ST. PAUL (Legal Newsline) - The Minnesota State Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill designed to limit the hiring by the Attorney General’s office of outside attorneys who could be politically motivated by the nonprofits and agencies that provide them.
The "Attorney General’s Office Performance of Legal Services Bill (SB 2818)," limits what sort of employees are able to provide legal services to the Attorney General’s Office. It also limits the amount of money to pay such (attorney) employees or contractors and requires payments made through appropriations or by state law.
It passed 5-3 in the State Government Finance and Policy and Elections committee.
Annette Meeks, CEO of the Minnesota Freedom Foundation - a Minneapolis-based nonprofit research organization with a focus on government transparency - expressed support for the bill.
“Several years ago, a trend started in philanthropy,” she told the senators, “where donors funded projects by hiring staff to be placed in state or local government jobs. The employees were often paid directly by the nonprofit that received a tax deductible gift from a wealthy donor.”
Meeks said the Rockefeller Foundation funded its Resilient Cities Program, hiring officers to serve in 100 cities internationally, including in Minnesota, which received an officer from a $129,508 grant.
In another example, billionaire Michael Bloomberg and his Family Foundation donated $5.6 million to develop a New York University School of Law, State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, which placed 11 special assistants in state attorneys general offices, including Minnesota.
“The latest is Mark Zuckerberg who contributed $400 million to a Chicago nonprofit to fund 2020 elections around the country,” Meeks said. “That is equal to the entire amount the federal government funded in 2020 election funding.”
Meeks asked the Senate to imagine a future Minnesota Attorney General, for example a Republican, who received an email from the National Rifle Association (NRA) Foundation, or the National Right to Life Foundation.
“They ask the Attorney General if they would like to receive two full time employees paid by the nonprofit, not the taxpayers of the state of Minnesota,” Meeks said. “They could receive a multi-million gift from a conservative donor through a nonprofit. The cries of outrage from the news media, the Legislature and our organization would be deafening.”
Meeks said the Legislature is empowered to fund the Attorney General’s Office.
“We don’t want elected officials soliciting billionaires for official functions of their offices,” she said. “We support the elimination of privately funded government employees at all levels of state government. Only then will we have true transparency for whatever government is paying for and the services it receives.”
Representing Democrat Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, AG policy director Laura Taken-Holtz told the senators her office had not been informed of the bill until recently.
“I’m a little disappointed no one reached out to our office, because I only just heard it here today” she said. “The text of the bill is not well received. The Attorney General is the chief law officer of the state. His powers are not limited to those granted by statute but include common law powers inherent in his office. He may institute all such actions and proceedings as he deems necessary for enforcement of the laws of the state, the preservation of order and the protection of the public. He is the legal officer to the executive officers of the state.
"The courts will not control the discretionary power of the Attorney General in conducting litigation for the state,” Taken-Holtz added. "Efforts to infringe on the ability to do the duties of the office serve to usurp the will of the voters.”
Taken-Holtz said rather than try and restrict the AG, the state should invest in it. She said the number of legal cases has grown and funding for the AG office has not kept pace. She said the number of staffers has dropped from 250 in the 1990s to 150 currently, and AG attorneys are underpaid, the average attorney salary in the AG office is $101,000, compared to $144,000 national average.
She added that most of the AG attorneys are young and leave to take better pay after several years.
State Sen. Mark Koran, Republican, asked Taken-Holtz how many attorneys from the Bloomberg Foundation had been hired for the AG’s office on issues such as oil and gas reserves leasing in Alaska, California’s ability to trade emission credits with Quebec, rate payer disputes in New England with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant in Massachusetts.
“How many of those attorneys are not employees of the AG?” he asked. “How many are funded by the Bloomberg organization today?”
Taken-Holtz said she was not prepared to answer.
Koran indicated Taken-Holtz should have come to the session prepared to answer such questions.
“You are the representative, you had ample notification to be prepared for the bill at hand,” Koran said. "Bringing in Bloomberg attorneys under the guise of the Attorney General. It’s very disrespectful. How can we vet a bill when you choose not to provide feedback?”
Taken-Holtz said all she had was the text of the bill, received last week.
“I knew nothing about Bloomberg,” she said, adding she was not prepared at the time to give such information.
Sen. Bill Carlson, Democrat, criticized the bill.
“What is the objection here, to providing the kind of services the Attorney General needs?” he asked. “There’s a lot of specialized legal services the Attorney General can’t afford to have in the (AG) organization. He has to get the best from the outside to defend the state. What we’re doing here is we’re handcuffing the Attorney General from doing what the people expect him to do. It’s very concerning."
Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, Republican, disagreed, saying the proposed bill does not limit the Attorney General’s Office.
“It (bill) states that nothing shall inhibit the Attorney General’s Office from doing the work," she said. "This bill is not about the Attorney General’s powers. It has to do with the source of funding for state government employees in the Attorney General’s Office.”
Kiffmeyer said funding for the AG Office had been increased and the Attorney General had the discretion to use attorneys to perform the work needed.