Ethics panel halts complaint against House member

An ethics panel voted Tuesday not to further investigate a complaint brought earlier this month against Rep. Denny McNamara (R-Hastings).

The House Ethics Committee voted 2-1 against finding probable cause to continue the ethics procedure stemming from a complaint that Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Mpls) and Rep. John Persell (DFL-Bemidji) lodged earlier this month alleging that McNamara had shouted and intimidated her during a meeting in his office in May.

Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton), the committee chair, and Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Red Wing) voted against finding probable cause to continue the ethics investigation process. Rep. Raymond Dehn (DFL-Mpls) voted to support finding cause. Rep. Mary Murphy (DFL-Hermantown) abstained.

“This has been an unbelievable witch hunt,” McNamara said during the hearing.

Rep. Phyllis Kahn testifies before the House Ethics Committee June 30 during a probable cause hearing on an ethics complaint she signed against Rep. Denny McNamara, foreground. Photo by Andrew VonBank

Kahn alleged that McNamara’s conduct during a May 16 meeting between the two veteran House members and Minneapolis Park Board lobbyist Brian Rice violated the spirit and ethical rules of the House. She alleges McNamara became upset at the pair during that meeting because of accusations surrounding another park board lobbyist  threatening to do less business with McNamara’s son’s landscaping business, Hoffman and McNamara, in retaliation for the lawmaker’s support for legislation that would end earmarked funding for the board.

[LISTEN to an audio archive of the meeting]

According to the complaint, McNamara accused Kahn and Rice of “being deceitful and conniving” during the meeting, screamed twice at the pair to leave his office and then slammed the door.

“I’ve never felt so intimidated and domineered in my 43 years in the Legislature,” Kahn said Tuesday, echoing language in the complaint.

[More: Learn more about the House ethics complaint process]

McNamara had acknowledged he “acted in a way I now regret” following the filing of the complaint, but told the committee he did not raise his voice at Kahn. Rather, he said, he took issue with what he viewed as threats from Rice toward himself and the business he sold to his son in 2004.

“I was not mad at Rep. Kahn and never had a conversation (that day) with Rep. Kahn,” he said.

Persell testified he heard the yelling from inside his office but that he did not see the incident firsthand.

Kahn said she brought the complaint forward not because of any issues related to business between McNamara’s family’s landscaping business and the park board, but because “I do not think this is appropriate behavior to have in the Legislature.”