Minneapolis' notification failure costs taxpayers $28,000

A former Minneapolis civil rights director stands to get nearly $28,000 in extra severance pay because a committee headed by Mayor R.T. Rybak didn't give him enough notice that he wasn't being reappointed.

The money is atop nearly $56,000 that Michael Jordan will get as ordinary severance.

A city ordinance requires that a charter department head be notified by the city's Executive Committee three months before the end of a term if he or she won't be reappointed.

But Rybak, who chairs the Executive Committee, didn't officially communicate to the committee his plans for Jordan until a Feb. 2 letter, long after Jordan's term ended in early January, and the panel didn't act even then. City officials said that Rybak told Jordan on Oct. 25 that he wouldn't be reappointed. That was still weeks after the early October notification deadline, triggering the extra severance.

"It should have happened last fall, and it didn't," said John Stiles, Rybak's spokesman.

Human resources officials said they initially let policymakers know of the deadline in June or July and followed that with additional reminders.

The $27,963 in extra severance will come from the Civil Rights Department's budget, which Rybak and the City Council have cut by almost $500,000 over the last two budget years.

The Executive Committee on Wednesday recommended the extra pay rather than an equivalent amount in job-finding assistance for Jordan, who couldn't be reached.

Velma Korbel, a former state human rights commissioner, replaced Jordan on June 1. Jordan was the only department head that Rybak didn't reappoint, and Korbel is the sixth civil rights head to serve under Rybak in his nine years as mayor.

The Executive Committee approved her reorganization plan to create three assistant director posts with a pay range of $72,701 to $80,353 annually. They replace three existing management jobs.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438