Basis for Thornton firing still murky

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She tussled with DNR over unspent grant money

News that Susan Thornton, the chief staffer for the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), had been fired came as a shock last week to many state legislators and people who lobby on environmental funding issues.

Since 2008 Thornton had served as director of the 17-member panel that recommends projects to be funded out of the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which contains proceeds from the Minnesota Lottery.

Thornton was told verbally about her termination by the Legislative Coordinating Commission, of which the chairmanship alternates between the House and Senate on an annual basis. House Speaker Kurt Zellers is its current head, though control will change on Jan. 1.

The reason for the action is vague. Press accounts noted that the Legislature wanted the LCCMR to go in a different direction.

While the specifics as to why Thornton needed to go in order to pursue that new direction have not been disclosed publicly, the decision comes after a series of incidents that suggest growing pains between the LCCMR and the new Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

Things got off to a rough start when the legislative session was gaveled in last January.

The LCCMR’s recommendations coming into the session had been prepared before the election. There was swift action by Republicans in the House to nix projects and insert other ones, said Nancy Gibson, a citizen member who is the LCCMR’s co-chairwoman.

“When we had our LCCMR meeting,” she said, “we were told there would be some changes, and they were pretty big changes. That started the friction right away. …We were told they wanted to go in a different direction, and they wanted to do more research on invasive species. However, we did a request for proposal for invasive species, and it got very poor responses.”

Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, who became the chairman of the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee for the new GOP majority, said he was frustrated that sometimes projects of low priority got funding when his party was in the minority. He successfully pushed to get funding into the bill for chronic wasting disease and aquatic invasive species, which he noted has become a high priority.

“I worked hard after we came in to the majority to look at the projects and evaluate,” McNamara said. “We made some changes. … If you go back and look now, it’s money for things like aquatic invasive species and CWD and Asian carp. … Now we’re thinking, thank goodness we made those changes.”

One lobbyist who follows environmental issues noted that state legislators face outside pressures to which the citizen members aren’t subjected. “You’ve certainly got your problem of the year to solve, and the Legislature politically has to try and solve some of those problems,” the lobbyist said. “I suspect all of the legislators support environmental education as well, but it doesn’t rank in the top three when it comes to putting out fires. It’s more of a luxury than a necessity. With the legislators, it’s their job year to year to put out fires.”

In addition to differences over projects, the new Republican leaders sought to remove some DFLers who had long-standing involvement in creating LCCMR bills.

A longtime LCCMR member, Sen. Ellen Anderson, wanted then-GOP Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch to appoint her to the LCCMR. Koch appointed Sen. Linda Higgins, DFL-Minneapolis, instead. At the Rules Committee meeting during which the new members were approved on a voice vote, Koch said her rationale for not appointing Anderson was to bring a new perspective.

“I think Minnesotans expressed they’d like some new eyes with their vote this last November,” Koch said at the February hearing. “I felt a bit of duty to do that all around.”

Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, who, like Anderson, was a former environment committee chair and member of the LCCMR, was also removed.

Thornton became LCCMR director in 2008, succeeding John Velin, who retired. She was hired from inside the LCCMR and now leaves state service after 22 years.

While Thornton’s job was nonpartisan, the new Republicans in the majority have been distrustful of staffers who had long-standing relations with DFLers, according to one insider. Thornton’s tenure on staff made her close to Wagenius and others who have fallen out of a favor as Republicans try to recast the LCCMR, the source said.

Apart from the issues raised by the new Republican legislative majorities, the LCCMR and Thornton came under criticism this fall from the head of the state Department of Natural Resources over a grant refund.

On Sept. 23, DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr sent a letter to Legislative Coordinating Commission Executive Director Greg Hubinger in which he expressed concerns about a refund of money that was “improperly processed by LCCMR staff.” The letter, of which Zellers received a courtesy copy, concerned $136,840 in funds for easement monitoring that went unused by Ducks Unlimited and were subsequently returned.

Among a number of objections, Landwehr said that LCCMR erred in directing the returned funds to the Minnesota Management & Budget department rather than the DNR, which was the granting agency.

Thornton responded to the letter with a document dated Oct. 3 that offered background on the grant issue. Among the details, Thornton wrote that the money was deposited at MMB because the DNR was closed due to the government shutdown.

A House GOP spokesperson declined to comment when asked whether the grant issue was a factor in Thornton’s termination.

Thornton’s lawyer, Vince Louwagie, said he wasn’t aware of the DNR letter.

“All I can tell you is they told her it was not performance-related,” Louwagie said. “It was going in a different direction.”

Chris Niskanen, the DNR’s communications director, denied that the DNR had anything to do with Thornton’s termination.

“We were still working with the LCCMR, with Susan, on this issue. … As far as its having some role in her departure, the answer would be no,” Niskanen said.

Since the news of Thornton’s firing, Louwagie has questioned whether the LCC had the right to terminate her.

Louwagie pointed to Minnesota Statutes Chapter 3.305 as the basis for his question. He said the LCC covers panels that are “exclusively” made up of House and Senate members. The presence of citizen members means that the LCCMR “is not that kind of animal” and that authority over personnel would reside with LCCMR members.

“I don’t think she’s employed by the Legislative Coordinating Commission. I think she’s employed by the LCCMR,” Louwagie said.

Gibson was quick to lash out at the Legislature for the move.

“What’s … troubling to me is how they can say the whole LCCMR is going in a different direction without any conversation with us,” Gibson said.

While McNamara declined to comment about Gibson’s public comments in the wake of Thornton’s firing, he said he has respect for the citizen members of the LCCMR and anticipates that going forward, the LCCMR members will manage their differences and seek to find agreement on projects.

“This is not a citizen-Legislature dispute,” he said. “I don’t believe that. I believe that if you really talk to all the citizen [members], they’re interested in the projects we’re interested in. It’s more a change of the times than personnel.”