ST. CLOUD – A longtime Stearns County commissioner is stepping down from his position amid a legal battle with his wife, who recently filed for emergency guardianship over him due to his cognitive decline.

Leigh Lenzmeier, 77, submitted a letter to the county on Wednesday stating he is retiring effective immediately. He served as commissioner for 34 years.

"The residents I have served, the board members I served with and the staff I worked with will always be the highlight of my life, and hopefully my legacy," he wrote. "This was not an easy decision, or a quick one for me to make. But, I realize today, it is the right thing to do."

As recent as last week, Lenzmeier had said he was determined to finish the rest of his four-year term, which runs through 2026. A Wright County judge granted his wife the emergency guardianship in early April as she argued his rapid cognitive decline was affecting his ability to act as an elected official.

"This is all about preserving his dignity and respect — and getting him off that board," Alice Lenzmeier said last week. "I don't feel the need for the whole world to watch him go downhill."

The order listed a diagnosis of major neurocognitive disorder, which is characterized by a "progressive and persistent deterioration of cognitive function" in which "affected patients often have memory loss and a partial or significant lack of insight into their deficits," according to the National Library of Medicine.

Leigh Lenzmeier has been residing in an assisted living facility in Buffalo, Minn., for about a year and attending meetings virtually. The guardianship order stated his "memory, executive functioning and ability to care for himself have been in decline over the past 15 years with rapid acceleration" in recent years.

The temporary guardianship lasts 60 days. At an evidentiary hearing Wednesday, which was closed to the public, a judge heard arguments on whether to make the guardianship permanent. Leigh Lenzmeier is contesting the permanent guardianship. The judge is expected to issue an order in the coming days.

The County Board had scheduled a special meeting for next week to discuss the guardianship. County Administrator Mike Williams said Wednesday that meeting will be canceled in light of Lenzmeier's resignation.

At Tuesday meeting, Board Chair Jeff Bertram said he's received more correspondence from constituents about this issue than anything else during his two-year tenure.

"It's painful," Bertram said. "I can't tell you how many times I've cried about this because it hurts me as a person. But, again, we have to separate the person from the process."

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