Steve Grove’s new job

The Star Tribune building in Minneapolis, Minnesota

On Monday, I settled a public records lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and its Commissioner Steve Grove. They’ve agreed to update their policies, pay $17,000, give me all the data they refused to produce, and never withhold the data again for as long as Grove remains Commissioner. But that won’t be for long: on Tuesday, Grove announced he would be stepping down.

Multiple news and advocacy organizations have struggled to get public records from DEED under Commissioner Grove’s leadership, which makes Grove’s new job quite confounding: he’s going to be the CEO of the Star Tribune newspaper. He described that his mission will be to “carry on the Star Tribune's commitment to accountability in government.” Interesting.

In fairness, DEED’s lack of transparency has been a cultural problem starting long before Grove’s tenure, though it seems he did little to fix it. The statutory obligation to comply with Minnesota’s public records law was on his shoulders, and in my case he was directly copied on my records requests, so he can’t point the finger at staff.

It will be intriguing to watch Grove’s transition to the role of leading a news organization. While I think many will have concern with the Star Tribune hiring directly out of Governor Walz’s cabinet despite their obligation to report critically on the Governor, Grove’s prior experience both as a journalist and in working with news organizations should also be appreciated.

But Commissioner Grove’s qualifications are precisely why I’m so disappointed. He previously worked as a reporter, so he knows journalists have limited resources. He should not have forced me to take time away from other reporting (and being a full-time student) to sue to enforce the public’s right to know.

To date, I’ve received no explanation for Grove ignoring my records request for so long, and then denying it without basis in law. But it’s a trend. Government transparency advocate Rich Neumeister questioned Grove’s long delay in complying with his records request; Grove provided no public response. MinnPost’s Peter Callaghan took DEED to task for “finding new ways to evade public disclosure of how state dollars are spent” which elicited a snippy, evasive response from Grove. The Minnesota Reformer also reports having a similar experience with Grove, suffering a year-long delay only for Grove’s office to experience a “technical error” resulting in not producing a key email. Again, interesting.

If Grove’s conduct in Governor Walz’s cabinet is a preview of the “commitment to accountability in government” he promises to deliver as Star Tribune CEO, I am not optimistic. Though I nevertheless wish him all success.

Commissioner Grove’s new job will require championing a fight against the behaviors he himself exhibited, even after being directly informed that his conduct violated the law. I hope to see him testifying at the Legislature about the need to strengthen the Data Practices Act to provide greater remedies against the lawbreaking he is so intimately familiar with. I also hope he won’t be afraid to sue his former boss—Governor Walz—for public records when the need arises. I'll happily be there to file an amicus brief in his support.

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