Brooklyn Park Council Votes To Censure Colleague in 5-0 Vote
The Brooklyn Park City Council issued its second public rebuke to one of its own members as it censured Maria Tran on Monday, June 10.
The council censured Tran for violating the city’s Respectful Workplace Policy and the Elected Officials Code of Conduct policy.
A Brooklyn Park city staff member had previously filed a formal complaint about Tran.
The censure comes after a chaotic meeting about two weeks earlier, where the council’s initial plans to issue a letter of reprimand to Tran devolved into a shouting match.
During the discussion, Tran accused a city staff member of using drugs on city property.
Following this discussion, the council decided to censure Tran.
Council Votes 5-0
The council approved the censure in a 5-0 vote, with Tran and Council Member Boyd Morson absent.
Morson has already been censured twice by the council. The first of his censures occurred in 2022, while the second was approved this April.
Brooklyn Park City Council Member Christian Eriksen called the council’s previous discussion “embarrassing,” but said the council needs to take steps to protect city staff members.
“I think that the people you see sitting in front of you right now are willing to engage in the messy to protect our city and to protect our city staff from behavior that is unkind, unsafe, [and] occasionally illegal,” Eriksen said.
Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston said the censure was not related to personality disagreements among council members.
“A few of us have been directly insulted up here,” Winston said. “No one is a choir boy or choir girl up here. But largely that’s overlooked. We’ve got thick skin. We got elected, people are going to criticize us. And sometimes we get at each other a little bit. [But] this was triggered by an employee complaint.”
Winston said the censure was also about reducing the city’s potential legal liability.
“From just good governance, holding folks accountable in terms of minimizing their liability for our city, I believe that the censure makes more sense,” Winston said.
The censure strips Tran of her of any commission or committee appointments. It also removes her access to council travel funding.
The Brooklyn Park City Council censured Maria Tran on Monday, June 10.
Tran Response
In a Facebook post, Tran wrote that the censure “will not improve our water, expand our parks, generate more equality for our underserved communities, fix our roads or reduce our taxes … tonight I promise you, the citizens of our community, that I will never stop fighting for you, fighting for what is right and fighting for our city and what I believe in. I will not be bullied. I will not retreat. And I will not stop serving the people of my district to the best of my ability.”
Employee Complaint and Investigation Precede Censure
In January, a Brooklyn Park city staff member filed a formal complaint against Tran alleging she created a hostile work environment.
“She has demonstrated a pattern of behavior that’s intended to dehumanize me, humiliate me, and attack my integrity, professional credentials and competence,” the complaint read. “All the attacks are based on inaccurate information and conspiracy theories around process and outcomes that are regulated by state statute, city ordinances, policy and guidelines.”
Tran disagreed with this characterization of her actions. She told CCX News she believed she was facing “intimidation and disrespect” due to her ethnicity and age.
“I have to tell that, it’s been very hard for me,” she said.
In one instance, she referred to her council colleagues as bullies and “men with no balls … and no education either. Very low, low, low.”
The city hired an investigator to probe the employee complaint.
According to the investigation, Tran publicly expressed criticism of an employee’s work, asking them to step down from their position with the city.
The investigator found that Tran violated the code of conduct.
