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Reopening a registrar’s office

Published (3/16/2012)
By Mike Cook
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Little more than a year ago the deputy registrar’s office in Golden Valley was closed after alleged employee misconduct and theft took place.

City leaders want the office reopened, but the Department of Public Safety isn’t ready to give the green light.

Sponsored by Rep. Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley), HF2632 would require the department to allow the Golden Valley office to be reopened on a provisional basis with additional safeguards so similar fraud does not happen again.

“We admit responsibility, but we have taken the appropriate measures internally, as well as through independent audits, to review the situation and look at the corrections that are necessary” said Mayor Shep Harris.

Approved as amended March 14 by the House Transportation Policy and Finance Committee, the bill was sent to the House floor. The companion, SF2261, sponsored by Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope), awaits action by the Senate Transportation Committee.

“There’s been a criminal prosecution, and the city thinks that it has done everything it needs to in order to clean this mess up and make sure that it is taken care of,” Winkler said. “The bad apples are removed from the barrel and there’s no reason why the citizens of Golden Valley and surrounding areas shouldn’t have access to a deputy registrar as this investigation is completed.”

Therein lays the problem: in the view of the Department of Public Safety the law enforcement investigation is not complete, nor are the criminal proceedings.

“We feel like we need to protect the taxpayers,” said Mary Ellison, the department’s deputy commissioner. “We do not want to, in any way, move forward in a manner that doesn’t assure absolute accountability for the tax dollars and the fees that are paid by the citizens. … We don’t want to rush into reopening this office.”

Rep. Kerry Gauthier (DFL-Duluth) believes the department is being “heavy-handed.”

“It seems to me you don’t shut down an office because there was corruption. You deal with the corruption, you build your firewall and you provide the service,” he said.

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