Inver Grove Heights City Council votes to fly old Minnesota state flag (original) (raw)

The Inver Grove Heights City Council voted Monday night 3-2 to fly the previous Minnesota state flag, instead of the new one the state adopted in 2024, joining more than a dozen other cities choosing to do so.

Inver Grove Heights Mayor Brenda Dietrich made the motion to approve a resolution to fly the old state flag and Council Members John Murphy and Sue Gliva supported it, while Council Members Mary T’Kach and Tony Scales voted against it.

The previous Minnesota state flag. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Secretary of State)

Gliva, who voted for the city to fly the old flag, said it represented a “layered and evolving story, one that acknowledges both where we began, and how far we’ve come.”

She said that she believed so many parts of history have been erased over the past few years or forgotten about.

“And I think it’s very important, even symbolically, to represent the flag that I feel represents our history,” Gliva said. “And at this time, I am in favor of flying our history.”

T’Kach had said previously that she couldn’t see the need behind changing “what is already a unified symbol in the state. If the council votes to adopt the old flag, I believe that we’re sending a message to current and future employees, businesses and residents that we are not a united part of the state of Minnesota.”

T’Kach also said she thought it was best to honor Minnesota’s “inclusive and deliberate process” to redesign the flag.

“The imagery on the old flag, some people call it traditionalism, but I think it’s really a reminder of historical oppression and forced displacement of Indigenous communities,” she said.

Community voices split

More than two dozen people spoke at the meeting, with a fairly even split of those asking to keep the new flag and those asking for the city to officially fly the previous one.

Some residents in favor of the city flying the old flag said they felt like they didn’t have input into choosing the new flag on a state level.

Other residents disagreed.

Leslie Martin said that the state took two years to “reconsider” what the state flag should look like and that people should have paid attention during that process. She said discussing changing the flag at a city level is part of a “wearing away” of democratic norms.

“As others have said, you can fly any flag you want to in your own yard,” she said. “Some people just don’t like change, and some people don’t like change when it happens in an administration of a particular party, to which they do not ascribe.”

A.J. Gubash said that the state regulating which flag a city flew was turning into a control issue, noting that a bill in the Minnesota House would reduce state funding to cities that fly the old state flag. House DFL lawmakers have introduced a bill that would penalize cities 10% of state local government aid for using the old state flag instead of the new one. Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, who carried the House bill to change the state flag and seal, is the chief author.

Gubash called that a “misuse of power” that “clearly overreaches the proper limits of the Legislature. It’s the state using financial pressure to force communities like Inver Grove Heights to fall in line with policies that raise serious constitutionality and proper representation concerns. If this approach is allowed to take hold, it sets a dangerous precedent.”

Tim Pippert said that flying the old state flag “gives a pretty terrible impression.”

“It makes us look like a backwards (suburb). This likely has real financial costs for businesses and future businesses. There really simply are no positive outcomes,” he said.

Eric Holberg said the issue wasn’t about a flag, but about “hyperpartisan theatrics.”

“You can choose to change the flag,” he said, “but let’s be clear, you’re not going to be flying the Minnesota state flag. You’ll be flying a scarlet letter. You’ll be broadcasting to everyone who drives by that Inver Grove Heights is a wonderful place to live, as long as your politics swing one way. It will be a pox on you all. It will be a pox on the mayor. There will be a pox on this city.”

New flag approved in 2024

After an off-and-on debate going back decades, Minnesota adopted the new state flag on May 11, 2024.

Charlie Krueger, a grounds supervisor for facilities management at the Department of Administration, raises the new Minnesota state flag for the first time at sunrise atop the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, on Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Alex Kormann / Pool via Star Tribune)

The new flag features an eight-pointed white star on a dark blue abstract shape of Minnesota on the left and a field of light blue on the right, all evoking the Dakota meaning of “Minnesota” — “sky-blue water” — and the state motto of “L’Étoile du Nord,” French for “Star of the North.”

The design was inspired by a submission from 24-year-old Luverne resident Andrew Prekke, one of more than a thousand public submissions considered by a state panel in 2023.

The previous flag had existed in some form for more than 130 years. Its design featured the state’s territorial on a blue background and received criticism for its resemblance to other similarly lackluster state flags, and for what some said was a glorification of the displacement of Native Americans by European settlers. The original state seal, which was also redesigned in 2024, shows a white farmer in the foreground with a Native American, on horseback, in the background, riding west toward the setting sun.

During an Inver Grove Heights City Council meeting on April 13, Dietrich first asked to consider returning to the old flag design.

“While change can be inevitable, the public reaction to the new Minnesota flag so far has been overwhelmingly negative and underwhelmingly accepted,” Dietrich said in that meeting.

State Republicans, who have voiced opposition to the new flag, have argued that the panel choosing the new flag wasn’t bipartisan and that the process lacked public input. Other critics described the design as uninspiring. As the matter became politicized, some also said it looked like the flag of Somalia.

Other cities that have decided to fly the old flag: Babbitt, Champlin, Columbus, Crosslake, Detroit Lakes, Elk River, Ham Lake, North Branch, Pine Island, Plainview, St. Francis, Wadena and Zumbrota. Crow Wing County is also opposed to the new design.

There are no state mandates requiring cities, counties or townships to fly the new flag. Only state-owned buildings are required to fly it.

Alex Derosier contributed to this report.