A political fight between current and former leaders of Lao Family, a St. Paul-based nonprofit that has served the Hmong community since 1977, landed at St. Paul City Hall on Wednesday night.
A public hearing on a proposed sound level variance for Lao Family’s annual Como Park soccer tournament and “Freedom Celebration” drew roughly a dozen opponents from the Hmong community.
Scheduled for July 4 and July 5, the Hmong Freedom Celebration is in its 34th year and is believed to be the largest international gathering of Hmong people in the world. The event draws athletic teams, musical acts and even scholars from China, France, Germany and Argentina, organizers told the council.
Members of a rival committee that has formed to oppose Lao Family argued against the sound level variance. In a June 3 letter to the city council, Ying Chu-Yang Heu, chair of the Little Canada-based Hmong Heritage Preservation Committee, accused Lao Family of corruption and “social injustices.”
The committee has held two streets protests outside of Lao Family’s University Avenue headquarters, and members have repeatedly fought the results of Lao Family’s disputed December 2010 board chair election in court, without success.
The Hmong Heritage Preservation Committee’s campaign was chronicled in the Pioneer Press back on March 14.
Calling the protests misguided, Lao Family officials told the council on Wednesday that the street protests mostly drew Hmong elders who were “lured” to the events, but they’ve nevertheless beefed up security as a result of “threats.”
City officials called the four-year-old conflict political and irrelevant to the request to play amplified music from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on both days of the Freedom Celebration at Como Park’s McMurray Fields.
“Traffic and trash, they’re much better managed than they used to be,” said Council Member Russ Stark. “What we see tonight is really unfortunate, on a number of levels. This fight going on is not serving anyone in the community.”