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Our invocation was offered by Anthony Nordan while Kathy Austvold was our song leader. Anthony also passed around a sign-up sheet to work the Otter Oration event at the High School on January 25th. President Dan announced that the Board had moved David Lundeen to the Honorary Member category. Bob Russell introduced as his guests James Allen with Leighton Broadcasting, who was present to cover our speaker's remarks. Bob also introduced Mike Stepan, Susan Newsom and Anita Miller, all with the United States Bankruptcy Court. A reminder was necessary to get Bob to introduce his final guest, former club member Erik Ahlgren. There was a Rotary Minute based on this being our first meeting in 2020, so naturally the subject was eye trivia. The two questions may have been a bit too easy as the answers were easily discerned. Greg Darling led off the bragging, noting his wife had called to his attention Vinco being on the front page of The Daily Journal, having installed a public electronic car charging station. Anthony was happy to brag about his son's first Christmas but also paid in acknowledging he had to leave the meeting a little early. Steve Andrews talked about his wife being home for Christmas and that she has now been hired to tutor a nine month old child in Mandarin out in New York City. Erik Ahlgren got into the swing of things by paying to brag about the Bankruptcy Court staff present, who make the work of bankruptcies attorneys so much easier. Bob Russell introduced the Honorable Michael E. Ridgway, Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court. Judge Ridgway was born on a farm outside a small town in South Dakota and now resides in downtown Minneapolis. The Bankruptcy Court has had a presence in Fergus Falls since 1984 and Judge Ridgway began coming to Fergus Falls on a monthly basis when he was appointed to the bench in 2013. Bankruptcy judges are appointed for a fourteen year term by the federal circuit court in which the court is located -- in our case, the 8th Circuit consisting of federal courts in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas. Judge Ridgway described the bankruptcy law as being designed to help the honest but unfortunate debtor get back on its feet. He described the different types of bankruptcies -- Chapter 7 or a "liquidation" bankruptcy; Chapter 11 or a "reorganization" bankruptcy for businesses; Chapter 12, for farmers or fisherman with total debts below $10 million (until August of 2019 the limit was approximately $3.4 million); Chapter 13 or a "wage-earner" bankruptcy; and the more esoteric Chapter 9 "municipal" bankruptcy and Chapter 15 for international bankruptcies. Chapter 12 bankruptcies are steadily increasing, although they are still not of the number as in the mid-80's during that farming crisis. In 2018, Minnesota ranked as the fourth state with the most Chapter 12 bankruptcies, behind Wisconsin, Georgia and Nebraska. In 2019 Congress also passed the Small Business Reorganization Act, which streamlined Chapter 11 procedures for small businesses. Bankruptcy is a federal procedure, made so by Article I, Clause 4, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. By far the most common bankruptcy is a Chapter 7, where an individual or a married couple discharges most of their unsecured debt (excepting child support and maintenance, student loans and most taxes) and usually get to claim most if not all of their property exempt, meaning they get to keep it; a debtor in a Chapter 7 case still has to deal with secured debt or ultimately turn over or lose the collateral to the claim of the secured creditor. Judge Ridgway taught bankruptcy law at St. Thomas Law School the past five years and he said while many approach it as a "boring" subject, it really isn't, as bankruptcy requires you to deal with so many facets of other laws -- real estate, dissolution of marriage, taxes, etc., and, recently for Judge Ridgway, a class action antitrust settlement. This writer can report that Judge Ridgway is as straight-forward and learned as his remarks indicated and that he is indeed performing a valuable service (but as he said, enjoying "the heck out of it") in coming to Fergus Falls on a monthly basis to hold hearings. Those hearings are held in the federal courthouse and former post office, renamed in 2014 the Edward J. Devitt United States Courthouse and Federal Building, in honor of former District Court Judge Edward J. Devitt who would regularly come to town to conduct court business. Plans are underway to remodel and once again begin using the second courtroom on the second floor of the building, retaining its historical look but bringing it in today's world of modern technology.
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