MANKATO — Last Thursday members of the St. Peter/Mankato Indivisible group visited the office of U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-1st District) in Mankato and then the police arrived.

Police were called to a disturbance at Brett’s building where the congressman’s office is located but found the members of Indivisible were not causing a disturbance.

“Its frustrating to me,” Indivisible founder Yurie Hong said, “We were lucky the police were reasonable with us. Some situations can escalate when police are called. Things could have gone bad. There were children present. I was scared.”

Jim Hahn, Communications Director for Hagedorn, confirmed the police were called, but said the call to the police was from the landlord due to complaints from other tenants about constant distraction and interference with business from the Indivisible group.

“Since this has come to our attention, we are concerned that one group’s behavior may be having a negative effect on Mankato’s business economy,” Hahn said. “Rep. Hagedorn is on the Small Business Committee and an advocate for small businesses that drive our district’s growth.”

Indivisible has visited Hagedorn’s Mankato office every Thursday since the office opened in January. The number of members who attended changed from week to week. Hong said the first few weeks it was two, six or ten members, but the number grew in recent weeks.

According to its Facebook page, Indivisible St. Peter/Greater Mankato is “a non-partisan group dedicated to positive, progressive action to make people’s lives better and to create a more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive world.” The goal is to bring people together and inform, inspire, and empower members to take action, the group says. The St. Peter/Greater Mankato chapter of Indivisible has nearly 700 members.

“The top thing we asked for was, when Hagedorn would host a town hall in Nicollet,” Hong said. The group wanted to know about a town hall in advance to allow members time to schedule attendance.

Hong said Hagedorn’s office staff gave assurances the group would be informed of the town hall in advance, but Hagedorn held a tele-town hall in Nicollet without publicizing it.

“We felt deceived,” Hong said.

In response, 35 members of Indivisible visited Hagedorn’s Mankato office on Thursday. However, Brett building staff would not allow all the group in the building at once. They were restricted to seven members at a time and were escorted to the district office. The staff said the office could only hold 10 people at a time. Each group was allotted 15 minutes of time. The remaining members were locked outside the building as seven members were escorted to the office.

Hong said the group complied with the request, but the police were called to the building citing the Indivisible’s visit as a disturbance. Police took no action against Indivisible.

Hong insisted Indivisible followed every rule asked but acknowledged that Indivisible was creating more work for Hagedorn’s office.

“It is their job to record constituent opinions,” she said. “We’re not a monolithic group. Members have a variety of concerns.”

She said individual members talk to staff about what they want to discuss. Topics include red flag laws and humanitarian issues at the border. Hong said going to the office as a group makes it easier for people to get involved and participate in democracy.

Moving forward, Hagedorn’s district office in Mankato will abide by a 15-minute policy. Hahn said the typical meeting in a Washington office or a district office is scheduled for approximately 15 minutes while the seven members at a time is a fire marshal restriction and has always been in place.

“A member of Congress represents about 700,000 people. It is simply not possible, nor is it fair to other constituents, to give one small group of individuals unfettered access both in number and duration of visits,” Hahn said. He said Indivisible has been afforded more access to the district office and staff than any other individual or group since January.

“If members of Indivisible can’t share their comments within a 15-minute time frame, then they are welcome to write us like thousands of other constituents do who also have opinions on federal laws and legislation,” Hahn said.

Hahn described a district office’s primary role as “engaging in casework on behalf of constituents” This casework includes but is not limited to resolving issues with veteran’s benefits, Social Security payments, issues with Medicare and Medicaid, passport issues, immigration cases, etc.

“People reach out to our office regularly to solve these critical life issues,” he said. “It’s one of the primary reasons we need to be fair and equitable in the amount of time we spend with all of our constituents.” 

On Friday, June 28, Hong and other Indivisible members traveled to Rochester to attend a Hagedorn town hall. During the visit, Hagedorn spoke directly to Hong and promised a town hall in Nicollet County.

Hahn said Hagedorn has planned to hold an in-person town hall event in all 21 counties he represents over the next year and this is a level of town hall engagement exceeding that of his predecessor over any 12-month period.

No official date for Nicollet’s town hall has been sent at this time. Hahn said the town hall schedule is being made in concert with other constituent visits.

Indivisible has no official plans to visit Hagedorn’s office during the 4th of July holiday, but members may coordinate visits in smaller groups in the weeks ahead.