http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=852

April 5, 2004 Timberjay News

These new allegations come as Dill is defending himself against charges of campaign violations and a possible conflict of interest over the handling of state trail grants in his job as city adminstrator and as trail administrator of VTSI.

Among the most serious charges is that Dill oversaw a city employee and a temporary worker, hired with city grant funds, to stuff envelopes for a campaign mailing in June, 2002. The work was done at the Orr City Hall by Mardell Kielczewski, Nancy Glass, City Clerk Sherry Erickson, and Dill.

Kielczewski was paid $10 per hour for her four hours of work on the mailing, and the money was paid from a city grant fund earmarked for youth projects and alcohol education. A city check statement, an accounts payable report, and a voucher submitted by Glass all clearly indicate the payment was for work on Dill’s campaign.

In addition to paying Kielczewski, the use of the city clerk, while on city time, to do campaign work would almost certainly be considered an improper use of city funds under state law.

According to Kielczewski, Erickson brought a phone into the conference room where the campaign mailing was being assembled so she could continue to answer calls while the women worked on the mailing. While the women stuffed envelopes, according to Kielczewski, Dill shuttled stacks of completed envelopes to the post office and ran off more copies of the flyer on the city’s copy machine. It is unclear whether Dill, who was also a city employee, was on city time or not during the campaign work, since Dill was not required to keep regular hours or document his time.

Nancy Glass, who oversaw the youth program for the city, said she was initially unaware that using the fund for campaign purposes was illegal. She said she had hoped to use the program to get area young people involved in a political campaign. None of the individuals who worked on the campaign mailing, however, were youth. Glass said she had hired the 63-year old Kielczewski to work on the mailing because she had helped with other youth projects and knew that she could use the work.

Glass said when a co-worker, Leah Rogne, told her the use of the funds for political purposes would be illegal, she stopped it. "It only happened once," she said.

But it wasn’t the last time that Dill tried to enlist Erickson to help on the campaign during her work hours. On other occasions, Dill asked Erickson to do campaign work while on city time, but Erickson said she refused, telling Dill she didn’t feel it was appropriate.

Erickson said she was uncomfortable with the use of city hall and city equipment for campaign purposes. "I didn’t think he should be running his campaign through the office, but it seemed it was A-ok with the mayor and the council," she said. When she did refuse to do campaign work while on city time, she said Dill, who was her direct supervisor, "wasn’t happy about it."

The incident not only raises questions about improper use of city funds, equipment, and employee time, it also suggests Dill may not have reported all of his campaign expenses. Dill’s campaign spending reports do not include any mention of the payment to Kielczewski nor do they account for the cost of Erickson’s salary as city clerk while she worked on the campaign mailing for Dill. In his response to the campaign complaint filed last month by four northeastern Minnesota DFLers, Dill claimed in public statements that he had "reported everything."

While Dill’s spending report does include about $325 in reimbursement to the city for copying, none of that expense was tallied prior to the primary election, and so wasn’t counted by Dill’s campaign against his primary spending limit.

The Timberjay sought comment from Dill on the allegations in this story, along with answers to a total of a dozen questions, which the Timberjay submitted in writing to Dill’s legislative office in St. Paul on Monday. Dill responded on Tuesday with a one-sentence statement, saying he was "currently focusing to provide the requested information by the Campaign Finance and Disclosure Board."

Questionable billing for travel

The issue that could prove most troubling for Dill from a legal standpoint could be the questions raised in reimbursement requests he made to both the city of Orr and the VTSI snowmobile club. An Oct. 15, 2001, travel voucher submitted by Dill and paid by the city indicates that Dill was paid $82.80 for a trip to Duluth on May 23, 2001, and was paid $41.40 for a trip to the IRRRB office in Eveleth on June 22, 2001.

Two weeks later, on Oct. 30, 2001, Dill submitted a similar voucher to the VTSI for trips to the same locations on the same days— a voucher which Dill confirmed, in an unrelated interview last week, was paid by the club. While Dill’s voucher to the city indicated the trips were related to city projects, Dill’s voucher to VTSI indicated he was attending a U.S. Forest Service meeting in Duluth on snowmobile trail expansion on May 23, and an IRRRB meeting on trails on June 22.

Oddly, while Dill invoiced the city for automobile travel on those dates, his invoice to VTSI sought reimbursement for airplane travel, at approximately $140 per hour. The invoice, which included three claimed flights, two to Duluth and the one to Eveleth, totaled $604.

Dill would not normally have billed VTSI for automobile mileage because he receives a $1,500 a year annual mileage allowance from the club. But Dill said last week that the lump sum allowance only applied to automobile mileage, and that plane travel could be billed separately.

Yet further investigation by the Timberjay has revealed that at least two of the meetings Dill claims to have attended for VTSI may not have taken place. Dill’s voucher to VTSI included two claimed flights to Duluth— the one on May 23, and another on August 2, 2001. In both cases, Dill’s invoice indicated the flights were made to attend "USFS hearing on snowmobile trails expansion." But U.S. Forest Service officials in Duluth stated in interviews that they have no record of any such hearings, on those dates, or at any time during those weeks.

"I talked to a number of our planners about meetings on those dates," said Forest Service public information officer Dave Schmidt. "We’re really drawing a blank," he said. "If it was a snowmobile trail meeting, these people would have attended," he said.

Forest Service recreation planner Judy Ness confirmed Schmidt’s account. Ness says she keeps a log of her daily activities and checked both dates when questioned by the Timberjay. "There was just nothing pertaining to a hearing or an open house the whole week," she said, referring to both the May 23 and August 2 dates in 2001.

Dill did not respond to specific questions from the Timberjay, seeking comment on this issue.