Senator Mike Parry will be holding another one of his Star Chamber hearings about public employee payouts and pensions on Thursday. In Senate panel to examine MnSCU payouts, Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reported:
A Minnesota Senate panel will meet next week to look into vacation, sick time and retirement payments to government employees, including officials with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system.
Perhaps State Senator Mike Parry might start asking his questions a bit closer to home--as in the office of the Senate Majority Leader's new executive assistant and communications director, Steve Sviggum.
The Star Tribune reports in Senate GOP taps Sviggum as communications chief:
Sviggum will earn $102,000 a year; [Michael] Brodkorb was making about $90,000 when he left.
Why does this matter? Last spring, during the conflict-of-interest fracas created when then U of M half-time professor Sviggum was chosen by the legislature to become a member of the University's Board of Regents, Bluestem dug up some old data the Pioneer Press had published in 2007 about Sviggum's pension:
In 2007, the editors of the Pioneer Press[noted] that serving 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.
Since the former speaker's retirement package will be determined according to his five highest paying years (if I understand the system correctly), perhaps there's something there for Parry to take a look at.
But questions shouldn't stop there. As Koch's infidelity was revealed and most observers were seeking villains from among the tribal gaming interests, Bluestem's most informed sources were telling me to look not to the bedroom, but the Senate's bank book. And indeed, Pugmire recently reported in MN GOP Senate leaders eye $2M in operating costs:
Republican leaders in the Minnesota Senate will meet this week to discuss ways to trim their own operating budget by more than $2 million, and the cuts will costs some jobs.
"Things like committee pages, things like internships," said the new Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem. "We're going to carve away at our people expenses to the extent we can, and then find out where we are."
What better reason to replace Communications Director Brodkorb--who at least had garnered something of a reputation as a simple suburban blogger--with someone whose hand at writing press releases is unknown. Sviggum does not appear to have a Facebook page, nor does he seem to be on Twitter (or in the local directory) so Sviggum may have to blaze new trails with social media.
But surely, he's worth every dime.
Meanwhile, another question is being asked, one that echoes last spring's conflict-of-interest that led Sviggum to a quit his $80,000 part-time teaching gig (initially unreported when he gained his chair on the U's board) in order to keep the power that a Regent's seat conferred.
In tonight's Star Tribune article, Baird Helgeson reports:
Sviggum plans to remain a member of the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents and serve out the rest of his six-year term.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk said he's troubled that Sviggum plans to stay on as a regent of the taxpayer-funded university.
"I'd be very surprised if it's not a conflict of interest to take a paid position with the Legislature," said Bakk, DFL-Cook. "If it's not a conflict, it certainly seems inappropriate."
Linda Cohen, chair of the Board of Regents, said she doesn't immediately see a conflict, but that the board ought to be "cautious and very careful" about Sviggum holding both positions.
Last year, Sviggum was at the center of a conflict-of-interest inquiry for his roles as a regent and a paid fellow at the university's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. In April, he resigned from the Humphrey School.
One wonders precisely what the Republican Majority caucus, eager to move forward from the humiliation of the Koch affair, is thinking with this ethically nuanced hire, and how it signals the government reform the MNGOP claims to so ardently desire.
Photo: Steve Sviggum. One hopes he doesn't have any sick leave piled up. Just saying.
Related posts: Rough stuff: Sviggum and Brod nominated to U of M Regents board, vote today
Sviggum failed to list $80,000 U half-time job on disclosure form two days after election as regent
Pick one: Steve Sviggum can take $80,000 half-time job or Regent's post, ethics panel says
Sviggum chooses power above teaching; how will former speaker survive after giving up job?
Poppe bill addresses Sviggum-esque conflict-of-interests on Regents board
Hey, didn't the MNGOP make a big show out of saying that the Deputy Chair job (i.e., Brodkorb's other RPM job) would be unpaid from now on?
I kinda wondered how they were going to get around that. Now we know -- they're giving the *paid* Communications Director gig to a guy who has no clue how to communicate, and paying him more than they paid the previous CommDirector, who unlike this guy actually had communications experience.
Is the entire leadership structure of the RPM little more than a place to park otherwise-unemployable MNGOP royalty?
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Jan 16, 2012 at 11:53 PM