Lehner says nobody told him the industrial park needed power. KMU had answered to him for seventeen months, and the city had promised that power in writing.
On October 13, 2026 City Administrator Scott Lehner told the council the power promised to the company building in the industrial park had never been arranged, that he was hearing about it for the first time, and that he should have been included. He declined to name who dropped it, then pointed the room at the utility superintendent he had separated three weeks earlier. The record puts the utility under his supervision since May 2025, puts him in the room when the lot was marketed and sold, and shows the city promised that power in writing ten months ago.
Scott Lehner spent ten minutes of his October 13, 2026 administrator's update on Kenyon Municipal Utilities 36:46. The company building in the industrial park, he said, had been promised power the city never arranged. CMPAS, the Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency that KMU belongs to, was "hearing about it for the first time" 38:09. A transformer "we probably should have ordered a couple years ago" would run "on the upwards of a million dollars" 39:01. A contract "sent out on July 2nd of this year" had drawn "no response and no signatures," and deadlines had been missed 39:26. A substation three years out would cost "$3 to $5 million" 41:16.
He put no written estimate and no funding source in front of the council. He offered himself: he would join KMU's planning on an interim basis alongside Josh Johnson, whom he described as "a three-year apprentice" 42:11. Each of his other statements that night can be set against the city's own documents.
"That's how I looked last week"
"Some of you are looking at me like you're hearing this for the first time," Lehner told the council. "That's how I looked last week and today when I was hearing it for the first time" 41:41.
The lot is Lot 1, Block 3 of the Kenyon Business Park, 551 Engel Drive. On July 22, 2025 the EDA heard a pitch from Sweet Cut Grow, a cannabis cultivator from Kalamazoo, Michigan, for the industrial park; the minutes list "City Administrator Scott Lehner" in attendance. On December 9, 2025, with Lehner present, the council approved the EDA's purchase and development agreement for that lot with Firebird, LLC, for a building of about 20,000 square feet housing a "cannabis cultivation microbusiness." Indoor cultivation runs grow lights and climate control around the clock; a building of that size and use is among the heaviest electric loads a small utility can take on. Section 3.4 of the agreement lists what the city's EDA promised the buyer. Item 2: "The Authority represents that primary electric distribution infrastructure is installed and is available to the Development Property" (packet p. 55). The agreement says nothing about load, service size or transformers.
The city's industrial park page makes the same promise to every prospect: "The site is served by all utilities including 3 phase electric" (cityofkenyon.gov). So does the broker's listing for the lot: "Includes utilities: 3-phase electric" (listing). On March 26, 2026 the EDA deeded the lot to Falcon Investments LLC (county sales record). Goodhue County issued the commercial building permit on August 19, 2026 (permit 26-K024), and by September 8 the foundation was poured.
KMU's own rules say when the utility learns a new building's load. Every new commercial or industrial customer files an application with its projected load and "a customer one-line diagram of electrical facilities," and signs a Specification Agreement before any work. The form states the timing: "It is the intent that the customer fill this out at the same time that they apply for a building permit" (KMU rules, Appendix 1B). The permit was issued in August. Either that paperwork reached the utility two months before Lehner says anyone knew, or the utility under his supervision never asked for it.
"I should have been included"
"I should have been included in those conversations a long time ago," Lehner said 45:20.
He was the one who insisted on being included. At his first meeting as administrator, on January 14, 2025, he told the council he had "dug into the relationship to determine who KMU reported to," and asked that the utility be brought under the city; the council voted 5-0 to start that process. On May 13, 2025 the council approved five City-KMU agreements, among them an "Administrative Staff Supervision Agreement to Include KMU," which the KMU Commission had signed on April 23 (June 10, 2025 packet). From that day the utility's staff answered to the administrator. In November 2025 Lehner presented the KMU Commission's CMPAS power purchase to the council himself (December 9, 2025 packet). In March 2026 he attested the resolution naming the city's representative on the CMPAS board (March 10, 2026 packet). In August he reported the resignation of John Lee, the utility's alternate on that board. The conversations he says he was left out of ran through an agency he had dealt with directly, inside a utility he had asked to supervise and was given.
"I'm not going to point fingers"
Asked where the ball was dropped, Lehner said "I'm not going to point fingers" and that the council "would be able to figure out maybe where the ball was dropped" 44:35. A council member took it to mean the man just let go: "If you're talking about one person that was just let go, that shouldn't fall on one person." That was Randy Eggert, KMU's superintendent of 48 years, on leave since September 10 and separated by the council on September 21 (minutes). At that meeting, KMU Commission chair Jerry Houglum said the conflict "started two years ago at the first KMU meeting that Lehner attended," and Eggert said he felt pressured to sign. No document in the council record assigns the industrial park's power to Eggert or to anyone else. The supervision agreement assigns the utility's staff to Lehner.
"It's on the city"
Asked whether the transformers and the rest would be paid by the city, the answer was "It's on the city" 43:23. KMU's written policy says otherwise: "KMU's standard policy allows for up to two times the annual expected revenue to be expended on providing a new service. Any cost in excess of this is defined as 'excess facilities' which the customer will be expected to pay as a prerequisite of service." If the city has agreed to waive that rule for this buyer, no agreement doing so has come before the council.
"Utilities for 30 years"
Lehner told the council he understands the work because before public service he worked "for utilities for 30 years" 42:11. Introducing himself to Nowthen, where he was the first city administrator from 2022 to 2024, he put it differently: "I have spent nearly 30 years in the private sector with the majority of those years working for a gas utility company" (Nowthen newsletter, 2022). Kenyon's utility is electric and water. He also told the council that "Excel Energy is going to be bringing power to us" 40:47. The state's 2023 and 2025 biennial transmission reports list no Xcel project serving Kenyon (2025 report).
The same night
Minutes after describing a shortfall of one to five million dollars in the electric utility, the council took up Resolution 2026-37: $350,000 from the electric fund, lent to the EDA at 2 percent over ten years to buy land south of town. A council member asked whether the city could afford it now. It passed (October 13 meeting). He also told the council the electric side had been "in the negative for the last three years" 1:33:49. The city's budget reports show the electric fund at +$906,952 in 2023, −$123,749 in 2024 and +$160,311 in 2025, and −$200,188 for 2026 through September 30.
What Lehner has not shown the council
- The July 2 contract: who sent it, to whom, and whose desk it sat on.
- When KMU received the load application and Specification Agreement for 551 Engel Drive, or why it did not ask for them.
- Any written estimate for the transformer or the substation.
- Any document from Xcel Energy.
- Any agreement shifting the "excess facilities" cost from the buyer to the city.
- The KMU Commission minutes, which the city does not post.
Every item on that list is public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. None was in the packet the council received before he spoke.
More from the record
The breakdown Lehner promised in July never showed up. The first audit with Abdo on the books found three material weaknesses.
Lehner Lies!
In August the in-house finance director cost $130,000. By September, with no one hired, it cost $167,100.
All 38, in order · The open letter · Every packet and recording