St. Paul broke vet preference law in hiring, state says

In a decision that could have statewide impact, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs says that the city of St. Paul violated state law when it refused to give extra points under the Veterans Preference Act to a disabled Gulf War veteran applying for a park supervisor job.

Those extra points would have made Brian Balfanz the department's top candidate rather than landing him lower on the list, according to the findings of an administrative law judge that were adopted this week by Veterans Affairs Commissioner Larry Shellito.

The state is directing St. Paul to remove three park supervisors from their jobs, reopen the hiring process and add 15 points to Balfanz's score, creating a new list of candidates for the positions that likely will have him at the top.

Balfanz, 42, of Roseville, said Friday that he felt "vindicated" for standing up for his rights despite the huge expenditure of time and money the case required.

"I can't believe the city operates this way, and I don't believe I'm the only one who's been affected. … It's not just wrong, it's illegal," he said.

Maplewood attorney John Baker, an ex-Marine who represented Balfanz and has taken on the causes of other veterans, said the case "should have implications across the state" for jurisdictions considering veterans for employment.

"Cities need to take note, and this should give them pause to look at their hiring practices throughout the state," Baker said. "Communities say they want to hire vets, but follow practices that violate state preferential laws."

"We are reviewing the order, discussing its potential ramifications and considering our options for appeal," City Attorney Sara Grewing said.

Jason Quick, Minnesota state director of Concerned Veterans for America, said that officials should be held accountable for what he called "abysmal" hiring practices.

"St. Paul has clearly lost sight of its priorities," Quick said. "If you award the points and [veterans] don't end up being the number one choice, that's one thing. But if you don't award the points at all, changes need to be made so that type of thing doesn't happen to a segment of the population that is grossly unemployed."

According to the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the unemployment rate among Minnesota veterans last year was 5 percent, the same as the general statewide rate. However, the unemployment rate for Minnesota's post-9/11 veterans was 8.8 percent.

Balfanz, a St. Paul police research analyst who had worked for the city's parks department from 2001 to 2012, decided last year to apply for one of three park program supervisor jobs.

City officials at first opened the jobs to all applicants. But after 17 internal candidates expressed interest they decided to drop from consideration 22 external candidates, and changed the examination process in midstream from one that was open to the public to one that was internal only.

That made a difference for Balfanz, who qualified for 15 additional points on his job examination score only if the process was open to all candidates. He earned the points for an ambulatory disability he received from blowing out his ankle while on active duty in the early 1990s.

Balfanz took the training and oral exams, but didn't qualify for a job interview without the extra points. City officials filled the positions without considering him.

"I told them, 'You made this mistake.' I said, 'I think you're breaking the law, can we get this fixed?' They said 'No,' " he said.

Convinced that he had a case and backed by his wife, he decided to fight City Hall. He filed a petition for relief in October 2013, eventually liquidating the family's savings and digging into his retirement fund to pay legal costs.

In the meantime, Baker said, the city must either comply with the order or file an injunction.

"We understand that there are three individuals who will lose their jobs," he said. "That doesn't make us happy at all. But if the city had listened to us from the start, we wouldn't have had to do this."