North Dakota Democrat House Minority Leader Merle Boucher has written an open letter to Legislative Council Chairman Al Carlson requesting that George Keiser step down from his chairmanship at the WSI oversight committee.
Here’s the pertinent part of the letter (full letter in the extended entry):
The Workers’ Compensation Review Committee was created to provide a forum for claimants (injured workers) where their grievances with WSI could be reviewed by an independent assessment panel. It was believed this would be best accomplished with impartial legislative committee members.
By his actions and public statements, it has become very clear that Representative Keiser has defined his allegiance with the organization. This allegiance compromises his ability as Chairman of the Workers’ Compensation Review Committee to impartially hear and review claimants’ testimony and their material complaints. This current situation casts a serious shadow over the intended purpose of the Workers’ Compensation Review Committee.
I believe, based upon my stated observations, Representative Keiser can no longer impartially carry out the responsibilities of the Chairman of the Workers’ Compensation Review Committee. Thus, I recommend that you ask Representative Keiser to step down from his position as Chairman of the Committee. Should he opt not to acknowledge such a recommendation, I would ask that you as Chairman of the Legislative Council seriously consider replacing Representative Keiser as the Committee Chairman and appoint the Vice-Chairman to the Chair’s seat.
I still think this is more politics than any real concern over Keiser’s legislative ethics. The liberals in the state are still smarting after they put so much of themselves into the now-defunct charges against WSI director Sandy Blunt. The case against Blunt (which itself was politically-motivated from the get-go) collapsed utterly into a big nothing that left high-profile liberals like Senator (and talk radio host) Joel Heitkamp looking like fools. So now they’ve got something to prove. They need somebody’s scalp, and they’re going after Keiser, WSI Communications Director Mike Armstrong and Steve Cates (who, full disclosure, is my editor at the Dakota Beacon).
Does Keiser’s meetings with Cates and Armstrong go up to the very edge of legislative ethics? I think that’d be a fair assessment. But does it go over that edge? Not at all. To accuse Keiser of doing something unethical is to ignore the politically-motivated nature of the situation he was responding to. Sandy Blunt was, to coin a term, being “Nifonged” and Keiser (along with Cates and Armstrong) wasn’t going to stand for it.
I think Keiser is more than capable of being objecting in his hearings with workers unhappy with WSI’s performance and concerned about the director of WSI being wrongly prosecuted on criminal charges with a thin evidential foundation.
But again, this isn’t about common sense or fairness. This is about partisan liberals looking to save face and score political points.
Full letter:
October 30, 2007
To: Rep. Al Carlson, Chairman of Legislative Council
Dear Chairman Carlson,
Each day we awaken to another chapter in the ongoing saga at North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance. Issues and problems surrounding the organization aren’t resolving themselves and new and/or additional revelations and allegations continuously complicate the situation.
Perhaps the most difficult are situations where legislative colleagues become engulfed in the WSI controversies. Because they are high profile citizens, attention quickly gravitates toward them. Such is the unfortunate situation of Representative George Keiser, Chairman of the Workers’ Compensation Review Committee.
The Workers’ Compensation Review Committee was created to provide a forum for claimants (injured workers) where their grievances with WSI could be reviewed by an independent assessment panel. It was believed this would be best accomplished with impartial legislative committee members.
By his actions and public statements, it has become very clear that Representative Keiser has defined his allegiance with the organization. This allegiance compromises his ability as Chairman of the Workers’ Compensation Review Committee to impartially hear and review claimants’ testimony and their material complaints. This current situation casts a serious shadow over the intended purpose of the Workers’ Compensation Review Committee.
I believe, based upon my stated observations, Representative Keiser can no longer impartially carry out the responsibilities of the Chairman of the Workers’ Compensation Review Committee. Thus, I recommend that you ask Representative Keiser to step down from his position as Chairman of the Committee. Should he opt not to acknowledge such a recommendation, I would ask that you as Chairman of the Legislative Council seriously consider replacing Representative Keiser as the Committee Chairman and appoint the Vice-Chairman to the Chair’s seat.
These situations are difficult matters for all of us to address. Again, I would emphasize that sustaining the integrity of the Legislature and its processes is paramount.
Thank you for accepting my letter and taking the contents under consideration.
Sincerely,
Rep. Merle Boucher
Minority Leader
North Dakota House of Representatives
Cc: Representative George Keiser