Commissioners agree to place racial-covenants item on an upcoming agenda after public request
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Summary
Commissioners signaled consensus to place an item on the agenda to consider a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would provide access to documents and address fees related to removing or annotating historical racial covenants; the county will clarify details at a future meeting.
Commissioner Persky on Jan. 7 asked the Stearns County Board of Commissioners to consider taking action on the issue of historical racial covenants. Commissioners discussed whether the item should appear on the consent agenda or as a separate agenda item and expressed interest in clarifying the county's role.
Persky said a citizen had offered to pay the fee for processing covenant documents, and that the county's role would be to provide access under a memorandum of understanding rather than to waive the processing fee. County staff asked that if the board wants to proceed it be placed on the agenda so staff can provide needed clarifications.
Commissioner Richard Clark and others expressed support for putting the item on an agenda for discussion; staff indicated the original public request had included asking the county to waive fees but that the current proposal involved a third-party paying the fee and the county providing document access under an MOU.
Ending: The board signaled consensus to add the racial-covenants MOU item to a future meeting agenda so staff can present details and clarify the county's administrative role.