The Star Tribune reports that the three-person ethics panel reviewing former Minnesota House Speaker and Pawlenty commissioner Steve Sviggum potential conflict-of-interest from being a U Regent and employee has told the Kenyon Republican to pick one.
In U Regents committee: Sviggum shouldn't keep 2 jobs, Jenna Ross reports:
A three-person committee said Wednesday that they believe Steve Sviggum's two posts at the University of Minnesota are a conflict of interest and recommended that he resign from one of them.
Sviggum said he respects and accepts that decision, but needs time to decide which position to keep: his unpaid seat on the U's Board of Regents or his paid job as a legislative fellow in the U's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. . . .
Sviggum and former representative Laura Brod were chosen in a controversial vote by the state legislature earlier this year that left no labor representation on the U's Board of Regents.
The clubbiness was recognized at the time of the vote. State Representative Bud Nornes told the Star Tribune:
Some candidates "you know better than others," he said, noting Sviggum's past as speaker of the Minnesota House. "It's pretty hard to expect your friends not to vote for you."
This isn't the first time that Sviggum has faced scrutiny from conflict of interest charges. At the Forum groups' Capitol Chatter blog, Andrew Tellijohn reports:
The university question was not Sviggum’s first conflict-of-interest accusation.
While speaker, Democrats said they thought he had a conflict voting in favor of ethanol-related bills because a farm he owns with his brothers benefited.
The farm also was in question when some accused him of seeking to make money when a wind farm was proposed to include Sviggum property after he supported legislation promoting wind power. At the time, Sviggum said that he would not be part of the decision.
After leaving the Legislature, he served as state labor and industry commissioner, running an agency that received substantial federal funding. When he considered running for governor, federal authorities said that would violate the Hatch Act, which forbids federal workers from running for office. He opted against running.
However, Minnesotans shouldn't cry for Steve Sviggum and the choice he faces. Sviggum has done quite well for himself when looking for pocket change in the public purse.
In 2007, the editors of the Pioneer Press that serviing as a commissioner would punch up Sviggum's pension:
Last week, Pawlenty, a Republican governor and ex-legislator himself, appointed former House Speaker Steve Sviggum commissioner of the state Department of Labor and Industry. That is a full-time job paying $108,393 per year. As a part-time legislator, Sviggum was making $31,140 plus daily expenses.
Sviggum, 55, has been in the House since 1979. His pension, when he decides to draw it, is based on his age at retirement, his total years of service and his highest gross salary, averaged over a five-year period. This is known as his "high five.'' All Sviggum's years of service, even those as a lower-paid legislator, will be multiplied against his "high five'' when calculating his pension benefit.
Veteran legislators (those elected before 1997, when the pension system changed) have made regular contributions to their pension plan amounting to 9 percent of salary, according to the Minnesota State Retirement System. Pension benefits for these veterans are determined by multiplying their years of service, their high five average salary and a factor of 2.5 percent.
A legislator with 30 years of experience and a high five average of $35,000 ends up with an annual pension of $26,250. But a legislator with the same 30 years of service, and the last five years as a state commissioner at $100,000 per year, ends up with an annual pension of $75,000.
Even a few years at six-figure commissioner's pay greatly increases a veteran legislator's pension. To use the example above, a legislator with 28 years in the House and two years earning $100,000 as a commissioner increases his pension from the mid-20s to the mid-40s. ("On high fives, 10 million, rats and more ..." St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 5, 2007, Nexis All-News database, accessed 3/30/2011)
Sviggum served as Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry commissioner from mid-July until December 1, 2010, when he moved to lead the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget for the final month of the Pawlenty administration. That's about 3 1/2 years.
A commenter on the Star Tribune story mentions that Sviggum had received thousands in federal farm subsidies, according to the EWG farm subsidy database; however, the address in the database is for Nerstrand, not Kenyon, and the DexKnows phone directory online lists two Steve Sviggums in Goodhue County, one in rural Kenyon and another with an address in Nerstand. Bluestem cannot determine which Sviggum received the subsidies or whether the addresses are for separate individuals. Those who wish to claim that Sviggum has received federal farm subsidies had best make that determination. (The concerns about ethanol subsidies were related to a state subsidy, rather than federal program).
Sviggum is a good person as well as a great PR man. He has shown his ability to work in a number of areas and is a truly positive person.
Posted by: Tommi Rocko | Mar 31, 2011 at 10:15 AM