BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The board overseeing North Dakota's workers compensation agency has voted to fire Sandy Blunt as the agency's chief executive. His tenure has been marred by problems that included felony charges against him, which were later dropped, and employee turmoil.
The vote to fire Blunt was 8-2 at Thursday's meeting of the Workforce Safety and Insurance Agency board. The board's chairman, Robert Indvik, said Blunt's departure was inevitable.
'He was being hamstrung as far as being able to administer the agency,' Indvik said. 'Everything he did was taken as retribution ... on some of the people.'
Blunt did not attend Thursday's meeting in Bismarck.
Indvik said Blunt would be paid nine months' salary and medical benefits as a severance package.
Blunt was hired in April 2004, after working for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. He was charged eight months ago with illegal use of confidential information and misspending agency funds. The charges later were dropped.
Gov. John Hoeven had asked the board to hire an outside consultant to review WSI operations after the agency's internal auditor, Kay Grinsteinner, said she believed some workers' job injury claims had been improperly denied. Grinsteinner and four other top agency employees said they feared retaliation on the job for discussing possible misuse of agency resources.
A lawyer for WSI investigator Todd Flanagan, whose testimony helped bolster criminal charges against Blunt, said Flanagan was fired from his job Wednesday.
Hoeven's staff attorney, Ryan Bernstein, said he and the governor's chief of staff, Ron Rauschenberger, had met with Indvik before the board meeting to discuss Blunt's removal.
'It became inevitable that in order for us to move along and address some of the issues that we're having ... that it was time for us and Sandy to separate,' Indvik said.
Sebald Vetter, a critic of the agency, said Blunt's dismissal was the best thing that could happen.
'It's a big day for the injured worker out there because he (Blunt) didn't help the injured worker,' Vetter said.
Agency executive John Halvorson was named as Blunt's interim successor. The board will form a search committee to look for a permanent successor, Indvik said.
Workforce Safety and Insurance provides medical, wage and rehabilitation benefits for employees who are injured on the job. Businesses are required to buy coverage, and get protection from injury-related worker lawsuits in exchange.
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