Court temporarily seals Rochester council member's response in lawsuit against city

Apr. 16—ROCHESTER — A Rochester City Council member's written response to a request to dismiss

her lawsuit against the city

isn't expected to be publicly available before a hearing on the issue.

Council member Molly Dennis's response was filed on April 8, but the document was temporarily sealed by U.S. Federal Court Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko.

Micko gave Dennis and the attorneys representing the city 21 days to identify what in the filings can be publicly available and what might need to be redacted or remain sealed.

"The Court will then determine which portions of these sealed documents may be unsealed, if any," he wrote in his order, which was filed on Monday.

Rebeccah Parks, public information officer for the Minnesota District of the U.S. District Court, said Micko's order puts the deadline beyond the planned April 30 hearing on the motion to dismiss the case.

Attorneys from the Minneapolis-based Greene Espel law firm, working on behalf of the city,

initially asked the court to dismiss Dennis' case in February

. The first-term council member filed an amended complaint in March.

Dennis, who is representing herself, is suing the city, Mayor Kim Norton and council member Patrick Keane on claims that

her March 6, 2023, censure

and later actions violated state and federal employment and human rights protections.

In the motion to dismiss the case, attorneys Erin Emory and Jenny Gassman-Pines argue that Dennis' lawsuit lacks sufficient supporting evidence for her discrimination allegations.

"A plaintiff is required to do more than plead facts that are 'merely consistent' with a defendant's liability," they state in a March 15 filing signed by Emory.

Dennis has claimed the city failed to provide basic accommodations, including hourly movement breaks recommended by her physician on Aug. 31, 2022, for her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis, but the city's attorneys point to measures taken to address her request

While the council takes breaks at least every two hours, a Dec. 20, 2022, letter from Deputy City Administrator Aaron Parrish, which was provided to the Post Bulletin by Dennis, indicates the council member is able to use a standing desk or moveable platform to take the requested hourly movement breaks as meetings continue. She also has the option to move away from the dais.

"Although Dennis might prefer an all-council break every hour, the ADA does not require the city provide the 'accommodation that an individual requests or prefers,'" Emory wrote, citing past court rulings.

The attorneys point to other accommodations taken in response to Dennis' requests, which were addressed through the help of an employment and labor attorney.

"The city responded to Dennis's requested accommodations through the interactive process and provided her with additional tools and resources," the motion to dismiss states.

The attorneys redacted specific references to Dennis' medical records and related requests, but the council member said she included the full letters and details in her response, which she indicates led to the city's request to temporarily seal the filings.

"I included the exhibits to show that the city has been violating ADA with not allowing me hourly breaks (a break every hour)," she wrote in an email to the Post Bulletin on Tuesday. "I specifically chose not to seal/hide any documents, even my medical records, because transparency is important."

City Attorney Michael Spindler-Krage said it's unclear what made the judge decide to seal the document, but he said the city had concerns about other nonpublic information that was included in Dennis' filing. Those concerns are expected to be discussed amid the review process.

In addition to saying Dennis fails to adequately prove disability discrimination in her lawsuit, the attorneys for the city argue that several of the claims are based on alleged workplace discrimination, which does not apply to an elected city official.

While Dennis wrote in her amended lawsuit that she "was a member of the Rochester City Council and, in that capacity, was an employee within the meaning of state and federal statutes," she has said since the March 8 filing that she didn't intend to state or imply that she is a city employee.

"I have never considered myself an employee with regards to my work on City Council," she wrote in an April 8, 2024, email to the Post Bulletin. "The federal government (IRS) considers me an employee with taxes, the city administrator and city attorney obviously have treated me similar to their subordinate employees, and the illegal March 6, 2023, discriminating censure has minimized my election certificate by removing my rights as an elected official."

Dennis' sealed response to the motion is expected to address the concerns raised by the request to dismiss the case, and the attorneys for the city have until Friday to file a final response before the planned April 30 hearing in U.S. District Court.