Bold as Brass until called out on class!

It seems Kris Brogan is bold as brass until called out on her actions from the past. recently she posted on her Facebook page to a friend: "Caroline I'm being stocked by a cyber bully and i have been informed i should find a lawyer to shut down the blog." she goes on to ask for a recommendation but come on Kris for the love of Peter Paul and Mary, you want to be in the public arena and run for office but you think nobody will call out your past actions? Pull on a pair of those big girl pants you have tucked in the back of your closet and address some of this to the public that you want to vote for you! Your going to run and hide again?

The real kick is Mick Brogan responds on the same thread saying "Yes she has Barb running scared" oh yes Mick scared must be the word oh wait no scared is when a little man jumps out of his vehicle in a public parking lot waiving a gun! Did you want some big boy pants Mick? If so check the closet I'm sure there is more in the way back maybe you are not even aware of!

Lets be real clear here! If you want to run for office and you have in the last year filed for bankruptcy, asked your neighbors to chip in a thousand or so dollars to help save your business that you had been told over and over not to open in that location to start with and if your husband has a history of brandishing guns in public to act like the chief turd on crap mountain maybe you better check those brass orbs and make sure they are still attached!

OR

Come out to your public and explain why you think people should vote for you after all the crap you have spread around the North Side in the last many years!!!

Oh and Kris and Mick did you do dinning out for life in North Minneapolis? No? Why not? You love North Minneapolis, remember?

Like Mother, Like Father, Like Son!

For those of you have not had the joy of seeing the Brogan family in action when Papa's was open please go to Mike Brogans Facebook site. Mike is the son of Kris and Mick Brogan and much like his parents fights in Papa's his Facebook page is an open book of the family's style of class! The last post is of a nude man and women in bed together with large letters that say, "I don't make love, I FUCK...hard" and then you can scroll down and see some more of his sexually tasteless jokes. Both Father and Son have a criminal history that at times is hard to understand who raised who in this family?

At one time Mike Brogan was on the payroll at Papa's and we do know that he has children that he is suppose to pay child support for, weather or not he is....well that's another story! Remember Mick and Kris filed bankruptcy on thousands of dollars of child support they claim they received from their employee only they didn't actually send it to the state child support office. Was this a set up to get some of their son's back child support erased?

This is a full quote from Mike Brogans Facebook page on how he is getting free medical help from the state of MN:

I just found out that I no longer have health insurence from Medica. Now they put me on Medical assitence? I didn't ask for free health insurence and I've tried to tell the State that I don't need the discount but they won't listen. So free health care for me. It's messed up that there are people who need it and have to jump threw hoops to get it. and they are like dope dealers to me "here take it" at some point someone needs to look at how are money is spent? Don't get me wrong I'm taking full advantage of thier oversight:)- Taken from Mike Brogans Facebook page

This is just a few examples of the behavior the Brogan family has displayed, its speaks of some of the same behavior that both parents Mick and Kris displayed while loosing their pizza shop! Kris thinks we want her to be our next city council rep? WHY?

Brogan puts out a "Call for Action"

Yesterday Kris Brogan on her Friends of Kris Brogan Facebook page put out what she is calling a "call for action". The following is taken right off her campaign Facebook page:

This is the call to action! We are working to make sure the message is out that the Brogan campaign is about community engagement, listening to the needs, finding the solutions, working together and a leader who will provide support and direction to build our community!

When looking into Kris Brogans history we can find no examples of Kris Brogan finding solutions to neighborhood problems. We have found several examples of Kris and Mick Brogan trying to get the community to bring solutions to them, ie: money, to save their pizza shop but the closest we can come to community investment is Kris calling for the neighborhood to pre-pay for pizza by buying gift certificates to papa's pizza, but we believe she knew even then that those gift certificates would soon be no good!

As for the working together, Kris is know around City Hall for not working well with others. Staff reports show that shortly after Kris Brogan was hired by Mayor Belton both staff and the Mayor began to regret this decision. Working with Kris Brogan was tough at best as it was either the way Kris wanted it or it was not to be done at all!

Last but not least Kris says she wants to provide support and direction to build our community. Kris has the idea and has put it out there for all to see that her idea of building the North side is to build more low income supportive housing in North. The one idea she has shared is to put these low income buildings on the light rail corridor.When you look at the Alliance buildings she has worked on and the RS Eden buildings it is not the local North Minneapolis people that are placed in these buildings, its the down and out from all over the city. This will not help the people of North? It is just the same as the Salvation Army idea but on a smaller scale! At the meeting with the Salvation Army, Kris never came out against them moving to North Minneapolis, she road the fence on this issue. We have said it before but will say it once again, Kris was most likely looking to make a dime on this project OR as in the past Kris has made connections with the Salvation Army and is looking to keep them in her back pocket for a later date.

The buildings Kris Brogan was a part of on Lyndale and Lowrey bought and ran by RS Eden are filled with people fresh out of jail and prison or the RS Eden treatment center in downtown. These are not filled with the poor and needy people here in North Minneapolis. It is becoming a storage shed for the people that cant get housing in other areas and anytime we "store" people that have troubles in one area we increase the risk of crime.

Part of how Kris Brogan gets the buildings in North Minneapolis is by using high end calculations on who will be living in the building. But like most things Kris Brogan the scale she uses is off and has a low end median income also. The people that make 50 plus thousand a year have of course more options available and they are not going to stay in North or move to North Minneapolis just because Kris Brogan builds it. The people on the higher end of her scale of course will jump at and be excepted into buildings in Northeast, Uptown, and other already cleaned up areas of town.If your property is surrounded by low income housing projects that offer services or not to their renters your property value is not going to climb, its going to remain the same for many years or its going to fall.

The best way to raise property values is to clean up the neighborhood, to offer services the people already here need and want. The reality is Kris Brogan can't offer this! She tried putting a pizza place in north but when the community called for home delivery Kris and Mick said "NO"- it was not until they got butt deep in debt that they tried delivery but by that time it was too late. As with all things Kris Brogan she will do it her way until or  when in failure mode she will be open to other ideas. The no delivery policy at Papa's is a perfect example of this, Kris stated many times that they had sunk money into that patio and it was there dream that people sitting on the patio would clean up the neighborhood.

We are not saying that the work RS Eden does is not important, it is! What we want people to understand is that we have our fill of these types of projects in North Minneapolis! We need to move forward with safety and building affordable ( check the difference between low income housing and affordable housing) housing on these empty lots. As with all things it takes time but its important the footings are placed the right way so that they can be built on! Kris Brogan's plan does not do this.

A little more of Why!

If you made it to Barb Johnsons campaign kick off you now know that we have nothing to do with Barb or her campaign. I even went up to her and asked her what she thought about this "Brogan Blog" and she shook her head and said "I don't like stuff like that" so there it is!

Now why i will vote for Barb Johnson and NOT Kris Brogan. Barb has been in office for a while and I believe she has done all she can each day to help North Minneapolis and the city of Minneapolis as a whole. I know of stories of Barb stepping in to help residents of the 3rd and 5th ward because they couldn't seem to get the help they needed from their ward council person. I have know Barb to show up at crime scenes and murder scenes. I remember Barb showing up on my street moments after the tornado and offering to have someone bring in food for my elderly neighbor to make sure she didn't go hungry. Time and time again Ive seen the work she has done in North. Any mistakes Barb has made she has been honest and upfront about them, she has made them right and like any human she makes mistakes, its not about the mistakes themselves but how you handle yourself after the mistakes and Barb has been a stand up person in handling hers!

Why i wont vote for Kris Brogan? Because I've done the research and I hope if any of you who have been reading this blog have questions that you too did some research on Kris Brogan! I have seen how Kris Brogan has manipulated systems, practiced unethical behavior on neighborhood boards, and scammed money from banks and mortgage companies. That's why its so important for us to call it out and make sure that the voters know all of this information! Kris would have us all believe she is the victim in her mortgage ordeal, a victim of a bad economy, and a victim of Njyia and his customers parking in her spots. It seems everything that has come out about Kris she is always the victim! Even on her campaign site she states someone was telling story's on her and she didn't want that on FB- who would Kris? But why not open your page up to comments so people can ask in a public forum and get the answers they need? I will tell you why Kris Brogan likes one on one conversations about her past, its so she can answer them the best way to keep you believing in her. If it is done in a public forum she has to state it for the record and it would come out that she told one person one thing and the next person something else! If Kris is elected to office it will be the pat on the bag she needs to continue her scams and unethical behavior and the voter will be the person giving her the go ahead to do so!

Remember Kris Brogan worked for Mayor Belton, but Ive not seen Mayor Belton support or endorse Kris Brogan yet? We went looking for anyone that worked in the mayors office at that time and had no problem finding a couple of people that would talk off the record! The common theme that we heard was that Kris was difficult to work with and for in the mayors office and that shortly after starting work in Mayor Beltons office people regretted that she had been hired! It was the same story as above, Kris Brogan was always the victim! When she lied to staff or cheated and was caught Kris was the victim!

you can't help but read and research all of this and see some common threads, Kris Brogan does things her way! She does not always follow the rules because the rules don't get Kris Brogan where she wants to go! Kris Brogan has no ethics when it comes to fiances she has proven that your money is her money when its needed to see her dreams come to light! And if the pieces fall apart she becomes the victim! This is not someone we want in charge of our ward is it? Do we really need the Kris Brogan drama while trying to build North into the neighborhood we NEED it to be?

One final thought. We have been asking over and over why Duane Atter is the lap dog for Kris Brogan? What is that all about and why even though he has been taken for money from the Brogan also is he in so deep? Well in checking out the Non-profit status at the Warren we may have stumbled on part of that answer! When we have all the pieces to the puzzle we will put them right here in The Brogan Files.

Following the money trail

Its time to start following the money trail to see what is really going on in North Minneapolis with a couple of the players.

1. Kris Brogan wants to open a pizza place in North Minneapolis. She lives in South Minneapolis and has no family living in North, she and Mick just pick North Minneapolis as the place to open their "dream". Kris knows North is having hard times, she helped open RS Eden on Broadway. They have lost of opertunity in South Minneapolis but they decided to chance it in North. Knowing all along they plan to not offer the serviced in the North location that the residents are needing and wanting, like pizza delivery!

2. Kris, a mortage broker for some of the biggest deal in North Minneapolis low income and supported housing in North Minneapolis claims she got caught up in the mortage problems the rest of the state did? How she is a mortage broke with a brother that is also in the real estate business?

3. Kris and Mick Brogan take out loans on their four plex in North Minneapolis after Kris looses an election for city council in South Minneapolis. They almost double the debt on the house in South Minneapolis.

4. Kris worked as an aide in Mayor Beltons office of city hall and knew all the ins and outs of the city. She more then anyone had the information available on how to navigate the city policies and what the city expected. Yet later when things got tough Kris turned on the city and it because their fault she could not run a business in one of the hardest parts of time!

5. Kris and Mick are warned prior to signing the lease at the 42nd avenue location that the landlord in trouble. They are warned that several people have had trouble with him and that the old Ric's on 44th across from her dear friend Duanes business The Warren is open, has plenty of parking for what the Brogans want to do and it would add to the the eat street imagine of that area because of Emily's and Dominos pizza, The Warren for shows and on and on. But the Brogan's thought they would "deal" with the troubled landlord on 42nd and Thomas and knowing their home in South was going to be foreclosed on they had their eye on a house on Thomas avenue. It looks like more planning went into how they could start their business without by screwing over the mortage company in south minneapolis, get a new house on Thomas Avenue in North, and plunk down a pizza place in a building that needed a lot of updates, a kitchen, and basically starting with a blank slate and starting from scratch. Is this a good business plan? An established area for food in an established restraunt with plenty of parking VS. a spot in the middle of a basically residential neighborhood without parking, a rental space without the right kitchen, and a known troubled landlord?? What kind of planning?

6. The pizza joint they claim took two years to open because of issues with the city, or was it because they wanted it their way and the heck with what was the right way? They open the business and right away begin to seak placements on local boards. Kris joins the ViNa board, she has a history of being deeply involved in the non-profit game in North Minneapolis so she know the rules!

7. Mick starts to terrarize the neighbor car repair business because he thinks the repair shop is taking up too many parking spots, but remember there is only on street parking on 42nd and Thomas and they had been warned about this. Mick also spends a couple of years building his dream without income? Who does that when they have a family to feed, mortage to pay, business expenses to pay for? I would say its someone who knew they had NO plans to pay off that mortage in South Minneapolis.

8. Within days of lossing the South Minneapolis four plex they had a deal to buy a house on Thomas Avenue in North Minneapolis. Now also keep in mind that Kris had her failed run for city council memeber as a republican also. Was this a planned move so she could gain a seat on the city council? Also magically they are able to find a house on Thomas avenue on short notice and one that the owner was willing to sell on a contract for deed?? Luck?

9. When the tornado came Mick and Kris go to the local paper, one that is not having public finacial problems and they hatch a plan to "help" this poor local neighborhood news paper? They offer Papa's gift cards for $20 and the poor local paper thats not publically having finacial problems will recieve $4 out of every $20 gift card sold. While this is going on Mick and Kris start to withhold the rent money on the space of Papas pizza, again Kris knows this is an illegal move but they try and bully the land lord anyway to get what they want! At the ViNa meeting its brought up that the ViNa board, using public funds should buy $200 in these soon to be defunct Papasgift cards because it will help two local businesses. Now Anne Kaari and Duane Atter are both voting members of the ViNa board also. Kris says she cant vote on this because she is part owner of Papas but both Anne Kaari and Duane Atter seem to have lost their voice of ethics as they dont make it know they have both invested over a $1,000 each in Papas recently, had menu choices named after them, and are close friends of Mick and Kris Brogan! So of course the motion passes!

10. Lets talk about the rental space that Papas was in. The original landlord had several run ins with the city and the rental court. Kris knew this from the start and because of her connections at the city level she also knew he was at the end of his rope with that building, do you think she had a plan for that building from the start? Then shortly after the lease is signed Mick Brogan starts telling people it wont be long and the building will be his but the landlord sells out to someone else with in months of Papas opening. The new landlord does not want to play ball with the Brogans and wont be pushed around by Mick, he has the ball in his court because they are now stuck in the lease and he does not have to entertain the Brogans on their wish list of changes.

11. When the gift card idea does not bring in the amount of money they had dreamed of they start to panic. Conversation are heard around the dinning room and the typical Brogan fights grow worse! The landlord wants them out and he wants them paid up in full but thats not the plan Mick Brogan has! They force the landlord to take them to eviction court and later to get a writ because they are not leaving. Only after all of this Duane Atter goes on social media crying how sad it is Papas is closed, how terrible it is that the city failed the Brogans! Ever hear the old saying "You can lead a horse to water"?

So now we have neighbors involved finacially with Papas and these good investors strech all the way from south Minneapolis to far north Minneapolis yet there is no mention of the fact that Kris has a brother Greg Maltby that has a nice size business and good income and he is not listed as an investor? Or that Kris comes from family money to the point that they even have the Maltby Reserve that the family has poored lots and lots of moeny into, it can been seen by clicking here: http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/reserves/maltby-low-common-nature-reserve

Check it out to see all the services this offers, its a great place and there is no doubt its a wonderful adition to our state however, why didnt the family of Kris Brogan get behind her and her dream? Bad investment maybe? Why did the community, already taxed by a failed housing market, crime, and a tornado have to step up to the plate and give more? Remember when Kris went to the media saying its was the communitys fault for not supporting them?

There is more to come so please stop back and check out the real story in The Brogan Files!

Real Estate Agent? Really?

 

Here is another thing I've been thinking about. Kris Brogan is a real estate broker, which is a level above being a real estate agent. She did what so many others did and stripped the equity out of her 4 plex in S. Mpls. If she claims she didn't know about the fine print, then what the heck kind of real estate person is she. She claims to do all the deals for Alliance Housing and others, but she couldn't even negotiate her own mortgage! Looks like she took all the money from her house and put it into keeping Papa's afloat and that is where I see yet another problem. She was throwing good money after bad. Is that how she will manage city contracts? If it doesn't work like she thinks, keep dumping our tax dollars into a rat hole? And one more thing about her being a real estate broker, didn't she see the market crisis coming? I mean I did and I have no real estate experience whatsoever. My house in North Minneapolis was appraised for $250,000.00! I laughed when a mortgage company offered to refinance me and give me a check for the equity because I knew it wasn't worth anywhere near that price. Many people, and including it appears the Brogans, were struck by pure old plain out GREED! They had a "dream" and nothing was going to stop them from pursuing it, even to their own detriment. Now, speaking of throwing money down a rat hole, what was old Mick up to when they were opening Papa's? He quit his job and spent two years getting the doors open! No reserve, no advanced planning, just living off his money until it ran out, then snatching all the equity from the home to finance a ship that was sinking before it even opened. Speaking of that, Kris wants to blame the city for their problems opening the pizza place. Yet at every turn, she touts her time working in the mayors office. Heck to hear her talk, she ran the mayors office, but she couldn't use all that experience to navigate the regulations to open a simple pizza shop. One other thing, I don't see an endorsement from the former Mayor. If she was as valuable as she says she was, you'd think Mayor Belton would stand up for her. Talk about bad timing, after dumping their house into Papa's, they then hit their friends up to invest in Papa's, sending out letters and promising free pizza for life and naming pizza's after them. Who does that to their friends? Then they turn around and include it on their bankruptcy and have the nerve to go begging for more money to run for office! When they still couldn't make a go of it, Kris goes in the local paper and blames the neighborhood for not supporting them. Notice how she never accepts any blame for Pap's failure? It's always somebody else's fault, the city, the neighborhood, the tornado, the recession, broken windows....she never says anywhere that I can find that maybe, just maybe, they had a poor business plan, average food and poor service not to mention verbal wars between Mick and Kris that were legendary. Now, let's visit the location for a minute. Kris was told that the landlord was a bad character to deal with and that parking was an issue. At that time, Victory 44 (then known as Ric's) was up for sale, already established and had parking! But Kris knew better and would hear of nothing else but that location. It was Thomas Ave or nothing. The city was trying to get rid of that landlord and warned Kris that it would be a mistake, but warnings be damned, full speed ahead! She captained that ship right into the rocks, but accepts no blame. When they perceived parking as the latest issue to keep them from being successful, it became Ngyis' fault. They were warned of a shortage of parking places before they opened, but in typical Brogan style, it was off to the races to blame someone else. Kris claims to support small businesses, but I think Ngyia would have a different take on that. One more of Kris' "work experiences" is her long term relationships with non profits. Knowing that, one week before it came up at the ViNa board meeting, Kris is quoted in the Camden News (March 1, 2012)about her concern for the neighborhood paper and her plan to sell $20.00 gift certificates to Papa's splitting the proceeds $16.00 to Papa's and $4.00 to the Camden News. At the March 7, 2012 ViNa board meeting she brings it to them and they approve using public funds to purchase $200.00 in gift certificates. Granted, Kris abstained from voting, but the intent was clear; raise money for Papa's using the Camden News non profit newspaper as cover. She knew better and so did the ViNa board. As the Pap's ship was breaking up and taking on water, Kris and Mick stopped paying rent to the landlord, in violation of state law. Unlike a home rental where money can be escrowed if their is a dispute, a business cannot do the same. I learned this fact by using Google. Again, Kris is a real estate specialist in this area but decided to break state law anyway, after all, the rules don't apply to the Brogans. How they could even have faked being shocked when they were served with eviction pares is beyond me. They made the landlord (not the original one by the way) take them to Court and file a writ of eviction against them to force them out. yet again Kris showing how she supports small business; forcing to spend the money to file and go to Court. In the end, Kris and Mick take no ownership for their part in Papa's failure. The city is at fault, no wait, it's parking, no hold on, its the neighbors fault. I am not saying they didn't have obstacles as surely the tornado, the recession and yes city regulations all may have been small factors in this mess, but it would really be nice for the Brogan's to stand up and say "we screwed up too, and we accept the blame" because as it stands, they seem to have no part in this tragic chapter of, The Brogan Files.

Ngyia's Auto Repair

We have spent some time with Ngyia and some of his staff at the garage located on 42nd and Thomas Avenue. Ngyia has had a long history of run ins with both Mich and Kris Brogan over the years. He reports that after confronting the Brogans about calling the city on him he was told by Mick that it was true and they would continue to call on him. Ngyia says that he has even had meetings with Mich and Kris Brogan with city officials present and it still didn't stop the harassment. He says that even on nights that there are no cars left on the street he has had calls placed to the city and has had to spend time answering questions from parking officers and other city officials.

Looking into this we also found a neighbor on Thomas Avenue that stated they had received an e-mail from Mick and Kris Brogan asking neighbors to continue to call 311 on Ngyia even though Papas had closed already. So why the hate? Ngyia says he can't understand it and has gotten to the point that he is so far beyond angry with the entire situation! He explained to us that often times returning customers will have car issues over the weekend or in the evening and will have their car brought to his shop and left there. They use to be able to leave the keys in a secure drop box and they often times leave him a voicemail on his business line that the car is sitting there and what needs to be done. Several times when Ngyia has returned to work on Monday mornings he has found three or four cars on the street waiting for him to service them.

Since the big blow up with Mick and Kris Brogan about a year ago Ngyia has sealed up his key drop box, posted a note by it not to leave cars on the street, and has let new and old customers know that he cant have them dropping cars off for service when he is not open for business. Of course not all customers listen or even take the time to read and when they return to a ticket on their car they expect Ngyia to pay for the ticket thus causing him more business issues. Several times he reports that in the course of a normal business day when Papas was still open for business, Mick would be walking back and forth in front of his front window and as cars pulled up he would run outside asking in an angry voice "What business are you here for?" and if it was not for Papas he would hauler and scream expecting them to move the car! In the humor Ngyia is known for he says that one day a very large lady had been yelled at by Mick Brogan and that he thought it was all going to end right there as this women was hollering right back that Mick didn't own Thomas Avenue. In the course of checking out all the leads we had on this story we could not confirm that Kris had used her history of working in the mayors office to call in favors with the parking authority to keep the harassment going, however we did hear this story quite a few times. Of course nobody at the city level wanted to believe this could even happen!

Our family has been doing business with Ngia since the day he opened for business and have never had one bad experience with this man. We have had our kids in the shop waiting room and he has taken time to show them magic tricks and hand out candy. We have never head a word about his temper or of him screaming at customers. We have however not only witnessed Mick and Kris bickering in Papas in front of god and man but we have witnessed Mick screaming at a staff member once causing us to want to flee with children in tow! After reading Micks criminal history and the offence when he was waving a loaded gun in the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Bank we cant help but believe that Mick and Kris are not the best neighbors when they have it in their heads and hearts to come after you!