EVANSTON — In the first few minutes of the city council meeting on Tuesday, March 4, during council comments, Evanston City Councilmember Jesse Lind addressed a document he had received from Evanston City attorney Mark Harris.

Lind and the rest of the council had recently received the findings of an investigation Harris had conducted into Lind, Councilmembers Jen Hegeman and Mike Sellers, and former-councilmember Tim Lynch. Harris said he investigated the four because he suspected they had violated the Wyoming Open Meetings Act (OMA) last summer.

Harris said the four did, in fact, violate state statute when they had “sequential communication” regarding their decision to make a public statement of no confidence in Mayor Kent Willimas at the city council meeting on Aug. 20, 2024.

Lind — and later others — took exception to the findings, and blasted Mayor Kent Williams over some things the mayor has done since Lind joined the council.

“Let me say this, Lind said, “corruption is not just about someone seeking financial gain; it is also the misuse of power and influence to achieve a certain outcome. Joseph Goebbels said, ‘Accuse others of your own sins.’”

Lind later clarified to the Herald that he was referring to Williams and Harris when he quoted Goebbels, who was the Reich Minister of Propaganda for Germany during WWII.

Lind reviewed the issues that led the four council members to their decision of no confidence in Mayor Williams. Lind spoke of the two resolutions; one with a vote of 6 to 1 and the second with a vote of 5 to 2 in favor of engaging with the state about the abandoned Wyoming State Hospital (WSH) buildings. After the second vote of 5 to 2, Williams wrote a letter in opposition to the resolution without notifying the council. Lind stated, at that point, there was no investigation about that situation, nor was it ever looked into further.

“I’m not a lawyer, but that seems like an obstruction … but at the very least underhanded and sneaky,” Lind said.

Another issue Lind brought up that led to the no confidence vote was when resident Gina Sundquist asked City Clerk Diane Harris to put her on the city council work session agenda to discuss her concern about the lack of air conditioning in the Machine Shop and Williams told the clerk not to put her on the agenda. Lind said a phone recording and newspaper articles followed that incident. Lind said again there was no investigation into that incident; instead, a rebuttal letter was written to the Herald criticizing their reporting.

Another issue Lind brought up was when Williams got angry about comments made in the council meeting on Aug. 6, 2024, and abruptly slammed his gavel down and declared the meeting over.

“I believe that meeting was improperly ended, because the end of the agenda is public comments, not the mayor going on a rant and ending the meeting,” Lind said. “Was there an investigation into that? Nope, Mr. Harris said the meeting was ended properly because the meeting can be adjourned without a motion once the agenda has been completed.”

“On Aug. 20 (2024), I read a statement that, in short, was to say I have no confidence in our mayor. My confidence level in the mayor is not baseless — it is based off the actions or lack of action over several situations for the past two years,” Lind said. “It was after I read that statement that I and the other three council members who agreed with the no confidence vote received notice from Mr. Harris we were being investigated for violating the open meeting act.”

Lind said he had never heard of the term sequential communication until receiving the notice from Harris. He maintains that he and the others did not knowingly violate the open meeting act and there was not sequential communication. He said he believes the investigation is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money.

Lind stated he had not discussed the statement he read at last week’s meeting with any council member or the mayor prior to his reading it. He added that any council member who wanted to support his statement was welcome to do so.

“The most important speech that needs to be protected is not the speech you want to hear, but the speech you don’t want to hear,” Lind said. “What I do know is I will work hard for the citizens of Ward 2 and for all the citizens of Evanston. I’ve always said I will follow a great leader, but I will never stand aside or be quiet and subservient. What we need is leadership — leadership that doesn’t think communication is a one-way street; leadership that values this council’s opinion instead of thinking their opinion is the only one that matters. We need leadership that is honest, transparent and willing to do the best thing for the city of Evanston.”

Hegeman responded with, “Hear, hear! Whoever put ‘sequential communication’ in the act wants to impede or control outcomes. How can we represent voters if we are not allowed to talk. We need to be open and transparent and hear differing opinions and should not abuse the power we have.”

Sellers added he has served on many boards, and they always closed a meeting with a motion, a second and a vote.

“I would really like to ask that we do that here,” he said.

Williams said he had nothing to add during the meeting but most likely will at some point.

The first member of the public to speak was Matthew Caston, who resides at 1009 Front St.

Caston had received a summons from City Attorney Mark Harris, charging him that as of Feb. 18, he occupied the ground floor or a portion of the ground floor of property zoned regional business-established without a conditional use permit from the Evanston Planning and Zoning Commission.

On Oct. 7, 2024, Caston had received a temporary conditional use permit to occupy the ground floor for three months while he prepared the building for commercial use. He could then have applied for an extension of time prior to the expiration of the three-month period.

Caston claimed he had been out of town on business from January until recently. He said after he was served the summons, he went to talk to the planning department and they told him he would have to talk to Harris. When he went to talk to Harris, he said, he found him to be demeaning and rude.

Directing his comments to Harris, Caston said, “I have had 30 years’ experience working with legal cases, and I will bring to bear legal means to this matter that will demean the reputation of this city and will cost the city $100,000 in litigation. I wished to avoid this, but [Harris] has been resistant to normal legal practices to resolve the matter. He refused to see the evidence I brought and filed malicious prosecution. Harris has been abusive, unprofessional and [has] refused to answer my questions.”

Caston concluded by stating he was not asking the council to remedy the situation, but he wanted to “respectfully submit the information to the council and is prepared to also submit it to the Wyoming Bar Association.”

Following Caston, local resident Teresa Stemle addressed the council and asked if they had considered what they might do about the effects of the Legislature’s property tax cuts on the city’s budget and public services. She said she has been contacting legislators with her concerns and hoped everyone would.

Williams said the county will feel more effects than the city, as most of the city’s revenue comes from sales tax. He said they don’t know yet how much the city will be affected but people are concerned and governments may have to cut back on some services.

Local resident Kathy Cook then asked the council some questions concerning the Shades of Pale Brewery that will be moving into Section 4 of the Roundhouse. Williams directed those questions to Evanston Community Development Director Rocco O’Neill.

Cook asked when Shades would be moving in, and O’Neill said, “Soon.”

She asked if they are paying rent now and, if not, when would they start paying rent and how much is the rent? O’Neill said Shades will start paying rent on Feb. 1, 2026, at $5,000 per month but the fee could go up to $15,000 per month with no explanations offered for the difference. Cook asked who’s currently footing the bill for utilities and O’Neill said it’s costing the city.

When she asked how much return the city will get on its $4 million-plus investment, O’Neill said he didn’t know yet, but there would be sales tax revenue from the brewery and restaurant.

Marijke Rossi then asked the mayor if he had had a change of heart regarding saving the WSH buildings.

Sellers said Sen. Wendy Schuler had told him that a trade school was interested in the buildings and also that Rep. Scott Heiner, who is on the appropriations committee, had told him that whatever happened with the buildings, the city of Evanston would bear no financial responsibilities.

Williams then told Rossi that he would decline any comment until he talked to Schuler and Heiner.

Rossi told the mayor she was very disturbed to hear what councilmember Lind had just reported, and it didn’t make sense to her that Harris is investigating people on the council that he is supposed to represent.

“It is very disturbing to me. It looks like both sides of the fence are being worked on, when you all should be working together for us,” Rossi said. “We have a right to know what is going on. You need to figure out a way to get along and treat each other right.”

Lind reminded the public that they will be able to read what Harris wrote about the investigation as it will be posted on the city website.

Hegeman said she totally agreed with Rossi about turmoil on the council.

“Every time I disagree here, I face misogyny and bullying,” Hegeman said. “It is not doing the city any good. The taxpayers pay us to represent them. A differing of opinions is critical to the discourse to bring the best solution. There is a depth of knowledge represented by the different people on this council and it needs to be respected by all.”

Councilmember Henry Schmidt agreed there were lots of arguments among the council and they need to take time to sit down and work it out.

Alex Rossi then addressed the council and said how dismayed he was about the dysfunction displayed at the council meeting and he was very concerned with the Caston situation. He thanked Lind for his comments and said he was very concerned about what he had heard.

Kayne Pyatt then read a letter explaining her recent resignation from the Historic Preservation Commission. She said in the letter she thought Williams’ decision that younger people needed to be put on the commission spoke of age discrimination when he refused to reappoint longtime commission members Shelley Horne and Jim Davis.