North Dakota’s workers’ compensation agency should have $50,000 set aside for employee gifts, parties and training, House Republicans decided, ignoring Democratic complaints that the kitty was a “slush fund” for dubious expenses.
Rep. Frank Wald, R-Dickinson, asked to include the fund in the Legislature’s two-year budget bill for the Workforce Safety and Insurance agency, which provides medical, wage and rehabilitation benefits for workers injured on the job.
In remarks on the House floor April 3, Wald said the proposal was in response to questions raised last year by the state auditor about $18,300 in agency spending, including about $4,000 for restaurant gift certificates for employees, $2,500 for bottled water, and $700 for flowers and helium-filled balloons.
Wald said state guidelines were unclear about what sort of spending is allowed. If a major employer came to meet with WSI officials, they should be able to take the person to lunch without fear of being criticized for it later, he said.
“They have the sandwich and maybe a glass of wine,” Wald said. “Is that wrong? Is it illegal? Is it unconstitutional?”
Rep. Pam Gulleson, D-Rutland, said that if the fund was a good idea for the state’s workers compensation agency, it should be good for any state department.
“We do not allow any other agency – none – to have spending authority to put in place … a slush fund,” Gulleson said. “Our first obligation, of course, is to the taxpayers, and in this case, the employers who pay the fees, to uphold state law and the constitution in how those monies should be spent.”
Gulleson led House Democrats in an attempt to strip the $50,000 fund from the workers compensation budget. It failed, 60-32, with House Democrats and Rep. Mark Owens, R-Grand Forks, voting no.
Representatives then voted 64-28 to approve the agency budget itself. It now goes to the North Dakota Senate, where senators will decide whether they agree with House changes.
Gulleson read from a list of agency purchases during the debate. “Trinkets from Party America. Hedgehogs from the Dakota Zoo. Pickle ornaments. Gold pickle pins,” Gulleson said. “That goes far outside what our current policy is.”
The pickle pins are a symbol used by Bob Farrell, a motivational speaker and former restaurant owner, as a reminder of the need for good customer service.
The Workforce Safety and Insurance audit documented low morale at the agency. It said WSI often ignored state budget rules for contracts and purchases and hired workers who did not meet its minimum qualifications.
In one incident, the agency used fraud investigators to try to track down an employee who was e-mailing agency salary information to other workers.
Rep. George Keiser, R-Bismarck, the chairman of the House Industry, Business and Labor Committee, said he and members of his committee were responsible for some of the questioned expenses when they met with agency executives to discuss legislative proposals.
“That is the very purpose for which legislators serve, to understand the issues before we vote,” Keiser said. “And now it is listed here as a violation of state law, that it is outside of the direct statutory authority of WSI. Give me a break. That’s a joke.”
Keiser said the auditors’ interpretation of what is a permissible expense calls into question whether legislators may attend state agency or interest group receptions or events to which they’re given free tickets.
“You’d better stop going to the Bank of North Dakota receptions. You’d better stop going to the University of North Dakota dinners,” Keiser said in a House floor speech. “Every state agency that I know, just about, has had some form of reception, and they’ve put money into it, and you have attended, in violation of the law.”
Wald said the questions about WSI’s gift and training expenses were “silly” and complained that the agency’s director, Sandy Blunt, had been vilified for approving them.
He compared the expenses to a state Agriculture Department trade mission to Cuba five years ago, in which Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple took part.
“If they buy Fidel a glass of wine, is that illegal?” Wald asked, referring to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. “I wouldn’t buy the guy a glass of wine, but they’re on a trade mission, so I guessit’s OK.”
The bill is SB2021.
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