Gov. Mark Dayton is expanding the state's personal time-off policy for state employees in an effort to allow one state worker in particular — Shelley Koski — to participate in Red Cross programs involving veterans and their families in crisis.
Koski is one of a handful of certified mental health counselors in the country qualified to perform the counseling through the American Red Cross.
But Koski, a clinical therapist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections prison at Moose Lake, was barred from using a state law that allows state workers to use paid time off for Red Cross disaster relief to perform the counseling.
Corrections Department officials said helping veterans in crisis, while a noble effort, did not qualify as disaster relief.
The state would not budge after several negotiations, even after Koski's union, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, offered to draw up a guarantee that the provision would apply only to a person with Koski's specific skills.
Dayton's executive order, issued Tuesday, comes four days after Koski's story was reported in the Star Tribune.
"Recognizing that the need for mental health counselors for military veterans is significant both in Minnesota and throughout the United States and that the American Red Cross is an internationally recognized disaster relief organization, the Governor's Executive Order directs Minnesota Management and Budget to recognize the training of mental health counselors for military veterans, through the American Red Cross, as an appropriate use of leave time for state employees," Dayton's office said in a release.
"I'm just so happy," a tearful Koski said Tuesday after getting the news. Before Dayton's order, Koski had been planning on using personal time to continue the counseling, including a session scheduled for this week.
