That is the gist of the latest Norman news, reporter Stultz noting in closing that Norman faces seven felony charges and one gross misdemeanor, (all arising from the same course of conduct in beginning his job as Albert Lea city manager and with Norman having no prior criminal record - that not being reported this time, but already reported in earlier coverage by Stultz's online efforts).
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I disagreed with how Norman acted as city administrator while in Ramsey, in relation to open meeting law and public data handling - not having documents the city council held and discussed made available to the public attending meetings, handing them out at the last minute and not having them available in advance, but he did not to my knowledge engage in anything chargeable as crime while in Ramsey.
I have termed the city hall, the $19 million extravagently opulent city hall for a town the size of Ramsey, a "Norman castle," but that goes to the judgment of him and those on council then, and is not a crime.
Is there Schadenfreude in this? Yes, because he never got a comeuppance in Ramsey for what I thought was wrong and offensive. His leaving Ramsey as abruptly as he did related to conduct outside of Ramsey, as I understand it outside of the US in China, and I was not distressed at all to see him leave.
That said, this stuff in Albert Lea looks like piling on. He must have gotten crosswise of some fairly powerful local folks, for this to have gone as far as it has. My view. That and a dollar three eighty will buy you a latte, at Town Center Caribou Coffee.
He had a focal role in the instigation of the failed Ramsey Town Center, and we in Ramsey can always remember him for that and blowing that humongo wad of cash on the Norman castle.
He's gone, but the debt service lingers.
_____________UPDATE_____________
The latest on Albert Lea's hunt for a new top city administrative official, here.