October 8, 2014
Oct 08 00:57 Is SCSU reorganizing again? Oct 08 07:23 Mentorship done right Oct 08 09:01 Nolan vs. Mills debate notes Oct 08 12:37 MNsure's viability questioned Oct 08 17:16 Dr. Andzenge, Potter apologist Oct 08 18:45 Dr. Andzenge, Potter apologist, Part II Oct 08 23:40 Minnesota gubernatorial debate notes
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Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Is SCSU reorganizing again?
Is SCSU Being Reorganized Again?
by Silence Dogood
Back in the fall of 2009, SCSU began a process of Program Assessment. In 2010 when it looked like the state appropriation might be cut substantially, Program Assessment morphed into "Reorganization" and $14,000,000 was quickly cut from the budget. With a five-year enrollment decline of 21.8% as incentive and an $8,000,000-$10,000,000 budget shortfall, one begins to wonder if SCSU is about to be reorganized again.
As is so often the case, Dilbert hit the nail on the head .
The figure below shows the results from the Great Place to Work survey for some of the questions relating to the President and his senior-level administrators. For all of the data, the red bar represents the average value for the "100 Best Companies." All of blue bars represent the derived values from those who completed the survey at SCSU. Where there are no red bars, the question was generated locally so the number must be interpreted without a comparison:
The results of the Great Place to Work Trust Index Survey released last February fully demonstrate the belief that SCSU is not a place where the administration works with the faculty and staff in a collaborative relationship.
Unfortunately, President Potter still does not recognize that most of responsibility for the dismal survey numbers is based squarely on his and his administration's shoulders. Ron Gardenhire, the Twins manager, was recently fired for four consecutive years of ninety losses, which overshadowed the fact that he won six divisional titles in eleven years. Clearly, President Potter has done some good things at SCSU. Unfortunately, the five-year decline in enrollment totaling 21.8%, a loss of over $7,000,000 to date on the Coborn's Plaza apartments, the disastrous reorganization of the University and the extremely negative perception of his administration will be his lasting legacy.
So what has changed since last February when the results of the Great Place to Work survey were released? Enrollment is down another 5%, two dorms have been mothballed. Entire floors in another dorm were shuttered, too. The University has experienced another $1,000,000 loss on Coborn's Plaza, and there is an $8,000,0000-10,000,000 shortfall. The interesting question to ponder: Will there be a 20% reduction in the administration in the next reorganization? Will administrators take fewer international trips? Clearly, everyone expects that there will be fewer faculty and staff around on campus. However, almost everyone expects the hiring of a few more consultants before the reorganization occurs.
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2014 12:57 AM
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Mentorship done right
I'd heard of the Youth Initiative Aviation Academy a couple years ago but I didn't know much about them. That changed when a former student of St. Cloud State's aviation program sent me this video:
Listening to Mamie Singleton talk about the things the Youth Initiative Aviation Academy has done to change lives is downright inspirational. Here's one of the inspiring stories she told:
MAMIE SINGLETON: I knew of the impact of YIMA that it had on the community so I picked those states [Minnesota, Maryland and DC] so that young people in those communities would have access to YIMA, which have done very well. The city of Washington, DC, there's a young man who had lost his mother tragically to a terminal illness and he's from a group of 4, a family of 4. This young man was acting out. He was considered ADHD. He had all types of problems. After attending YIMA Academy, he got himself together. He was in school, no truancy. He was no longer a behavior problem. He went onto college and now, he's graduating.
That isn't the only thing that impressed me, though this story impressed me that YIAA's mentorship program is reclaiming lives. That being said, there's an urgency to this mentorship program. Again, Mamie Singleton tells that story eloquently:
INTERVIEWER: And that investment is one where you say we need to make?
MAMIE SINGLETON: Exactly because it pays at the front end and that's with your time. When you talk about the cost and the support, a lot of volunteerism has occurred when we don't have the money, and then also, we work collaboratively with other organizations within the community such as the Young Eagles to get the discovery flights because we still used to take the kids up and it cost about $200/hr. for a Cessna 172 and a flight and a ground school instructor. And here we teamed up with the Young Eagles and the kids get their discovery flight. So that's a lot of money that's shaved off the costs by people within the community... Dr. Johnson teaching in the class when they have a ground school instructor. You could easily pay $25-$30/hr. or more just to have that instruction. You have the instructor volunteering their time for the flight instructor at the hourly rate, the wages that you would pay for him to fly, plus the cost of the plane a lot of money.
People frequently talk about the importance of mentorships and broadening students' horizons and diversity. This is all those things rolled into one program. Most importantly, it's having a positive impact on these students. That story of that young man who was "considered ADHD" who started in YIMA after his mother tragically died from a terminal illness is certainly inspirational. It's inspirational that he first got his anger issues under control. The fact that he's now graduating from college just adds to this story's inspiration.
Here's some additional information about the Youth Initiative Mentoring Academies:
LEADERSHIP
YIMA is a non-profit organization which develops and conducts specially focused academies for at-risk youth, to develop competence, increase confidence and recognize potential through engaging them in educational and leadership training while receiving role modeling and mentoring from selected adult participants enrolled in the same focused academy.
TRAINING
The YIAA is a rigorous program consisting of:
- Aviation Ground School Training conducted by FAA Certified Instructors.
- A Discovery Flight plus one hour of beginning, hands-on flight training.
- Leadership training and experiences through presentations of selected career options in aviation and at least one other career area represented by the adult mentors.
- Youth mentoring and role modeling from adult enrollees assigned to 'partner' with one to two youth as a mentor in the program.
CONFIDENCE
YIAA enrolls 20 youth, ages 8 to 19, for 13 weeks.
At the completion of the program, participants will:
- Have received hands-on experience in operating an aircraft
- Have developed a meaningful, positive growth relationship with two or more adult mentors, emphasizing study, setting goals, adult-youth constructive sharing, time management, inter-dependence and affirmation for positive inclusion.
- Have demonstrated individual and team leadership behaviors in planning, coordinating and decision making.
- Receive an official First Flight Certificate.
- Receive an official FAA Ground School Completion Certificate and log of accrued flight hour time.
- Receive a Youth Initiative Mentoring Academies (YIMA) Certificate.
- Have had a good time!
Thanks to Mamie Singleton's vision for this program. Thanks, too, for the volunteers' commitment to making an impact. They're showing these at risk students that leadership and confidence make a profound difference. Most importantly, they're helping students avoid a lifetime of heartbreak, humiliation and horrors.
This mentorship program is making a positive difference in young people's lives. It's essentially paid for by private donations and grants. Many of the people serving are volunteers. In short, it's mentorship done right.
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2014 7:25 AM
Comment 1 by Sylvia at 21-Oct-14 11:41 AM
What an awesome program! Every one should try it. This women should be supported in all her efforts. This is what society need. To help our youth and police learn how to get along better and ease tension between them. What away to build great character and improve on skills in STEM and Life Skills. Have 90 year old mentors share wisdom.
Comment 2 by Crimson Trace at 24-Oct-14 04:59 PM
Well stated, Sylvia! Unfortunately, SCSU President Potter killed the aviation program and will not reconsider the decision. Chancellor Rosenstone will not order an investigation.
Nolan vs. Mills debate notes
I'm going through the videotape of the Mills vs. Nolan debate. When they debated the issue of pipelines, something stunning happened. It wasn't surprising. It was that Rick Nolan exposed himself as totally trusting government. Here's the exchange I'm talking about:
Here's the key part of the back-and-forth:
NOLAN: When you're talking about Keystone, the TEA Party Republicans brought a bill before the House of Representatives that exempted Keystone, a foreign corporation, from complying with the EPA, from complying with the Army Corps of Engineers permits for installation and maintenance, for having to post financial assurances for when those accidents inevitably occur. Would you have voted for a bill like that? No. I'm for the Keystone and for Sandpiper but I want it built right. We've proven that we have the technology and the know-how to do it right if we have the political will. But we can't let foreign corporations come in here willy nilly and have their way with us...
MILLS: Well, I keep getting accused of being a TEA Partier but I'm not sure if that's entirely accurate but, nonetheless, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been weaponized against projects such as Keystone and, you know what, after years and years of trying to get it done, if these agencies aren't looking for how it can be done but trying every reason to get it stopped, you know what, it's time to get the people to take control of their government from the bureaucracies and the various agencies so we can get projects like Keystone going...
This isn't surprising but it's stunning. Rick Nolan's belief that bureaucracies, especially the EPA, are honest arbiters of all that's virtuous is stunningly naive. What justification is there for that other-worldly opinion? Sen. Ron Johnson, (R-WI), has a mini-series on YouTube titled Victims of Government . I'd love seeing Nolan explain how the EPA's actions in this article aren't utterly corrupt. Let's hear him explain how private property owners aren't getting victimized by the zealots running the EPA. Here's a story where the EPA showed itself to be weaponized:
[Andy Johnson] and his wife built a small pond on their rural property using the stream flowing through it. They stocked the pond with trout so that their three small children could fish. The pond is an oasis for wildlife such as ducks and geese passing through.
It is precisely the sort of industriousness that reasonable people and zealous stewards of the environment applaud. But the EPA is made up of neither reasonable people nor zealous stewards of the environment.
They are crazed hypocrites greedy for unchecked power and hell-bent on destroying the passions that connect people to the nature surrounding them. Like the Food and Drug Administration in the movie 'Dallas Buyers Club,' the EPA has become the face of absolute power in the hands of blind government bureaucrats.
That is why the faceless henchmen of the EPA have come after Mr. Johnson and his family, charging them with violating federal law and threatening to bankrupt them. These EPA thugs ordered the Johnsons to destroy the pond they built and threatened to fine them $75,000 a day for being in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Stewart Mills is exactly right when he talks about the EPA being an agency that's looking for ways to stop Keystone and Sandpiper. This is proof that the EPA isn't interested in common sense. It's interested in destroying private property rights.
Earlier in that segment of the debate, Nolan talked about supporting the Sandpiper Pipeline project, with this caveat. He wanted the route changed just slightly. Mills said that that's just a way to delay the project. That would give Nolan's allies in the environmental movement another opportunity to sabotage the project with attrition litigation . It's time for the Iron Range to realize that Rick Nolan doesn't support the miners' lifestyle. He's only come out for Keystone once it became politically imperative to say yes to the miners.
Let's remember that Nolan's first proposal on PolyMet was to propose a mining institute somewhere on the Range :
Northeastern Minnesota would be home to a major new national research center dedicated to the advancement of minerals research, mining technology and the environment, and is expected to generate several thousand new jobs, under a plan announced today by Rick Nolan, the DFL-endorsed candidate for Eighth District Congress.
The proposal is strongly supported by former Eighth District U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resource Research Institute, NRRI, and the UMD Swenson College of Science and Engineering.
At a news conference in Duluth and with press interviews across the Iron Range, Nolan said he will immediately introduce legislation to establish the United States Technical Institute for Mining and the Environment (TIME) upon taking office in January 2013. The exact northeastern Minnesota location for the TIME Center will be selected from proposals developed by the state, municipal and county governments and their private sector partners.
Nolan's support for the two biggest projects in northern Minnesota has been tepid at best, artificial at worst.
The Iron Range can't afford Rick Nolan's naive belief that the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are honest arbiters of this nation's environmental laws. He's standing in the way of one important project after another. He's the believer in sentences that are always 4 words too long. He'll never say that he supports PolyMet. Period. It's always that he supports PolyMet...if it's done right. He's never said that he supports the Sandpiper Pipeline project. It's always that he supports Sandpiper...if it's done right.
It's time for the Iron Range to reject Rick Nolan. If they reject his caveated support of all things mining, they will have gotten things right.
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2014 9:01 AM
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MNsure's viability questioned
This report puts MNsure's solvency into question. Here's something from the report's opening paragraph that caught my attention:
Whether or not licensed professional insurance agents interact with MNsure will greatly affect whether MNsure succeeds in selling commercial health insurance. MNsure must attract and retain commercial insurance customers to pay its overhead expenses beginning in 2015. More than 27% of MNsure's certified agents say they do not plan to become recertified for 2015. Another 56% said they will be certified but plan to market hard in the private, non-MNsure marketplace first.
If one-fourth of MNsure's agents plan to stop interacting with MNsure, MNsure's revenues will drop significantly. If another 56% of MNsure-qualified agents will interact with MNsure only after trying to sell clients insurance without MNsure, MNsure's revenues will drop precipitously.
While that's certainly noteworthy, it isn't the only concern for MNsure:
MNsure must do all it can to increase its sales volume of commercial health insurance - Qualified Health Plans (QHP). In 2015, MNsure must be self-sufficient, without any financial assistance from the federal or state government. The MNsure fee of 3.5 percent (a tax on insurance premiums generated through MNsure's sale of commercial health plans) is necessary to pay the organization's operating expenses. If its commercial sales are too low, MNsure will not be able to pay for its overheads unless Minnesota taxpayers allow for additional taxes to be to subsidize its cost; or MNsure finds other insurance products and employer benefits to sell.
TRANSLATION: MNsure's financial viability is in question.
If transactions are done apart from MNsure, they aren't subject to the 3.5% "tax on insurance premiums generated through MNsure's sale of commercial health plans." That revenue is needed to pay for MNsure's incompetent staff and MNsure's still-broken website. If those revenues don't come in, Minnesota's taxpayers will be on the hook for the Dayton-DFL deficit. There's no other way of putting it.
That isn't the only frightening part of the report. The section titled MNsure may lose more than 25 percent of its current licensed agents is worth considering, too, especially this part:
Only 7.4 % see MNsure as their primary marketing tool.
Then there's this:
Agents Are Strongly Opposed to Giving MNsure More Insurance-Related Products to Sell
We asked if agents agreed with the statement that MNsure should be allowed to sell other, non-health insurance products if it will help them pay their overhead expenses.
90% of certified MNsure agents disagreed with the idea of letting MNsure sell other non-health insurance products, and of these, 73% strongly disagreed.
TRANSLATION: Agents hate the thought of MNsure stealing a significant portion of their business away from them to pay for MNsure's bills.
This information is totally not surprising:
MNsure, as have other government insurance exchanges, realizes that without agent participation, they face huge challenges persuading individuals to enroll in QHPs, and without QHP enrollment, MNsure cannot pay its operating expenses.
We believe that without a successful recruitment effort to secure new certified agents, and convince current agents to recertify, MNsure will fall farther behind in meeting its necessary enrollment in QHPs. This would leave the state citizens vulnerable to having to provide additional public funding to prop up MNsure.
Simply put, MNsure's viability is in question. Certified agents don't like it and there's no proof that nonparticipating agents are interested in participating or getting recertified. Without sales of QHPs through MNsure, MNsure's office won't have the money to function.
This proves that it isn't just the nonfunctioning website that makes MNsure a disaster. It's that the only people who like it are the people that voted to create it. It's unaffordable. It's inefficient. It's unsustainable. Most importantly, it's likely to need a tax increase to pay for MNsure's deficit.
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2014 12:37 PM
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Dr. Andzenge, Potter apologist
Dick Andzenge's monthly column includes this ridiculous statement:
The university's Faculty Association complained that many student grades, given by classroom faculty, were changed by administrators without using the proper protocol for making such changes, and often without the knowledge of the professors who had assigned those grades. In some cases, the complaint was that some students' names simply disappeared from class rosters.
While the dispute focused on faculty rights, compliance with due process and academic integrity, the investigation by the U.S. Department of Education focused on the possible violation of federal law.
It's time to squash the administration's BS that the US DoE investigation was about potential "violation of federal law." First, Adam Hammer insisted that there wasn't an investigation. Is Mr. Hammer willing to admit that he lied then? Second, when asked about the status of the transcript investigation, the administration said it wasn't an investigation :
FA: I have a clarifying question. I heard you say this is a preliminary investigation at looking so once you do your preliminary then am I hearing you say then you will decide what your next step is going to be in terms of your going after other data collection for the past four years before this?
Admin: Sure so then we have as to what kind of data is relevant and we go there and we can collect the information so that it makes sense for you. The other thing is I won't call it an investigation I would call analysis. So it's a data analysis to understand if there is a spike and then understand whether it is due to factors outside our control or if it is factors of the band of discretion becoming wider.
In other words, the investigation that didn't exist was always about whether federal laws were broken. Except when it was considered data analysis. Except when Devinder Malhotra emphatically insisted that transcript integrity was among SCSU's highest priorities :
'Integrity of transcripts and the record is very, very important and so is the involvement of the faculty in that process,' Malhotra said. 'There's no question about that in my mind. And it's our attempt to make sure that going forward we do our due diligence and we make sure that the faculty input is not only taken but recorded.'
Other than those things, Dr. Andzenge's statement is fairly accurate.
This question has a simple answer:
Have the university's administration and its academic faculty come to a mutual understanding about what actually happened regarding the grade changes and missing names class lists?
That answer is no. The administration is still spinning constantly that this was just an administrative misunderstanding. The administration insists that it wasn't transcript corruption. It was just bureaucrats making wrong decisions.
The faculty, starting with Dr. Tamara Leenay and including Dr. Phyllis VanBuren , insist that students who did all their class work, took all their tests and who failed their classes had their participation in those classes deleted from St. Cloud State's official transcript system. This isn't about late drops and withdrawals, which is what President Potter and his administration have insisted. It's about a system where the administration let students who failed their classes off the hook.
It isn't logical to say that students who simply failed classes should benefit from administrative corruption.
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2014 5:16 PM
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Dr. Andzenge, Potter apologist, Part II
Too many of Dr. Dick Andzenge's monthly columns have essentially been fluff pieces praising President Potter. Since he hasn't figured it out that he's losing credibility by writing these PR pieces, I'll tell him. It's long past time to dismantle Dr. Andzenge's spin. I wrote this post earlier today. I'm writing this post as a Part II to the same column because there's that much spin.
For example, this statement isn't credible:
The finding of no wrongdoing by the Department of Education, as well as recent tossing of complaints against the university by the courts, vindicates [President Potter's] leadership.
How can Dr. Andzenge say something this verifiably false? This graphic is all that's needed to utterly demolish Dr. Andzenge's statement:
According to the Great Place to Work Institute's Trust Index Survey, professors don't trust him. When asked if "Management delivers on its promises", only 26% agreed with that statement. When asked if "Management's actions match its words", a pathetic 24% agreed. How can someone say that President Potter's leadership has been vindicated when three-fourth's of the faculty think he doesn't keep his promises or deliver on his promises? Dr. Andzenge's standard for vindication is miniscule at best.
In order to continue to build the reputation of the university, the president will need to show the same courage in addressing any legitimate complaints that have or will come out of the ongoing hearings regarding the "Best Place to Work" initiative. The president also needs to resolve ongoing internal grievances with similar courage and integrity.
That statement reeks with absurdity. If President Potter wants to rebuild SCSU's reputation, he needs to start keeping his promises so his actions match his words. Next, his apologists need to stop. It's time they figured it out that they're losing credibility whenever they make these flimsy statements. Third, President Potter hasn't shown any courage in terms of directly addressing legitimate and substantive complaints. His administration's pattern has been to deny, spin and spin some more. Giving straightforward answers isn't part of the Potter administration's repertoire.
Potter's apologists apparently haven't figured it out that nobody's listening. Certainly, students aren't listening. They're staying away in droves. At the end of FY2014, FYE enrollment was down 17.8% since the end of FY2010. The continuing declining enrollment says President Potter's apologists aren't convincing the students.
This paragraph is intellectually insulting:
Academic faculty and other members of the university family should join not only in simply enjoying the dividends of his creative courage, but join him as ambassadors of this fine institution to the community, the region, the state and the world.
President Potter hasn't shown courage of any type. He's flown by the seat of his pants for at least 3 years. "This fine institution" has undergone rebranding operation after rebranding operation. That doesn't happen at fine institutions.
I'd love hearing how the faculty can "join" Potter as an ambassador for SCSU when President Potter's reputation, and the University's reputation, are suffering at historic lows. Having your enrollment drop by one-fifth in 5 years doesn't happen because of demographics, as Potter and his apologists have suggested. It happens when a university's reputation suffers because its president isn't respected.
The students have spoken. They're avoiding SCSU with consistent frequency. The best way to restore SCSU's reputation is to remove President Potter and start with someone who's honest, someone who doesn't berate students, someone who is a leader, someone with an enrollment plan and someone who won't spend money foolishly.
That's when the turnaround will start. It won't start a minute before that.
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2014 6:45 PM
Comment 1 by Overseas student at 08-Oct-14 07:33 PM
I totally agree with you. He should be removed from his seat as President. He has destroyed more then he has served the school. I am surprised its taking forever to get rid of him.
Comment 2 by RexN at 08-Oct-14 09:27 PM
Key sentence: "The students have spoken." Significant numbers must be finding better alternatives somewhere. Does SCSU track visits and inquiries? What percent enroll? Does anyone follow up with the rest, asking "Why not us?"
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 08-Oct-14 09:33 PM
There's a lengthy list of professors who virtually genuflect when Potter's name is mentioned. They're hoping to get hired into his administration. Mark Jaede & Steve Hornstein highlight that list. Tracey Ore is on that list, too.
Comment 3 by Crimson Trace at 08-Oct-14 09:40 PM
The total lack of oversight of the SCSU campus is well beyond embarrassing. Chancellor Rosenstone is AWOL, the trustees are AWOL, and Vice Chair of the Higher Education committee Rep. Zach Dorholt in St. Cloud is AWOL. All he can do is repeat the DFL chanting point, "I kept tuition affordable." Andzenge's work was sloppy to say the least. He said the findings of "no wrongdoing by the Department of Education..." According to the Times article quote, it said the Office of Inspector General determined that there appears to be no federal violation" of student loan rules. The article further stated that only a sample of 237 transcripts were reviewed instead of all 900+ transcripts. The Office of Inspector General's use of the word APPEARS is telling. Indeed, the students have spoken but I guess it was never really about the students in the first place.
Comment 4 by Overseas student at 08-Oct-14 09:55 PM
The thing is its never ever was about the students. They never take their opinion. Its all about the big bucks :) its never about anything else :)
Minnesota gubernatorial debate notes
I don't have many quotes to rely on but my impression is that tonight's debate marked the night the gloves came off. Jeff Johnson went after Gov. Dayton for not knowing about PSLs being in the Vikings bill that Dayton negotiated and signed. Later, he said that Gov. Dayton's tax increases didn't just hit richest 2%, highlighting the health insurance tax, the cigarette tax and wheelage tax that hits everyone.
Commissioner Johnson was especially feisty on the Sandpiper Pipeline Project, saying that it was Gov. Dayton's appointees who voted essentially to kill the pipeline project. Gov. Dayton's smug dismissal that Commissioner Johnson probably "didn't understand the process" was immediately greeted by Commissioner Johnson saying that he understood the process and that Gov. Dayton's appointees to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted to kill the project. Johnson then said that Gov. Dayton couldn't hide by saying it was someone else who voted on the project. Commissioner Johnson finished by saying that "Sometimes, Governor, you have to take responsibility."
Gov. Dayton criticized Commissioner Johnson by saying that "Taxes should be low, broad and simple isn't a tax policy. It's a slogan." Tonight, Gov. Dayton proposed raising taxes on the middle class again by raising the gas tax again . Then he went back to talking about cutting taxes on the middle class. His closing statement from another planet then stated that Minnesota was heading in the right direction because he'd solved the deficit problem.
The arrogance was disgusting. Again.
The question Gov. Dayton didn't explain is why he thinks Minnesota's economy is doing well. The unemployment rate is low but monthly revenues aren't meeting projections. Minnesota's economy lost 4,200 jobs in July, something Gov. Dayton didn't address.
Hannah Nicollet got in on the Dayton bashing, too, when the subject turned to the Vikings stadium disaster, saying that when her daughter throws a hissy fit in a store, she lets her daughter's tantrum run its course. Then she said that sometimes, a governor has to have the spine to say no when the Vikings were throwing their hissy fit.
Gov. Dayton replied, saying that 7,500 people are working, "many of them minorities", before asking if the candidates would like to tell them that the stadium bill is a disaster. Commissioner Johnson said that he'd stand by his characterization.
In his closing statement, Gov. Dayton said that his biggest priority for another term will be education. Earlier, he said that raising taxes on gas would be his priority. When everything's a priority, nothing is a priority.
Gov. Dayton was exceptionally dismissive tonight. When Commissioner Johnson talked about 50% of Minnesotans being underemployed, Gov. Dayton insisted that that was "nonsense." When Commissioner Johnson said that the statistic came from Dayton's administration, Gov. Dayton didn't know how to respond.
This likely won't get written anywhere else but Gov. Dayton sounded exceptionally arrogant, dismissive and in a foul mood. His response to Commissioner Johnson's talk about underemployment essentially was that it was nonsense. That's what an out-of-touch governor sounds like. Article after article talks about how many part-time jobs are getting created. How can Gov. Dayton say that verified facts are nonsense?
This was Dayton at his most unlikable, dismissive worst. He was snotty. He didn't agree with anything Jeff Johnson said on the big issues. He stuck to his talking points.
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2014 11:40 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 10-Oct-14 05:09 PM
Let's build a couple more stadiums and build 3 or 4 every year stadiums and then MN won't have an unemployment number because everyone will be working! Oh wait, that's what the bonding bill already does; it creates make work projects to keep people employed in perpetuity. Dayton is a moron.
