Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The Ortman mess!

I saw the story in the Strib this weekend and meant to write about it...glad lloydletta got some good stuff out there on this!

I was reminded of this scandal today by the LTE in the Strib.

We all understand that the Minnesota Legislature is intended to be a "citizen Legislature". It's meant to be a part time job. We get it...

What part time job do you have where you get $31,000 a year and $96 a day for food and other expenses, on top of a generous housing expense, paid year round?

Call me a working class Minnesotan from Wright County, but that sounds like a pretty decent full time job out here!

Unfortunately, the LTE writers do not answer the questions raised from the original Strib story.
Ortman was paid by Hennepin County as working on county business from 8 until 10 a.m., while state records show her answering a roll call for the start of the
day's Senate session in St. Paul at 9:20 a.m.

Why was Ortman double dipping? She was being paid by the County at the same time she was at the Legislature.

The timesheets are also disturbing for me.
An initial set of timesheets provided to the Star Tribune by Hennepin County
reflected four additional occasions when Ortman was working for the county and
on legislative business at the same time. But after turning over the timesheets,
Hennepin County amended Ortman's schedule for seven days and provided a new set of timesheets to the newspaper. In explaining the change, the Sheriff's Office
said that Ortman had not been trained on the department's time recording
software at the time, and another employee had recorded her hours incorrectly.


Talking to others that utilize similar time recording software, employee's log in using their employee name and a password. They also confirm that they are punching in and out.

A State Senator that is voting on billions of dollars in budget items is not capable of punching in and out of the Hennepin County time card system?

Are you serious?

Hats off to llyodletta for keeping this story in the public eye!

1 comment:

lloydletta said...

The other part of this that's of concern is the special posting of this - changing the qualifications so it would fit Ortmann's background - and the timing of Rich Stanek encouraging her to apply for the job, while also asking her to carry a bill to fund the Hennepin County Violent Offender's Task Force.