Ramstad: Accountability can be elusive, unless elections force it

Elections are about many things, but ultimately they are about accountability.

In next month’s presidential election, some votes for Vice President Kamala Harris will come from people who want to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some votes for Trump will come from people who want to hold Harris accountable for the inflation of 2022.

People in all endeavors tend to delay or deflect risks to avoid being accountable if something goes wrong or fails.

In business, leaders hire consultants or rely heavily on data to insulate themselves from hard calls. The tenure of top executives in large U.S. companies is shortening. An index of CEO turnover by Russell Reynolds Associates, a search firm, showed a steady increase in churn from 2018 until leveling this year.

In policy-making, we see legislation written in broad strokes, then interpreted by agencies and, when disputes arise about those interpretations, sent to courts for settlement. As a result, judges who are appointed or elected with relative little contest have increasingly become the ultimate makers of policy.

So it was heartening to hear Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan talking about accountability in a recent public appearance, especially since she may soon become Minnesota’s governor without a single Minnesotan voting her into the job.

Flanagan is leading the day-to-day workings of Minnesota’s executive branch while Gov. Tim Walz campaigns for vice president as Harris’ running mate. If the Harris-Walz ticket wins, Flanagan will serve out the two years remaining in Walz’s gubernatorial term.

Flanagan hasn’t said much about the prospect of becoming governor, though at an event last month she indicated she’ll be held accountable for the things Walz and DFLers did the last couple of years, particularly during the 2023 legislative session when they expanded state government to a degree unseen since the 1970s.

“The thing that I think about a lot, regardless of what my job will be in 2025, is implementation of all of the things we just got done,” Flanagan said Sept. 28 at the MinnPost Festival, a now-annual event hosted by the Minneapolis-based digital news publisher.

“It really matters in this moment in particular, where we are so divided and there is so much distrust,” she added.

I took that as a sign Flanagan believes there’s a limit to the course Minnesota Democrats took over the last six years with what they call the Minnesota Values Project. Having voted last year and this year to implement many programs outlined by that project, policymakers and state agencies are on the hook for making them work.

The problem with the Values Project was that it laid out big ideas — a path to universal health care, expansive child care, a rapid transition to clean energy, racial justice — with little thought about the economic engine to pay for them. Written in 2020 and 2021, its goals were shaped by the aftermath of the pandemic and police murder of George Floyd and didn’t account for slowing population and economic growth.

At the MinnPost event, Flanagan elaborated on the initiative from the Values Project that will have the biggest impact on the state’s businesses: the paid family and medical leave program set to begin in 2026.

Similar to unemployment insurance, the state will pay employees in any Minnesota business who has to take leave to have a baby or for other medical reasons. Funded in part by payroll deductions, the program’s success or failure in the initial months could influence the election in fall 2026, when Flanagan would have to run for re-election.

“I want that new mom to come home and, as she is totally overwhelmed with this amazing baby, that she doesn’t have to think at all whether there’s going to be money in her bank account to pay her bills,” Flanagan said. “It’s a tall order, but it’s what’s expected of us.”

Leaders in business and politics are constantly defining outcomes, or the things for which they want to be accountable. And when things don’t look good, they tend to change them midstream.

Minnesota needs many big things done. The state’s population growth is slower than ever. School quality has slipped. A new direction is needed for the University of Minnesota’s medical school and hospitals. More homes are needed across the state.

Because accountability is usually punitive — firing people, voting them out of office — the goals people set tend to be smaller than what’s needed.

“We think accountability is always about hierarchy,” said Peter Hutchinson, retired Minneapolis businessman and former deputy mayor, schools superintendent and state finance chief. “You cannot get people to do the right thing if all you’re going to do is yell at them.”