Big raise for Met Council leader despite salaries deal

Even after lawmakers stopped hefty raises for members of Gov. Mark Dayton's cabinet, the chairman of the Metropolitan Council's salary still doubled to nearly $123,000, according to state salary documents obtained by the Associated Press.

New chairman Adam Duininck is making twice as much as previous leaders at the Metropolitan Council as the position moves to a full-time role. Dayton's administration argues he's on firm legal ground to unilaterally pay Duininck more with the switch to full time, which they say is necessary given the Met Council's increasing workload.

But Republicans say the governor reneged on a deal that reversed those salary increases earlier this year. Duininck's five-figure raise could open a second act in the debate over commissioner pay that consumed the Legislature for weeks and it may give the GOP extra fodder to take on the regional planning agency.

"We were going to wind back the clock and say 'You are going to have to go back to what it was in 2014,'" said Rep. Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth. "He has gone beyond the intent of what it was."

In January, Dayton gave double-digit percentage raises, including some topping $30,000, to his commissioners, triggering a blowup that strained relations between the Democratic governor and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk after Bakk moved to freeze the increases.

Reaction to Duininck's proposed raise was strongest, given its size -- an almost 140 percent increase from previous council chairs -- and his personal and political ties to the governor. Duininck is married to the governor's chief of staff and for years ran an outside political group that raised millions of dollars to back DFL candidates, including Dayton's 2014 re-election.

Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk both said they believed the deal to scrap those raises -- at least until July, when Dayton will have a one-day window to reinstate them -- would bring Duininck's salary back down to about $61,000. The increase even surprised Duininck, who told the AP Tuesday he initially believed his salary would stay at a part-time level.

Documents submitted to state officials last week show Duininck is making about $123,000 atop the Metropolitan Council, which sets housing and transportation policies around the Twin Cities and runs its bus and transit systems. That new salary has been effective since late February. In the slate of raises that lawmakers nixed, Dayton aimed to pay Duininck $145,000.

As the governor and Daudt negotiated the deal, Daudt said Dayton's office asked House Republicans to include a measure specifically spelling out Duininck's job as a full-time position. Daudt said no.

"Now they're doing it anyway," he said Tuesday. "I feel like what they're doing is outside what they had agreed."

Dayton's spokesman Matt Swenson said no one in the governor's office recalls that request. The governor's office defended the increase as both legal and prudent.

State law doesn't specify whether the Met Council chair or any commissioner should be working part time or full time. With the raise, Duininck is being paid at the same salary rate laid out in current law -- he's just working twice as much as previous chairs.

"There was no need to request special language in the bill, because we never doubted the Governor had the explicit authority to make the position full-time," Swenson said in a statement.

Like Dayton, Duininck stressed the switch to full time was long overdue. Dayton relied on former chair Sue Haigh's advice in making the decision.

"The fact is it's a full-time job to do this job. It's a huge organization with a lot of responsibilities," Duininck said.

Daudt said he's not sure yet what action, if any, the House GOP will take in response to the raise. Anderson, who chairs a House committee with eyes on state government salaries, indicated she'll call state budget officials back in front of lawmakers to explain the increase.

Already the most controversial of the governor's appointees, Duininck's new salary could complicate his confirmation vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

"It won't make it any easier," Bakk, the Senate majority leader, said.