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Politics and Government News
Brian Bakst

Minnesota House panel votes to absorb legal fees of DFLer in employment dispute

A man hoists a flag on a flagpole
Charlie Krueger, ground supervisor for facilities management, raises the new Minnesota state flag at the State Capitol for the first time on May 11.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

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A Minnesota House committee voted along party lines Tuesday to have the public pay the legal bill of a Democratic lawmaker over an outside employment action.

The decision covers about $10,400 in attorney fees for Rep. Bianca Virnig. The first-term Eagan legislator alleged that her former employer, a nonprofit school cooperative known as BrightWorks, reduced her pay and hours following her first session of service in the Legislature. 

A state law is meant to bar such an action by granting protection to legislators who return to their regular jobs when the session calendar wraps up for the year.

A woman with glasses smiles
Bianca Virnig poses for a photo.
Courtesy photo

Details of the settlement were not disclosed. But fellow Democrats say because the case was tied to her House service, reimbursement of legal fees is appropriate.

“If this is precedent setting, I think it’s a good precedent because I do think that for members of either party, if they are and faced with a similar circumstance in the future, we would want them to be represented and want there to be the opportunity for them to have their rights advocated for,” said Minneapolis Rep. Jamie Long, the DFL chair of the committee.

Republicans objected, but came up on the losing end of a pair of 9-5 votes to pause the approval.

“I find this very troubling,” said Rep. Jim Nash of Waconia. “The House of Representatives is a third party at best, and we are now going to take taxpayer dollars and pay for these legal fees when the representative, Representative Virnig, did receive a settlement.” 

House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said she supports the ability of Virnig to seek compensation for a possible rights violation. But she said BrightWorks should be held accountable if it was accused of violating the law instead.

“Employers need to follow the law and employee and Minnesota taxpayers should not be on the hook for when that does not happen,” she said. 

BrightWorks didn’t respond to an email message about the matter.

A request placed with the House DFL caucus for a copy of the employment dispute settlement wasn’t immediately fulfilled.