Chisholm voters re-elected Jed Holewa to the city council on Tuesday as officials prepare to revisit a proposed employment policy that could force him to choose between serving in elected office and working for the city’s ambulance service.
The proposal, which would restrict city employees from simultaneously holding elected office, was tabled last week until after the election. One of its leading proponents, Travis Vake, lost his bid for mayor to Joy Frazier, but has two years remaining on his council term.
If Chisholm officials adopt the policy, it would expand the restrictions on full-time city governments serving as elected officials and include municipal employees that part-time paid on-call. State statute prevents full-time city employees from being elected, but leaves it open for governments to address other employment types.
“This is a policy-level decision,” said City Attorney Bryan Lindsay, during an Oct. 28 meeting. “The council and city can create a policy that disallows that and be an enforceable policy.”
Councilors tabled action until their next meeting.
The parallel issues of the election and employment policy, specifically for the fire/EMS departments in Chisholm, avoided further complication Tuesday.
Holewa (29.3%) won his bid to return to the council, while Rikki Olsen (29%) fell short of election. Had they both defeated Shawn Lappi (41%), the city would have faced the policy issue head-on with two of the three councilors elected this year serving in fire/EMS roles.
A stricter employment policy would also butt up against two broader issues facing Greater Minnesota — a recent shortage of rural fire/EMS volunteers and varying levels of public service through seeking elected office in these cities.
Mayor Adam Lantz, a fire/EMS volunteer who donned his uniform shirt during the Oct. 28 meeting, said Holewa and Olson account for about 25% and 35%, respectively, of the calls taken by city volunteers.
“That’s a lot,” he said, referencing weekend work, holding multiple jobs and more. “To have this come up is very hard … It can be detrimental if the choice is to take a leave of absence from that.”
According to the Minnesota Office of EMS, Northeast Minnesota recorded 72 new emergency medical technician certifications in 2024, compared with 103 certifications that expired. That left the region with 31 more expiring certifications than new ones, illustrating the difficulty of maintaining the region’s emergency medical workforce.
Fire departments are similarly dependent on residents willing to serve outside traditional full-time employment. Of Minnesota’s approximately 21,340 firefighters, more than 18,600 serve as volunteers, paid-on-call or part-time personnel, according to Minnesota Department of Public Safety fire service figures. That accounts for roughly 87% of the state’s firefighters, underscoring the importance of residents who balance emergency response with other jobs and responsibilities.
The dependence extends to ambulance services. A 2026 state evaluation found that volunteers and partially volunteer emergency medical personnel contributed more than 1.68 million hours of service during 2025, representing an estimated $64 million in labor. The figures demonstrate how much Minnesota’s emergency response system relies on people who serve their communities outside conventional full-time positions.
“I was on the ambulance for three years. I saved a life with people in this room,” Vake said. “It hurts me to know those people don’t support me or like me, but at the end of the day … , will it solve the current issues that are happening?”
Among the issues Vake cited was a recent report by McGrath Consulting Group, which recommended more guardrails on city employees as city officials.
“Regardless of how this comes out, it’s not going to change my mind to get the answers that we need answers for,” Vake added.
Lindsay, the city attorney, said tabling would allow staff to continue working on how restrictions to public office or city employees would impact departments and Chisholm’s overall civic engagement.
Small communities also face a similar challenge finding enough residents to serve in local government and civic organizations. A July 2026 University of Minnesota Extension study estimated that one in every 21 Minnesota adults would need to hold a formal leadership position to fill the available roles in local government and nonprofit organizations. In the state’s 24 most rural counties, that requirement rises to approximately one in every 10 adults.
The demand varies across Northeast Minnesota. According to the University of Minnesota research, approximately one in nine adults in Cook County and one in 10 in Aitkin County would be needed to fill formal leadership positions. The ratio is one in 16 in Itasca County and one in 18 in St. Louis County, which includes Duluth.
Those figures do not mean that all the positions are vacant or that residents are unwilling to serve. Rather, they illustrate the relatively small population base from which rural communities must recruit elected officials, board members and other civic leaders. The research also highlights how small communities often depend on the same residents to fill multiple public service roles.
“We feel and I feel, if major changes are going to be made, we need to do it right away,” said City Administrator Ryan Pervenanze. “We need to make sure the city is covering its bases. My recommendation is to take a step back … it’s simply making sure we’re doing things the right way.”
