With major funding and Fairview-Sanford merger on the line, legislators vote Monday on U of M Regents

CATHY WURZER: One of the stories tomorrow will be tonight's joint session of the Minnesota House and Senate with a vote on new regents to govern the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. There are four spots to be filled with candidates that were vetted by the regent candidate advisory council. However, lawmakers don't have to approve the selected candidates and can offer up names from the floor tonight.

Regent Candidate Advisory Council Chair and former state senator Greg Clausen joins us right now to explain the nomination and the voting process. Senator, welcome to the program.

GREG CLAUSEN: Well, thank you, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: It's been a long process. Briefly for folks not familiar with it, how in a nutshell does it work?

GREG CLAUSEN: Well, as chair of the regent candidate advisory council, we're 24 members. One of those members is a student. We're elected to six-year terms. And we can serve up to two terms. And we're charged with identifying and recruiting and vetting candidates that we would then forward to the joint conference of the higher education committees in the House and the Senate. And we can forward anywhere from two to four candidates.

And that has been our charge. And now, the final step is in place for tonight with the joint convention of the House and the Senate will vote.

CATHY WURZER: Regents always have a lot on their plates. But when the process started months ago, there wasn't the concern left by President Gabel's resignation and the turmoil over the proposed merger of Fairview Health and Sanford Health that has the U of M health services in the middle. You's asking the legislature for an eye-popping amount of money. How key is this regents selection vote tonight?

GREG CLAUSEN: Oh, it's very important. As you mentioned, we're going to be looking at selecting a new president for the University of Minnesota system. We have the hospital merger issue. And then when I think back to our council members interviewing and vetting the candidates, there were a lot of concerns about some governance issues, recent decisions about dropping some University of Minnesota sports teams, concern about President Gabel's serving on a Securian board.

Those were some concerns. And now when you look a month or two months after our selection process, you see that we have to look at a new president. And that certainly is critical for the future of the University of Minnesota and our state.

CATHY WURZER: Refresh our memories-- who's in the running tonight?

GREG CLAUSEN: Well, we have four congressional districts that are up, actually, three congressional districts and then an at large. A second congressional district candidate is Robyn Gulley from West Saint Paul. And the third congressional district candidate is Mary Turner, who's well known for being president of the Nurses Association. In the eighth, we have Tadd Johnson.

Tadd was appointed by Governor Walz when David McMillan was named chancellor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. And so his term had to be reappointed. And then the at large it is Penny Wheeler. And Penny was actually a candidate in the third congressional district, but candidates and also in addition to the congressional district in which they live they can also ask that they be considered for the at-large position. And so Penny Wheeler did that. And she was selected for the at-large position.

CATHY WURZER: And we should say, as I mentioned, lawmakers can nominate candidates from the floor. It's been done in the past circumventing the selection process. Explain how politics seeps into this process.

GREG CLAUSEN: Well, I think you've stated it correctly. Politics does definitely play a role in this. And sometimes it's rather frustrating, quite honestly, that we've gone through a process and then the night of the final vote with the Senate and House members and joint convention a person is nominated from the floor. And that has happened in the past.

But over the last two, I believe, two selection processes that we've gone through, the candidates that have been vetted by the regent candidate advisory council came through and are currently serving as our regents. But it is sometimes frustrating as a member of the regent candidate advisory council that our work sometimes is circumvented.

CATHY WURZER: Do you think there's too much legislative influence on this? How would you reform the process?

GREG CLAUSEN: There are some bills that are being presented currently in the legislature to make some changes. And I had actually authored a bill maybe four or five years ago when I was serving in the Senate making it a little bit, shall we say, less political that if you were going to nominate a person, my proposal was you had to have the support of both the Republicans and the Democrats. And you had to have a two thirds majority for selecting a candidate for consideration.

So I've seen the bill that currently is being looked at. But I don't think there's going to be any movement this year. But it's being proposed. And I think next year, there'll be quite a bit of discussion on that.

CATHY WURZER: All right. I know you're busy, senator. Thank you so much.

GREG CLAUSEN: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I'm looking forward to tonight's vote.

CATHY WURZER: That is region candidate advisory council chair, former state senator Greg Clausen.