account with the reminder that they still had outstanding third quarter legal fees that would need to be paid,” said City Administrator Cathy Reynolds.

She added that the legal fees ended up amounting to $480, making the Charter Commission over budget by $453.30.

“They have requested $375 to reimburse Mike Katzenmeyer, the chair of the Charter Commission for the additional portion of the advertisement fee that he paid. They also asked and forwarded to the council an invoice for $90 to AdMfg who they had do the graphic design work for the Photo Press ad,” Reynolds said.

The Charter Commission also asked the council to consider additional funding for the 2022 budget.

Council Member Bruce Peters said he didn’t recall authorizing $700 for the ad. Reynolds explained that she had contacted City Attorney Mark Rahrick on whether the ad was deemed political, which the city could not fund, or an informative ad. She said Rahrick provided the opinion that it wasn’t political.

“Based off of that and the fact that they had $726 in there, I agreed to do the $700,” Reynolds said.

She added that she didn’t believe the legal fees would be so high and that when posed with the question of whether she could approve the request, she was between meetings with the Chair standing in her doorway asking for an answer because they were beyond the Photo Press’s deadline.

Council Member Michele Miller noted that the council had previously denied the request for more money and the Charter Commission went ahead with the ad anyway.

Kawecki brought up the fact that the city attorney had deemed the ad was not political and that state statute says the city is responsible for covering informational expenses.

In a motion to reimburse Charter Chair Mike Katzemeyer, the motion failed 3-2 with Miller, Peters and Council Member Wayne Hasek voting no. Lubenow and Kawecki voted yes.

In a motion to approve payment of $90 to AdMfg for graphic design for the Charter Commission Photo Press ad, the motion failed 3-2.

In a motion to approve $2,5000 in additional funding for the Charter Commission’s 2022 budget, the motion failed 3-2.