A legislative effort to reshape the U.S. Bank Stadium oversight panel received a resounding 17-1 endorsement Tuesday from a House committee in an initial test of legislative interest in the face of firm opposition from Gov. Mark Dayton.
The House Government Operations Committee endorsed the bill after a presentation from one of the sponsors, Rep. Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth, about the Legislature’s goal of exercising more control over the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA) in the aftermath of reports that commissioners and staff at the agency were using two taxpayer-owned luxury suites to entertain family and friends since the stadium opened Aug. 3.
“If they thought it was OK to give friends and family tickets, food and parking that wasn’t available, maybe, to the average Joe, that’s a problem,” Anderson told the committee.
The MSFA is responsible for providing public oversight of the $1.1 billion stadium built with $498 million in public funds. But the panel’s efficacy and ethics have been questioned since a Star Tribune story in late November revealed the use of two 18-person luxury suites to host friends and family for Minnesota Vikings games among other high-priced events such as Metallica and Luke Bryan concerts.
Anderson’s bill would increase from five to seven the number of people on the board and disburse the appointments more widely. She also would eliminate the full-time chair position. making it a mostly volunteer job. Currently, the board has a chair, Michele Kelm-Helgen, and an executive director, Ted Mondale, who earn a collective $300,000. GLEN STUBBE, STAR TRIBUNE Ted Mondale and Michele Kelm-Helgen responded after Minnesota Legislative Auditor James Nobles delivered a scathing report to the House and Senate State Government Finance committee on Feb. 7.
The need for the two positions has come into question in part because the MSFA has a 10-year contract with global marketing giant, SMG, to promote and book the stadium. Kelm-Helgen and Mondale said they were using the luxury suites to market the building themselves. “It begs the question of why do we have three people doing the same job,” Anderson said.
Dayton has stood behind the state employees and pointedly accused Republicans of partisan attacks on Mondale and Kelm-Helgen whose work he praised again last week.
But the House committee vote on the bill to restructure the board passed with strong DFL support. Only Rep. Michael Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park, voted against it. He initially offered substitute bills to study the board this year and take action in 2018. He argued against being reactionary to news reports and said shaking up the board with less than a year to go before the Super Bowl would be unwise. The committee rejected his efforts on partisan lines.
After the vote, Nelson called the MSFA friends-and-family suite use a “bright, shiny object” attracting attention and legislative efforts to change it as attempts to “embarrass the governor and the sports facilities commission.”
The Star Tribune published a story in late November, detailing how the MSFA had given free tickets to several state commissioners, Minneapolis officials and friends and family members. Legislative auditor James Nobles subsequently investigated and issued a 100-page report last week that said the MSFA violated a core ethical principle by using a public position for personal gain. He also said the Legislature should be more vigilant of board activities and exercise more control over the board.
Neither Kelm-Helgen nor Mondale was at the meeting for the vote, but she issued a statement saying the MSFA responded to public outcry by changing the suite policy to exclude friends and family and to “enhance recordkeeping.” She said the MSFA is willing to work with the Legislature and Dayton on other issues, including the ability to use the suites for charity.
Last week, Nobles presented his audit at a four-hour House-Senate committee hearing most of which was spent with Republicans skeptically questioning Kelm-Helgen and Mondale, whose defense, in part, was they were just doing what has always been done.
In arguing for new leadership and restructuring, Anderson noted that Nobles’ audit had emphasized his difficulty in getting accurate and detailed information from the MSFA, which submitted suite attendance records on napkins and in mismatched and incomplete form. “None of the numbers jibed,” she said. “None.”
Anderson said voters are “livid” over the issue as evidence by the calls and e-mails she receives “at all hours of the night.”
But Nelson said he’s not heard any complaints from his constituents about the issue.
The House State Government Finance Committee, chaired by Anderson, plans to consider the bill Thursday. If it passes, the bill would go to the full House for a vote.
Twitter: @rochelleolson
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