Insider squabbles at Vikes' stadium board spill into public view

Halfway through the construction of the new Vikings stadium, infighting is threatening the board charged with building it.

Board chair Michele Kelm-Helgen, appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton, said Friday at least one member of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority has told her to recuse herself from the construction project and serve as a "talking head" and lobbyist for the stadium board.

That board member, former Target executive John Griffith, later said he'd told her no such thing. Griffith also added that he'd vote for her if the chair position became elective.

"I think Michele has incredible skills, no one would ever debate how hard she works on this project, how much she wants to see it succeed," Griffith said in an interview. "She has terrific communication and political skills and I hope we use those as much as we can."

He also said that he didn't think it was time to remove Kelm-Helgen from the four-person development team overseeing construction: "At this point in time, I don't think that's a good idea. You have so much history with the project and the people sitting there," he said.

But a routine monthly meeting of the MSFA turned to a heated debate Friday.

"I have never felt more threatened by board members and what you will do," Kelm-Helgen told the authority at one point. She also noted that a state's House committee zeroed out her salary in a hearing this week.

It's the latest sign of behind-the-scenes struggle over governance of one of the biggest and highest profile public works projects in Minnesota history. Although the stadium construction remains on schedule and on time, the political battle over the project continues, three years after the Legislature approved a stadium bill and the governor signed it.

Kelm-Helgen worked for Dayton at the time and was a key architect of the stadium legislation. She serves as the governor's chief representative on the five-member MSFA board, which includes three gubernatorial appointees and two members appointed by mayor of Minneapolis. The board chair gives the governor a powerful voice in day-to-day stadium matters.

The latest flash point was a mandatory pay equity report to the state that shows Kelm-Helgen is paid more than $35,000 less than her male counterpart on the stadium development team, MSFA executive director Ted Mondale.

Kelm-Helgen makes $127,000 annually, Mondale makes $162,245, according to the MSFA.

That has prompted discussions about gender equity at the last two MSFA meetings, as the board has tried to sort out a report that says there is a pay gap at the authority, where four of the commissioners are part time, and Kelm-Helgen is the sole full-time board member and employee.

She offered a letter Friday saying she would decline a pay raise, and said the letter would be submitted along with the pay equity report.

But two MSFA commissioners have used the report to argue that the pay gap reflects a faulty governance structure at the authority — that it should have a traditional part-time board that elects a chair and assigns executive duties to a single CEO.

Former state Senate GOP minority leader Duane Benson, who was also appointed by Dayton to the MSFA, expressed regret about the turn the discussion had taken, although he said it was a necessary debate.

"These are the things that make strong boards," Benson said. "I wish we could get it behind us, and I think we will ... and to the extent possible lift ourselves out of the notion that some of this is personal or political."

The MSFA voted to submit the report to the state and agreed to consider a wider review of how the board operates.