Barbara Houdek, CEO of a Rice, Minn., company called Trillium Development that builds communications towers for the state of Minnesota, learned by mail that the state may be shutting down. Seven times.
Houdek got six identical letters from the Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) and one with only slight variations from the Office of Electronic Communications. One arrived by certified mail. All informed her that payments to contractors would be suspended after July 1 unless otherwise notified.
Houdek can't understand why the state — facing a $5 billion shortfall — didn't simply send an e-mail.
James Honerman, a DLI spokesman, said Houdek's company had six different permits with his agency, so she got six letters.
"We are sorry for having to send Trillium Development multiple letters," Honerman wrote in an e-mail, but the agency wanted to be sure every name on every permit list was notified.
Read the letters below:
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