Months of tension between city officials and North Star BBQ owner Peter Neubauer came to a head Tuesday. The City Council voted unanimously to uphold its decision to deny Neubauer a permit to operate his food cart, putting an end to the feud — for now.
Both sides offered differing accounts of the details about what happened leading up to the initial denial. Hutchinson Police Chief Dan Hatten alleged Neubauer walked out of a background check interview during the application process; Neubauer alleged the interview ended civilly. The council stated Neubauer had known about needing the permit as he’d previously obtained it for several consecutive years; Neubauer argued the permit ordinance does not specify needing it for working on private property.
“Where is there an exception anywhere in the ordinance for private property?” Council Member Steve Cook asked Neubauer.
“Say that again,” Neubauer said.
“Is there an exception in the ordinance for private property?” Cook said.
“It doesn’t say anything about private property,” Anna Neubauer said.
“Exactly,” Cook said. “There is no exception.”
“(The ordinance) says public property,” Peter said. “Why does every other city in the state of Minnesota mention private property in their (ordinances)?”
The background interview, which was required of Neubauer to obtain a permit, reportedly ended before all of Hatten’s questions were answered, as Neubauer requested legal counsel before continuing. In addition to Neubauer allegedly having prior knowledge of needing a permit, Cook said the incomplete interview was the basis of the denial.
“It’s clear the chief had more questions, but the interview ended at (Neubauer’s) request,” Cook said. “The chief has the right to get those questions answered.”
Hatten’s reason for requiring Neubauer to answer questions at the Hutchinson Police Department was that he’d obtained information through social media that Neubauer had shown the brewery owner a permit. Because the department had not contacted Neubauer for the application process, Hatten believed the documentation was invalid. Neubauer clarified in both hearings that he’d shown the brewery owner his state permit that allows him to sell food.
A noise violation, for which Neubauer was fined $62 in Virginia, Minnesota, was not a reason for the interview, though it did appear in the background check.
“I have never been brought into a police station and interrogated by a police officer, let alone a police chief,” Peter said. “I cooperated with (Hatten and City Administrator Matt Jaunich). The only time I didn’t agree was when I requested a lawyer.”
“(Neubauer) wasn’t forced to do (the interview),” Hatten said. “We called him at short notice … to accommodate his request to have the issue on (the next council meeting) agenda. We offered to put it on the agenda two weeks later, but he didn’t want to do that.”
During both hearings, Neubauer said he was being treated like a criminal. He alleged during both hearings that a typo on a document shared between city staff was not a coincidence. The error stated Neubauer has a criminal history in the state of Virginia instead of in the Minnesota city of the same name.
“The chief was using (that record) to frame me and make me look bad,” he said Tuesday.
“That was a typo,” Hatten said. “It was corrected prior to the (Oct. 23) meeting and again during the meeting.”
Neubauer also suggested communication between himself, Jaunich and Hatten was not as clear as it should have been. Neubauer said his request for a digital copy of the mobile food vendor ordinance was not met, and Jaunich said it was. Further, Neubauer said he was never told he needed to contact the city for any reason after Hatten had spoken to the brewery owner. He asked the council why Hatten had contacted the brewery owner and not him. Cook said it was because Neubauer had operated on that property without a city license and that Hatten was doing his job.
At the end of the hearing, Cook moved to uphold the permit denial.
Afterward, when asked if he felt the outcome of the application process would have been different if there had been clearer communication, Neubauer said yes. He also said he will pursue obtaining a city license after Hatten retires.
“(The council) kept changing the line,” he said. “They were going to deny this thing the whole way through. They encouraged me to appeal only to deny me. … (I don’t want to do another interview with Hatten) because of the way he’s treated me in the past. It’s been going on since 2012. It’s sad that my own town would do this to me.”
Neubauer said North Star BBQ will continue operating in other nearby towns such as Glencoe and Litchfield.
