LAKE TERNBY, Minn. — The Lake Ternby City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday night to conduct all official business under the rules of association football for the remainder of the World Cup, and less than two hours later issued its first red card, to Council Member Doreen Halvik, in the 78th minute of a debate over a $48,000 culvert repair.
Resolution 26-41, introduced by Mayor Phil Engstrom, provides that through July 19, the date of the tournament’s final, council meetings will be played in two 45-minute halves separated by a 15-minute recess, with stoppage time added at the discretion of the city clerk. Engstrom said the resolution was intended to “capture the spirit” of a tournament being played this summer across 16 host cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, none of them Lake Ternby, and to “make the meetings end.” The national team, which opened its tournament with a 4-1 win over Paraguay on Friday, plays Australia this Friday in Seattle. The council has scheduled a special session to coincide with the match and voted to hold it in the Legion hall, which has the bigger television.
The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. with all five members present, and the resolution was adopted at 7:14 p.m., with kickoff at 7:15. The first half, devoted to approving the minutes and a proclamation honoring the Lake Ternby High School marching band, ended 0-0. The second half opened with the culvert. City Engineer Al Brandvold was shown a yellow card in the 52nd minute for time-wasting after a 19-minute presentation on drainage gradients, and Halvik was booked in the 61st minute for a challenge on the budget committee chair that the clerk ruled “late.” In the 78th minute, Halvik reached across the dais for the budget chair’s microphone and the budget chair went to the floor clutching his agenda. The clerk retired to the coat closet for video review, emerged four minutes later, ruled that the contact had been “minimal, but on the agenda,” and showed Halvik a second yellow card and then the red card, which the city purchased in 2019 for the Fourth of July parade and has not otherwise used. The motion to fund the repair ended tied 2-2 at the end of regulation and was decided on penalty kicks, with the city attorney in goal in front of the flag stand. Council Member Gus Peltier’s attempt was saved, the mayor’s was not, and the contract was approved 3-1 on penalties. The culvert, which had been wheeled in from the public works garage on a flatbed for reference, was named player of the match.
Halvik said after the meeting that she would appeal. “I was nowhere near him,” she said. “The 1st Ward was in an offside position the entire second half. Everyone in this room saw it.”
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said the city’s approach should be adopted nationwide. “A meeting should have a clock. The clock should run, then keep running after it stops, then end when somebody in charge decides it has ended. That’s how soccer works and, honestly, that’s how meetings already work,” Brickhouse said by phone from a youth hockey rink. “It’s just common sense. They’ve just added cards.”
Under the resolution, a red card carries a one-meeting suspension, meaning Halvik will be unable to vote on the July 7 agenda, which includes a proposal to repeal Resolution 26-41. The council voted 4-0 to adjourn at 9:46 p.m., in the 46th minute of stoppage time, and the members exchanged shirts.