The KMU "violations" report was ghostwritten by the outgoing interim. It names no law, because there isn't one.
The report that called Kenyon Municipal Utilities' practices "violations" went to the council over the city administrator's name. Its first page says the outgoing interim administrator wrote the rest of it. Neither man cited a statute, because the statute runs the other way.
Frank Boyles was Kenyon's interim city administrator from June 2024 to January 2025, a contractor hired after the council declined to create the job in-house. Scott Lehner took over the office in mid-December 2024. Four weeks into that handoff, the council received a four-page Request for Council Action about the municipal utility that carries Lehner's name in the "submitted by" box and Boyles's authorship in its second paragraph. The document is the founding text of Lehner's tenure, and it was written by the man on his way out.
Who wrote what
The first paragraph is in Lehner's voice: "Since arriving at the City of Kenyon, I have spent considerable time reviewing historic documents and talking about the past with long term elected and appointed employees to get to know my new city." It calls KMU "an independent operating unit which is not subject to the City administrator nor city council" and cites Finance Director Whitney Kyllo's December 19 email on duplicated payroll and bank accounts. Then the handoff: "Because of the importance of resolving the issues raised below regarding KMU, I asked Frank Boyles to research the matter and prepare a Request for Council Action (RCA) for discussion for January 14, 2025, city council meeting agenda. The remainder of this report was prepared by Frank Boyles."
What Boyles wrote is the part with the teeth. It says the administrator "is responsible for the performance of all city employees in accordance with both the Kenyon city code Section 305.01 and 305.03 and all 42 pages of the personnel policy." It says no copy of the utility superintendent's evaluation was provided to the administrator or deputy clerk, "the designated data practices authorities for the city," and calls that "a violation of the data practices laws." It concludes: "All of these violations must be remedied immediately. The fact that the three KMU Commissioners would allow them to take place and continue, strongly suggests that greater oversight is needed by the city council and city administrator of KMU."
The law that is not there
The word "violation" appears three times, all on one page. A statute section appears nowhere. The report names two city code sections for the administrator's authority and refers to "state data practices law" without a citation. The statutes that do govern the question point the other way. Minnesota Statute 412.361, subdivision 2, gives the utilities commission the power to "employ all necessary help for the management and operation of the public utility, prescribe duties of officers and employees and fix their compensation." Minnesota Statute 13D.05, subdivision 3(a), lets that commission close a meeting "to evaluate the performance of an individual who is subject to its authority." The evaluation the report calls a violation was an evaluation the commission was entitled to conduct, of an employee it was entitled to employ, in a session it was entitled to close.
The report's requested action asks the council to bring "all operational and management, financial, administrative authority" over the utility under the council and the administrator. Minnesota Statute 412.391 says a commission's jurisdiction over a utility can be transferred to the council only by a voter petition and a ballot question. The report does not mention it.
In fact, one supervisor has considered contracting with other entities outside the city at a rate of $2500 a day rather than asking KMU to work with them.Request for Council Action, Jan. 14, 2025, p. 132, source
What the author said in the room
Boyles presented his portion at the meeting. Lehner had told the council it would be "kind of by committee here because each one of us had a different piece" 35:53, and later credited Boyles with doing "a good job" explaining the signature block on the evaluation form 1:01:11. City Attorney Scott Riggs, who had drafted the late-1990s agreements the report relies on, said the agreements put city hall staff under the administrator and recommended getting "back to what these five agreements were" 54:17. That is the language of a negotiation. The report's language is the language of a finding.
All of these violations must be remedied immediately. The fact that the three KMU Commissioners would allow them to take place and continue, strongly suggests that greater oversight is needed by the city council and city administrator of KMU.Request for Council Action, January 14, 2025, p. 131, prepared by Frank Boyles. Packet.
He felt city administration and city council need to be involved in the overall supervision, management, financial and administrative authority of KMU as it is with the rest of the city.Minutes of Jan. 14, 2025, on Interim Administrator Frank Boyles, source
Why authorship matters
An interim contractor's engagement ended January 31, 2025. The report he wrote is dated seventeen days before that. The three commissioners it accuses were appointed by the council. The superintendent it names is named with the wrong title. The new administrator who signed it would have to work with all of them the day after Boyles was gone, and did: on tape that night he said the effort was "never ever designed to have KMU go away" 1:11:04, and on February 11 he reported that "no decisions have been made yet concerning the KMU process."
The two real problems in the report, one set of books kept as two and a records cabinet the responsible authority could not open, were solved by June 2026 without any of the authority it demanded. The report's legal claims did not survive the meeting. Its accusations did, in the packet, over a signature that belongs to someone still in the building.
Before and after
- May 14, 2024The council declines to create an in-house interim post and sends the personnel committee to find an outside one.
- May 22, 2024Frank Boyles's six-month interim agreement takes effect.
- Dec. 10, 2024The council extends the agreement to January 31, 2025.
- Dec. 19, 2024Finance Director Whitney Kyllo emails Lehner her case for merging the city and KMU checking accounts; it becomes page 133.
- Jan. 14, 2025The report goes to the council: "submitted by" City Administrator Lehner, "prepared by Frank Boyles."
- Jan. 31, 2025The interim contract ends.
- Feb. 11, 2025Lehner reports that no decisions have been made yet concerning the KMU process.
What the statute says
The commission shall have power to employ all necessary help for the management and operation of the public utility, prescribe duties of officers and employees and fix their compensation.
The report faults the commission for evaluating its superintendent without the administrator. The statute makes the commission his employer.
A public body may close a meeting to evaluate the performance of an individual who is subject to its authority.
The closed session the report calls a violation is one the open meeting law allows.
The public utilities commission of any statutory city may be abolished or its jurisdiction over any particular utility transferred to the council by following the procedure prescribed in this section.
The authority the report requests can be transferred only by the procedure in this section, which the report never mentions.
People in this story
- Frank BoylesInterim administrator under contract to January 31, 2025; wrote the report
- Scott LehnerCity administrator; the name in the "submitted by" box
- Whitney KylloFinance director until July 17, 2025
- Randy EggertOperations superintendent, Kenyon Municipal Utilities
- Scott RiggsCity attorney, Kennedy & Graven
Sources
- Packet, January 14, 2025, Request for Council Action, pp. 130 to 133 (scanned; quoted from the packet).
- City of Kenyon recording, January 14, 2025, at 35:53, 54:17, 1:01:11, 1:11:04.
- Minutes, December 10, 2024, Resolution 2024-31 extending the interim contract to January 31, 2025.
- Minutes, February 11, 2025, and June 9, 2026.
- Minnesota Statutes 412.361, 412.391, 13D.05.
More from the record
Week four: Lehner asks the council to hand him a utility that only a referendum can hand over.
Lehner called the KMU superintendent a records-hoarder to his face. Four minutes later he was apologizing.
Three days on the payroll, Lehner walked into a closed KMU meeting. They walked him out.
All 27, in order · The open letter · Every packet and recording