Nearly 300 citizens from all across the State of Minnesota gathered for a Town Hall meeting Saturday morning at South Santiago Lutheran Church for information gathering on the grassroots effort of the Convention of States (COS).

“One heck of a turnout,” said District 15B Rep. Shane Mekeland. “Am I surprised? No, not really since we had a huge turnout when we had Eric Trump come to the area last year.”

Prior to Saturday’s event in Santiago, the largest town hall meeting the C.O.S. had ever had hosted consisted of 65 people. Some people Saturday traveled all the way to Santiago from Rochester, Edina, Eagan and St. Louis Park to join in on the discussion. One C.O.S. staffer flew in from Michigan to attend!

The event was organized by a group of state senators and representatives as well as local  coordinators of the C.O.S. and volunteers. Thousands of emails, texts and phone calls went out to citizens to steer them to this special hearing.

Mekeland helped spearhead the meeting and several weeks back he was looking for a venue to hold such a meeting. Originally, another Central Minnesota church offered to host the event, but eventually removed themselves from consideration due to unforeseen circumstances.

Mekeland began inquiring about other venues when a staff member at South Santiago Lutheran Church (SSLC) told Mekeland the church space was available. After considering other options, the town hall meeting was pinned to be held at SSLC for April 24.

The Town Hall meeting was held to outline the process of calling a Convention of States and how citizens can get involved. A Convention of States is called under Article V of the Constitution. It’s controlled entirely by the states, and has the power to propose constitutional amendments that limit federal power, mandate fiscal responsibility, and impose term limits on federal officials. 

The first and only Constitutional Convention, convening in 1787, created the framework for the United States Constitution and the government we know today. To ensure a balance of power, the framers included Article V of the Constitution, which outlines mechanisms for future constitutional amendments.

Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, two-thirds of the states, or 34 out of 50, apply to call a convention to propose constitutional amendments. Thirty-nine states have applied to congress for the calling of a convention of the states. Fifteen states have passed a COS resolution, eight have passed in one chamber and 16 have active legislation this year including Minnesota.

Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides two methods of adopting amendments.  First, congress may, by a two-thirds majority in both houses, propose amendments to the states. Second, if two-thirds of the states ask Congress to call a constitutional convention, Congress must do so. Every amendment to date has been proposed and ratified through the first method.

The original constitution consisted of seven articles on four pages. Today’s Constitution consists of over 3,000 pages. Thirty-three amendments to the United States Constitution have been approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. Twenty-seven of these amendments have been ratified and are now part of the Constitution which include voting rights, taxing and terms of office, etc.

Interest in a convention spans the political spectrum with support and opposition coming from both Democrats and Republicans. 

Mekeland and fellow representatives Dale Lueck, Cal Bahr, Eric Lucero and Sen. Andrew Mathews were tasked with answering the questions from the crowd of 300 during the event.

Pete Wilson of Sartell stood to make a statement and said he was strongly in opposition of the C.O.S.

“The concept is well-meaning but I don’t think you can control this thing once it gets moving,” Wilson said. “Can you guarantee me today that what you plan to do is something someone like George Soros won’t take over?”

Lucero fielded the question and assured Wilson that the C.O.S. is safeguarded from such corruption.

“Three-quarters of the states need to vote to ratify text, right?” Lucero said. “Either congress drafts it and passes it with 2/3-rds of each body or the text originates from the C.O.S. — either way the text has to first be drafted then approved by 3/4 of the states or it won’t get amended.”

Amy McCutcheon of St. Louis Park drove the nearly 60 miles from her hometown to attend the hearing. She said she learned about the C.O.S. from a friend of hers and then she did her research.

“After visiting the C.O.S. website and digging into it, I began to see there may be a solution — a path to reeling in the government,” she said. “I came here today to really see the people, see the momentum and figure out if there’s a role for me in this group.

McCutcheon later met up with State Director  Jackie Burns and says she may sign up to be a district captain in her hometown.

“I believe there’s a structure in place I can support,” she said.

Joe Holum of Big Lake heard about the hearing through a conversation he had with Mekeland recently. Holum had contacted Mekeland to ask him why he didn’t show support for  the “Recall Gov. Walz” movement and after Mekeland called Holum back and explained the movement was all “lip service”, Mekeland invited Holum to the C.O.S. meeting.

“I was outside with my family when he (Mekeland) called me back and we talked for about 40 minutes or so,” said Holum. “He suggested I attend this meeting today and sent me flyer for info. So I came today to learn more about this and to tell my friends and family.”

Holum said the government is too big and he doesn’t like the future being laid out for his kids, especially at school.

“There are a lot of us in our late 30’s and early 40’s who don’t like what’s going on,” he said. “We have families and we don’t know what we can do to straighten things out for the future. Our schools don’t educate our kids on any of this anymore, the constitution, our rights. My kids come home with little knowledge from social studies classes other than being told how bad white people are for what they did to the Indians and how slavery was bad. Things have to change.”

Steve Davidson, a six-year volunteer legislative liaison for the Minnesota C.O.S., said the momentum for “We the People” is growing fast.

Six years ago I came on board and at that time, just four states in the country had passed the resolution,” Davidson said. “Today, we are at 15. It hasn’t happened overnight but it is gradually ramping up as more-and-more people learn about its cause.”

Davidson says the grassroots power is what is going to make or break this movement.

“What we are seeing is an explosion of interest,” he said. “We’ve had town halls all across the state for the last couple years and we’ve had 30-40 people attend, at the most. “Today was fantastic! It’s great to see the knowledge people have the great level of support.”

Board members of the church wanted to reiterate that the church was not making a political or civic statement by hosting the event Saturday, but were just allowing the hearing to find a venue.

“The community meeting for the Convention of the States (COS) group is not affiliated with South Santiago Lutheran Church,” said a SSLC Church Board Member. “As to policy, the building space is set to welcome all members of the community.” 

The board member went on to say SSLC wants to be known as a welcoming place as part of their community.

“There are some exceptions for any group that would not align with the values of the congregation,” he said. “We would not allow any groups that discriminate based on legally protected groups or promote any sort of violence.” 

The information available for the C.O.S. outlines that they welcome all points of view and is non-partisan. 

“While they are a political action committee (PAC), they are non-partisan and not aligned with any political party,” said the church official. “They provide clear guidance that they do not allow any discriminatory speech or actions and they are working to inform people as part of this process with no requirements to either join their organization nor support it.’

It was reported in last week’s lead-up article in the Patriot that the church was requiring guests to the C.O.S. to bring a non-perishable food item or money donation as part of attendance. This was misrepresented as the building use policy does not outline any such need. The use of the facility is in line with the requirements of SSLC’s building use policy.

“In the end, what remained  after the organization left was a group of more informed people that left behind a donation of food and money to support our community,” said the church elder. “At SSLC, we welcome all into a relationship with Jesus as we focus on Teaching the Word and Reaching the World.”