Member of Met Council task force accuses agency of unethical conduct

A member of the legislative task force charged with suggesting changes to how the Met Council is governed has accused the regional planning and transit agency of  “gross ethical violations” for how agency staff treated him during the task force process.

Myron Orfield, a former state senator and current law professor, submitted a memo into the final report of the Metropolitan Governance Task Force outlining his accusations that the council staff acted improperly.

Orfield wrote that “… the Council, in concert with members of the committee, made malicious and knowingly false defamatory statements designed to impair my reputation and prevent me asking legitimate questions vital to the committees’ deliberations.” He continued: “They did so both to avoid answering legitimate questions, and to punish and illegally intimidate me for work aiding black religious organizations in the exercise of their state and federal civil rights claims, including claims against the Council.”

Orfield, who has been critical of the Met Council’s work on land use planning and affordable housing as it pertains to housing desegregation, also accused the council of violating federal law that protects people who bring actions under fair housing laws and accused a Met Council lobbyist of violating lobbyist ethics standards.

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“I believe this profoundly unethical conduct — masterminded by the very Met Council the committee was formed to regulate — undermines the effectiveness of the committee, showing a body willing to transgress across legal and ethical boundaries to avoid any sort of democratic accountability,” Orfield wrote.

In a response to the Orfield memo, Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle defended the actions of the council and the lobbyist, Judd Schetnan. A memo from a Met Council attorney was also included in the task force’s final report. 

“The memo concludes that Council staff did not defame Mr. Orfield, violate federal fair housing law, improperly or illegally interfere in the Task Force process …,” Zelle wrote.

Behind-the-scenes look

The memo from Orfield — and the Met Council’s response — both flow from a Jan. 17 MinnPost article that used material obtained via the state Data Practices Act to show the Met Council staff’s behind-the-scenes involvement in an exchange between task force members.

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The article showed communications between Met Council staff and another task force member, Rep. Jon Koznick, who raised allegations in an October task force meeting that Orfield was acting unethically. The basis for that accusation was that Orfield had worked with some organizations that had filed federal fair housing complaints claiming the Met Council failed to fulfill its obligations under federal law to further racial integration in housing. Orfield said he had advised the complainants but wasn’t compensated and only briefly acted as legal counsel.

Prior to interrupting Orfield’s questioning of a Met Council attorney, Koznick had exchanged emails with Schetnan about the fair housing litigation and Orfield’s role in it. The DPA response also shows that Koznick had a memo from House legal counsel advising him that Orfield probably did not have a conflict of interest but pursued his questioning of Orfield anyway.

“The short answer is probably no,” wrote House attorney Patrick McCormack in response to a question from Koznick. “There is clearly an interest — the lawsuit creates an interest on behalf of the task force member. But most members have an interest or pre-existing policy position. A conflict of interest is defined (in statute) and shorthand, means the two roles conflict and one confounds or prevents the good faith performance of the duties of the other.”

No consensus

The task force was convened by the Legislature and was the work of the chairs of the House and Senate transportation committees — Sen. Scott Dibble and Rep. Frank Hornstein, both DFL-Minneapolis. Both favor changing the regional council from a body appointed by governors to one elected by voters in the seven-county area.

But the task force’s final report reached no consensus and instead forwarded to the Legislature a report that includes many different ideas, including an elected Met Council or an agency governed by a commission of officials already elected to city, township and county councils and commissions.

Dibble told MinnPost last month that he felt the DPA results show that the Met Council was improperly interfering with the task force work.

“The agency obviously is trying to undermine any progress,” Dibble said. “They’re trying to protect their power and their prerogatives and keep things status quo. They’re not neutral, but they shouldn’t be interfering in the deliberations, trying to game the outcome.”

Asked Thursday about the memos from Orfield and Zelle, Dibble would only say that he is looking into the issues raised.

In the memo from the Met Council general counsel’s office to Zelle included in the task force final report, the office defends both the council staff and the task force members who questioned Orfield.

“The relevant documents and hearing testimony show that Council staff provided factual information to certain members of the Task Force, who, consistent with an email from non-partisan legislative staff, asked questions in a hearing based on that information,” the Met Council legal memo states. “Neither Council staff nor Representatives Koznick or (Rep. Ginny) Klevorn accused Mr. Orfield of having an illegal conflict of interest.”

Editor’s note: Peter Callaghan wrote this story for MinnPost.com. It was originally posted on Feb. 16.

Callaghan covers state government for MinnPost.

MinnPost is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization whose mission is to provide high-quality journalism for people who care about Minnesota.