Finish the job

We’ve been down one in the Carlton County Attorney’s Office since the last election. It seems that Thom Pertler, who served our county very well for about two decades, stopped showing up for work after he lost his re-election bid.

As an employer, I am usually a little irritated when people quit without notice. In my businesses, I often ask job applicants if they will agree to give me as much notice as possible if they plan to leave their job with me. In exchange, I will: a) promise to give them plenty of notice if I have to make changes to their job, and b) I won’t cut their hours after they give notice, if they don’t want me to.

So I was a little distraught that Carlton County Attorney Thom Pertler simply stopped showing up to work after he lost his re-election bid in November. Pertler told the Pine Knot News that it was a medical issue and asked us to respect his privacy. I certainly respect his privacy. But I cannot fathom such a coincidence: a medical issue that arises just after a substantial electoral loss.

I did a little research after I heard Pertler was not coming in to work.

Minnesota law requires that an elected county attorney perform certain duties: appear in all cases in which the county is a party; prosecute crimes; advise the county board and county offices. (It’s found in Minnesota Statutes §338.051). In the law, the word “shall” means that it’s required. In other words, the county attorney can’t simply decide he will not do the job he was elected to do. And I could find no authority for naming someone “acting” county attorney. Even though he lost the election, Pertler is still the county attorney until the new attorney is sworn in in January.

I also discovered in that same chapter that State law sets minimum salaries for county attorneys. In a county the size of Carlton County, the minimum salary is $7,000 annually. Yes: if full-time, the minimum wage for county attorneys is $3.37 an hour. Of course, our county pays our county attorney much, much more than that.

Perhaps he’s taking sick leave. Perhaps he’s using accrued vacation. We don’t know, and he’s not telling us. We don’t know if he’s cashing his paychecks or using his benefits, such as health insurance. I don’t think it matters, frankly. No matter what his reasons, it appears obvious: he lost the election, and quit showing up for work.

I suspect some of us would do the same. Some people, once they give notice at work, stop working. After all, what is the boss going to do? Fire them?

In this case, though, as an elected official, the “boss” is the people of Carlton County who elected him in the first place. And while there is a procedure for removing a county official who is not doing his job anymore, the process takes months. By that time, the new county attorney will have taken office.

I don’t know the full story. I don’t think I need to. Although I have also found Thom Pertler to be an honorable man, a skilled lawyer, and a decent person (I still do, by the way), he should have finished out his term as county attorney gracefully, or given us a full explanation of why he isn’t. I think he owes that to the citizens of Carlton County.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. He can be reached at [email protected].