Another N.D. Workers’ Comp Official Seeks Job Protection

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Another North Dakota workers’ compensation official has asked for job protection.

Kay Grinsteinner, internal audit manager for Workforce Safety and Insurance, e-mailed the agency’s executive director and its board of directors this week seeking legal protection. Grinsteinner said she reported violations of laws involving misuse of public resources and payment of grants. The agency awards grants to employers to improve workplace safety.

Grinsteinner declined to elaborate about the suspected violations.

Bob Indvik, chairman of the WSI board, said the agency’s legal staff is looking into the matter.

“We are trying to figure out what she’s trying to tell us,” he said.

Grinsteinner is the fifth WSI employee to ask for protection against retaliation for reporting suspected wrongdoing at the agency. The others are Todd Flanagan, a fraud investigator; James Long, its chief of support services; Billi Peltz, its human resource manager; and Jodi Bjornson, its general counsel.

In his letter seeking protection, Long said top agency officials had improperly divulged information to a former employee who was acting as a consultant to employers seeking safety grants. WSI has declined to comment on the allegations.

The requests from the WSI employees for Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s protection have come since WSI director Sandy Blunt returned to work in late October after a six-month leave of absence. Blunt had been facing felony charges of misusing agency funds and conspiring to disclose confidential driver’s license photos from the state Department of Transportation.

The charges were dismissed or dropped, though the Burleigh County state’s attorney’s office says the investigation into possible wrongdoing at the workers compensation agency is ongoing.