Orono Council member Maria Veach

Maria and Mistrust: Why Citizens Are Finding Orono Council member Maria Veach untrustworthy?

During the 4/22/24 City Council meeting, Ms. Veach brought up how she is trying to build trust with the community. One must earn trust, and when a relationship is so damaged by several factors, it may be an impossible hill to climb.

Since #mariaveach was appointed to the city council without a public interview, many factors keep building mistrust with the reasons she was selected.

Reason #1: Numerous unacknowledged conflicts of interest.

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s personal interests – family, friendships, financial, or social factors – could compromise his or her judgment, decisions, or actions in the workplace or vice versa.

Veach may have several conflicts of interest due to her personal relationships, her preselection for City Council, her lack of governmental experience and the apparent pressure she is under with fellow council members.

First and foremost: She is married to a Long Lake Firefighter. Veach has/or may be influenced by her husband to start the Orono Fire Department.

The Veach’s income partially comes from her husband’s work as a firefighter presently with the city of Long Lake. Veach was selected by the Mayor and his council allies to be on the Fire Advisory Board representing the City of Orono.

Veach was also on the Fire Negotiation Committee representing the City of Orono.

She has publicly stated she has been meeting singly with council members and city employees of Long Lake. This meetings are clear violations of proper city council behavior. City council members are not allowed to be negotiating and representing the city solo without specific council approval, and should always have a city staff member present.

Ms. Veach clearly does not understand that one council member should not go off singly, and try and do deals, especially with other cities that are suing Orono.

Reason #2: Overcommunication = Over sharing = Lack of Clarity

Ms. Veach spends a lot of time discussing issues, but her dissertations come across as wordy at best, and often demeaning of the knowledge that citizens have that doesn’t agree with her. It appears misleading to data dump verbally on the citizens without a clear, and succinct message they can easily grasp. Confusing communication leads to mistrust and devaluing the citizens’ time.

Reason #3: Ignoring Citizen’s Input

This is perhaps the greatest reason there is apparent mistrust with Ms. Veach. She deflects, and tries to talk citizens out of their opinion instead of listening, and creating action plans to implement their needs, and desires. No one wants to be talked out of their opinion, nor do they want to be talked into ugly buildings that are too large or misguided, and tens of millions of dollars in duplicate fire service (so that her husband can have his own fire department). She ignores or counters citizen input that does not square with her personal wants.

Reason #4: Lack of Appointment Interview will Never go away

Ms. Veach was sought out and preselected for City Council without citizen input. This is a faux pas on the part of Mayor Walsh, but Ms. Veach could have done something about it. She could have insisted on being publicly interviewed when she returned from vacation. She did not, and therefore this issue will never go away. Was there a reason she was given special treatment?

Reason #5 Trying to negotiate with Long Lake without Citizens, City Council or City Staff

What was she thinking? She has publicly stated she has been meeting singly with council members and city employees of Long Lake. This meetings are clear violations of proper city council behavior. City council members are not allowed to be negotiating and representing the city solo without specific council approval and should always have a city staff member present. Ms. Veach clearly does not understand that one council member should not go off singly and try and do deals, especially with other cities that are suing Orono. Is she speaking for the Mayor as well as City Staff, and all of the City Council? This does not create any trust from any of the stakeholders in this contested fire issue. This is not following City process, and could possibly get Orono in more legal trouble.

Reason #6: Continually using “I’m learning” as an excuse

Ms. Veach has had 7-8 months to learn the City Codes, State Statutes, take League of Minnesota Cities training, read, watch past meeting videos, attend other city meetings and in general get up to speed.

No one expects her to know everything, but we do expect her to know about the topic for which she is speaking. She keeps asking citizens to take time to meet with her personally so she can get up to speed. It is up to her to get knowledgeable on doing her job, and not wasting the citizen’s time. And if she is still “learning” why does she have key roles on committees?

Reason #7: Votes in block with Mayor Walsh

How can there be a balanced, nonpartisan Council with block voting by selected Orono City Council members - Veach, Crosby, Johnson, and Walsh? Does Ms. Veach have original thoughts? Original research? Original data to support the Citizens? Apparently not, because she votes in block with Mayor Walsh 100% of the time no matter what the issue which builds more mistrust.

#mariaveach has not been elected to the city council by the Orono citizens. She needs to be aware that she should not be making big decisions for the city with such a lack of proper council procedures and a general sense of mistrust of why she was appointed to the council to begin with. As an appointed member without any prior city role (park or planning commissioner), she should not be having key roles in committees or involved in negotiating deals that could benefit her family. No wonder why the Orono citizens are mistrustful.

Make sure to attend City Council meetings to place your voice on the public record. Your voice matters! #togetherwearebetter @friendsoforono #mariaveach #cityoforono #ofd #oronofiredepartment

Is Maria Veach Misleading the Public?

When Orono Council member Maria Veach spoke on 4/8/24 at the Orono City Council meeting she read a document that we now have up on our website here: https://www.friendsoforono.org/maria-veach-1 There are many misnomers and several misleading statements that we will highlight throughout the coming weeks.

How can Ms. Veach advocate spending several times more for service that is essentially the same or that may be even less safe?

How can Ms. Veach advocate spending several times more for a relatively small number of calls per year? (311 last year)

How can Ms. Veach advocate for a stand alone, unproven fire department for somewhere around 4X the cost?

How can Ms. Veach say this new and unproven service has “efficiencies” more than contracting with LLFD for many times less the cost?

How can Ms. Veach even discuss the budget when it was clear she hadn’t pulled one together two days later 4/10/24 during the Coffee with the Mayor meeting?

How can Ms. Veach work on financial issues relating to fire when her husband is an Orono Firefighter? #conflictofinterest

How can Ms. Veach justify spending tens of millions for a small town of around 8100 that has lost population for the last three years?

Let’s ask Ms. Veach to stop writing 11- page manifestos and start listening to the Citizens of Orono. Renegotiate the LLFD contract and stop building duplicate services (for your husband? yourself?). Please listen to the people you supposedly represent.

#togetherwearebetter Friends of Orono

BREAKING NEWS: The CITY OF ORONO appears to have BROKEN OPEN MEETING LAW again.

On Monday January 8th, 2024 three Orono City Council members gathered at the Long Lake Fire Department’s “Pinning Ceremony.” Orono Council members #MariaVeach, #MattJohnson and #RichardCrosby attended without a public announcement of a quorum (half or more members of City Council) to the Citizens of Orono.

According to the League of Minnesota Cities:

The Minnesota open meeting law generally requires that all meetings of public bodies must be noticed and open to the public. This presumption of openness serves three vital purposes:

• It prohibits actions from being taken at a secret meeting where it is impossible for the interested public to become fully informed concerning decisions of public bodies or detect improper influences.

• It ensures the public’s right to be informed

• It gives the public an opportunity to present its views to the public body.

Public notice generally must be provided for meetings of a public body subject to the open meeting law.

We checked the Crystal Bay and Long Lake post offices and there was no such posting or notification. The Citizens of Orono were not notified by email either.

Why are these council members openly violating city law - do they not know or not care? They should have known they had a majority when they lined up to have their photographs taken.

We should expect our council members to be more professional and knowledgeable of what is required of them to be our representatives. And to show up as an undisclosed majority at the Long Lake Fire Department - the very organization they are in a lawsuit with - shows a very sloppy approach to their governing style.

It is important not to overlook this behavior. Lack of transparency and improper protocols are the very reasons to vote this administration out in November.

#togetherwearebetter #stopcitizensuppression #standupforpublicrights https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554824716776

Something just isn’t right with Orono City Council member Maria Veach. She has two more conflicts of interest added to her list of seven.

The Orono City Council is hiring her Long Lake Firefighter husband on Monday, October 9, 2023. Why is she not recusing herself from all Fire related voting and negotiation?

It has also come to light that Veach, as Treasurer of the Westonka Soccer Association, may be supporting the dissolution of the T-ball fields at Hackberry Park. Why is she not recusing herself from any Hackberry votes?

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s personal interests – family, friendships, financial, or social factors – could compromise his or her judgment, decisions, or actions in the workplace or vice versa.

Veach may have several conflicts of interest due to her personal relationships, her preselection for City Council, her lack of governmental experience and the apparent pressure she is under with fellow council members:

1) Veach is married to a Long Lake Firefighter.

2) Veach may be influenced to hire her husband to the OFD.

3) Veach is friends with Long Lake Firefighters and their wives and families.

4) Veach’s income partially comes from the Long Lake Fire Department (they are involved in a lawsuit with the City of Orono.)

5) Veach was preselected to be on the Orono City Council.

6) Veach is on the Fire Advisory Board representing the City of Orono.

7) Veach is on the Fire Negotiation Committee representing the City of Orono.

8 ) Veach was volunteered to be a part of the mediation with Long Lake representing Orono.

9) Veach is the treasurer of the Orono Westonka Soccer Association so she may have influence on funding the Hackberry Park remodel.

Where does it end? Apparently when Veach stands up for herself against the block of three voters - Walsh, Crosby and Johnson. Veach needs to look at her ethical standards. Stop allowing Walsh to place you in a double bind Ms. Veach and vote for the Citizens of Orono.

#togetherwearebetter #citizenfororono #friendsoforono https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554824716776