ELY — After facing criticism from multiple community members, Mayor Heidi Omerza reversed her decision to reappoint Paul Kess to the Ely Area Lodging Tax Joint Powers Board, instead naming Councilor John Lahtonen to the position at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
The change came as a surprise to several residents who had signed up to speak in opposition to Kess’s reappointment during the public comment period. Instead, they used their time to thank the mayor for listening to their concerns.
The reversal marks a significant shift from the Jan. 6 council meeting, where Omerza’s initial list of board representatives included Kess returning to the Joint Powers Board despite calls from some in the community for an elected city councilor to fill the role.
The appointment became contentious after Kess declined to follow a council directive at an October meeting that called for him to support giving the Ely Area Tourism Bureau 95 percent of lodging tax funds. Instead, at a November board meeting, Kess voted to give the tourism bureau, city, and Chamber of Commerce each two-thirds of their funding requests.
At a December council meeting, Councilor Emily Roose asked that Kess be replaced, arguing that constituents’ voices were not being heard when their representative didn’t follow council direction. The council voted 6-1 to postpone consideration of the request until January, when annual board appointments are made.
Community response
Several community members who appeared at Monday’s meeting expressed appreciation for having council representation on the board.
Abby Dare, who heads the tourism bureau, used her public comment time to address what she described as a challenging year of civic engagement in Ely.
“I feel exhausted. I feel disheartened, and at times I felt totally discouraged about continuing to engage at this level,” Dare said. “Across my work ... I’ve encountered a pattern of resistance, resistance to planning, resistance to long-term thinking, and resistance to shared vision building.”
Dare acknowledged that she doesn’t know everything about the ongoing debates in the community but said she has worked to offer her best thinking “always with the success and long-term health of this area in mind.”
She described Ely as sometimes appearing to be “two groups of people who are unintentionally pitted against each other, despite significant overlap in values, lifestyles, and vision for the future.”
“Questions like, are you pro copper-nickel mining? Are you for Boundary Waters conservation or not? Do you ski or do you snowmobile? Were you born here or were you not?” Dare said. “Those are relevant questions and there are also critical conversations to have, but they also could be super fun conversations to be having.”
She said such either-or framing, “repeated so often with negativity,” has “begun to fracture trust and stall collaboration in a really big way.”
Dare praised the timing of the city’s comprehensive planning work, which happens every ten years, and called for similar strategic planning around Ely’s tourism economy.
“Tourism is not our only industry, and I don’t want it to be our only industry, but it is a foundational part of our local economy,” she said. “And it does deserve careful, coordinated, and forward-thinking stewardship.”
She described the comprehensive plan and tourism strategic planning as “massive opportunities, not just for economic clarity, but for community cohesion.”
“Leadership right now isn’t about choosing sides,” Dare said. “It’s about helping the community stay in relationships while doing hard work together.”
She urged councilors to use their influence to support residents working toward shared planning and long-term thinking.
“There are people in this community who are showing up ready and willing to do this work. They care deeply about Ely and this future,” Dare said. “And what they need is to feel supported, not solved, not dismissed, and not fragmented by competing narratives.”
The council approved Lahtonen’s nomination unanimously.