DNR supervisor loses her job over improper spending

A Department of Natural Resources enforcement supervisor lost her job and the deputy DNR commissioner was suspended for three days following investigations into improper spending and fundraising by the agency for a game warden conference last year, the DNR announced Thursday.

DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten said Thursday that he fired Capt. Cathy Hamm, central region manager in the agency's enforcement division and a 33-year DNR employee, for "serious employee misconduct pertaining to management of public funds, failure to follow DNR procedures and violations of the DNR's harassment and discrimination policy."

Hamm's attorney countered Thursday that she retired before she could be fired. Hamm's husband, former chief of DNR enforcement, resigned from the agency last month after he, too, became a focus of the agency's investigation. Cathy and Mike Hamm played key roles in the DNR's support of the North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association conference in 2007 in St. Paul, the investigation found.

On Thursday, Holsten also announced that Deputy Commissioner Laurie Martinson was put on a three-day unpaid leave because of "inadequate review of a special expense authorization."

Several investigations into the private game warden association conference were launched after a Star Tribune report in May raised questions about the DNR's support of the conference.

A legislative audit found the agency had misspent $300,000 in public money and broken a conflict-of-interest law about fundraising by conservation officers on state time. Four DNR-commissioned reports, made public Thursday with redactions, covered some of those issues as well as new ones. One report indicated that Cathy Hamm had requested funds to cover registration fees for Minnesota conservation officers that were higher than those for officers from elsewhere and that Martinson had signed the request.

Holsten said that the investigation showed the DNR had violated the public's trust and that "management of the Enforcement Division disregarded that obligation and violated our policies and procedures."

The DNR probe also revealed several racial and gender discrimination complaints against Cathy Hamm unrelated to the game warden conference. It included testimony from several conservation officers with Asian names that Hamm had tried to exclude them from security details at the Republican National Convention because they were too small in stature. The report also indicated that Hamm took the same position with regard to female officers and that she had also said having the female officers work would cost too much money for separate hotel rooms.

Hamm's attorney, Gregg Corwin, said Thursday that she had retired Wednesday, before the DNR could fire her, and that she's due $43,000 in severance pay as well as standard retirement benefits. Holsten said that he had been negotiating with Hamm over her termination in recent days and that when she missed the Wednesday deadline in their talks, he dismissed her. Hamm did not respond to voice-mail messages left on her phones by the Star Tribune on Thursday.

Rep. Rick Hanson, DFL-South St. Paul, chairman of the Legislative Audit Commission and a member of the House Environment Finance Committee, said that the DNR needs to "restore confidence" in its management and that after two state investigations, it is up to Gov. Tim Pawlenty to take a hard look at the agency.

Holsten said he notified Pawlenty's office Thursday of Hamm's firing but had not spoken with the governor.

Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, a friend of the Hamms and member of two House natural resource committees, said DNR management "needs a field dressing" after the investigation. He said he hopes Cathy Hamm sues the agency.