Many lessons learned after Extension inquiry

The Carlton County Extension Office has made some procedural and management changes following an investigation last year conducted by the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office.

Allegations regarding a former Carlton County employee were “exceptionally cleared” following the investigation, in large part because the alleged wrongdoings were either not covered by county policy or impossible to prove beyond reasonable doubt.

Information for this story was taken from an unapproved draft of an investigative report by Aitkin County investigator Steve Cook, and concerned allegations made against Troy Salzer, a longtime Carlton County University of Minnesota Extension Service agriculture educator.

Salzer headed the Extension service locally, arranging for lots of grant money to flow to local farmers. Experimental projects on types of crops and soil conditions were carried out to see what would thrive in our region. Part of his responsibility was to run the program on byproducts originating from material produced by the WLSSD for farm fields. Ash and lime was distributed in that same network and has been produced by Minnesota Power, Potlatch of Bemidji and the Cloquet Sappi mill.

Since then, Salzer has left his job in Carlton County this spring and is now employed in St. Louis County. He was never charged with any kind of wrongdoing and the investigation was closed, although a copy was sent to the Minnesota state auditor.

The long-term result of the investigation was the ongoing restructuring of the Extension Office, which was basically a hybrid department that didn’t clearly fall under the supervision of the University of Minnesota or Carlton County, which only served to exacerbate possible problems there.

In the beginning

Former Carlton County auditor/treasurer Paul Gassert requested that the Carlton County sheriff’s department investigate Salzer for allegedly keeping and using items purchased by Carlton County at his personal property in January of 2018.

There were also complaints that Salzer gave certain local farmers preferential treatment when he was in charge of the Carlton County byproducts program.

Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake requested that the Aitkin County sheriff’s office conduct the investigation in January 2018, because it concerned a Carlton County employee.

Cook investigated the following complaints against Salzer and/or the Extension office:

1. Salzer has a tractor, two pickups and a four-wheeler at his farm property which was purchased with county dollars. He allegedly uses the equipment for his own personal use.

2. Salzer oversees the Carlton County byproducts program and, as such, he appears to allow for special privileges or benefits to certain farmers, with respect to the delivery of various by product materials.

3. A van owned by Carlton County was used as a personal vehicle by former Extension office employee.

4. Salzer may have a private business, Bio Energy Consultants, LLC, and people expressed concerns he was using county resources and staff to assist him in doing his private business.

5. Salzer purchased a substantial amount of fertilizer, with county dollars, and he was storing that fertilizer at his farm, along with fertilizer that he personally purchased for his farm.

Investigative report

According to the report, numerous county employees, Extension employees, people involved with the byproducts program and farmers in the area were contacted. The investigation is documented in an 11-page report with extensive personal comments given in numerous interviews.

The report said that when Cook interviewed Troy Salzer, Salzer denied any preferential treatment to farmers in the byproducts program. He said the John Deere tractor was stored at his farm and has been used in particular grant program work and for spreading biosolids and lime.

Salzer told the investigator he did not know why a 2004 Honda Foreman ATV was registered in his name. The county had paid for the machine. It had been used there to monitor experimental plots. Salzer said it was flood-damaged at his Sturgeon Lake farm and is now not usable.

Salzar said he had used the John Deere tractor and Extension pickups for Extension services to farmers and sometimes for his personal use, but provides his own fuel and makes necessary repairs. Extension fertilizer has been stored at his farm and the bags are marked “EXT” because the extension program does not have its own storage facilities.

Salzer said he has no knowledge of Bio Energy Consultants but had done private consulting in the past on his own time without using county vehicles. He said he had to fill out forms with Minnesota Extension in order to do this work.

In a letter written by Aitkin County attorney James Ratz, who reviewed the investigation and concluded that Salzer should be “exceptionally cleared” of all charges, Ratz said that with respect to allegations about Salzer using the tractor and trucks for his personal use, there did not seem to be a sufficient policy defining incidental use of government vehicles.

“Further, with regard to storing the county-purchased property, there does not appear to be any policy in Carlton County addressing the storage of government-owned property on private property,” he wrote about the fertilizer question. “To the contrary, past and current practice seem to suggest such situations are acceptable.”

Use of the tractor, pickup trucks and ATV was cleared for basically the same reasons, that the policy was insufficient, and also that there was insufficient evidence to show substantive personal use.

Regarding the allegations that Salzer played favorites with farmers in the byproducts program and conducted private business with county resources, Ratz concluded there was insufficient evidence for either claim. He said the same about claims that a different Extension employee had used an Extension van for personal use.

Ratz did stress that the Extension office needed to make changes in his letter to Cook.

“With regards to the Extension Office, there is an apparent and immediate need for policies, procedures and internal controls to address all aspects with special emphasis on use of vehicle, maintaining inventories of Extension Office property, storage of vehicles and other property, outside consulting activities and administration of the byproducts program, he wrote

Aftermath

According to county coordinator Dennis Genereau, since the investigation there have been many meetings with county staff to re-evaluate the mission of the Extension program here, reassign staff duties, and hire needed staff.

They have determined that county employees need to be supervised by county staff, and extension employees need to be supervised by extension staff. Genereau said supervision of staff in the extension office was “a gray area.”

He said Donna Lekander of the Carlton County Collaborative will now supervise the county staff that work in the extension office.

“This continues to take a lot of time,” he said. “The basic staffing for the Extension program is financed through the management of the [byproducts] and ash programs for soil improvement in the county farm lands. Someone will manage that program as their primary duty. This will ensure prompt service to local farmers and all requests treated the same.”

Genereau added that the county has been working to update or create policies for about five years now, and that for many years there was no issue with employees using county-owned things for personal use, on an occasional basis.

Salzar declined to comment on the investigation, but said he loved working in Carlton County.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to do the work I did in Carlton County for those years,” he said.

Salzer is the Extension educator for ag production systems in St. Louis County now.

Pine Knot editor Jana Peterson contributed to this story.