Star Tribune
Legislators want to hire experts to fix Minnesota’s ailing child protection system
A statewide child abuse hotline, new rules to reduce racial disparities among foster children and a wide-ranging review of how Minnesota spends its child protection money are among the proposals state legislators will begin considering when they convene next week.
Altogether, at least nine legislative proposals have emerged in recent weeks to address widespread failures in Minnesota’s child protection system that were identified in a 2023 Star Tribune investigation.
The bills received their first public airing at Friday’s meeting of the bipartisan Legislative Task Force on Child Protection, which met for the third time in three months to address problems identified in the recent Star Tribune investigation. Many task force members did not attend the session, including all of the Republicans.
The series revealed hundreds of children are harmed each year when county officials return them to parents who have not addressed problems that prompted the removal of their children to foster care.
Assistant Majority Leader Mary Kunesh, a Democratic senator from New Brighton, said she thinks the state should hire a consultant this summer with “national expertise in transforming child welfare systems” to help overhaul Minnesota’s system. The consultant would be required to submit a final report by March 25, 2025. The assessment would cost an estimated $250,000.
Kunesh said a preliminary review shows that Minnesota failed to spend more than $55 million in federal money on services aimed at preventing abuse and neglect since the funds become available in 2018. Kunesh said only three other states are sitting on more in unused funds.
“It’s really important that there be independent and external oversight to ensure our state agency is performing at its highest capacity,” Kunesh said.
Minnesota is one of just nine states in which counties control the delivery of child protection services. The state Department of Human Services (DHS) provides oversight.
Task force members reviewed a report from a national child welfare consulting firm that shows Minnesota’s spending on child protection services is out of step with the rest of the nation, with counties spending just 2% of available federal funds on programs and services aimed at curbing abuse and neglect.
On average, other states spend 40% of their funds on such services, according to the review by The Stephen Group of New Hampshire.
The review also showed that Minnesota spends far too much on administrative costs and caseworkers visits.
“It is really important you start asking questions about how to make sure you maximize all of the available federal dollars,” said John Stephen, CEO of The Stephen Group. “There is a lot of opportunity there for the state of Minnesota.”
Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, a Democrat from Minneapolis and a task force member, told legislators that Minnesota needs to pass the African American Family Preservation Act to address practices that result in the disproportionate removal of Black children from their parents.
Attorney Kelis Houston, who advocated on behalf of children as a guardian ad litem for several years, told legislators that “institutional racism” is responsible for the fact that 26% of children in foster care are Black, even though those kids make up just 10% of the child protection population.
“The worst thing Minnesota can do is keep doubling down on its failed approach,” said Houston, adding that tragedies continue to occur because caseworkers are overwhelmed by “trivial cases.”
The Star Tribune’s investigation found that since 2012, at least 86 children died from maltreatment after Minnesota’s child protection system failed to protect them from caregivers with a history of abuse or neglect. Another 11 children died from suicide after a child protection case was filed on their behalf, including a 6-year-old girl.
Task force members also discussed weaknesses in the way counties investigate deaths linked to child abuse.
Counties are supposed to file a child mortality report every time a child dies from maltreatment or if the child dies from homicide, suicide, an accident or undetermined causes. The reports are supposed to help guide improvements to child protection.
But a Star Tribune survey of more than two dozen counties in 2023 showed that compliance is spotty. Some counties failed to conduct required reviews while others take years to complete them.
Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul and co-chair of the task force, said the current system is “pretty confusing” and too focused on whether social services complied with existing rules instead of whether changes in policy or practices might have led to a different outcome.
“It’s something we really want to get right,” Pinto said.
Mark Hudson, a Minnesota physician who has been involved in mortality reviews for more than a decade, told panel members that the reviews should more often include the perspective of medical workers, law enforcement members and people who are legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect.
“Transparency is lacking now,” said Hudson, medical director of the Midwest Children’s Resource Center in Minneapolis.
A former Medtronic consultant received an 18-month prison sentence this week for his role in a scheme linked to the $1.6 billion acquisition of an Israeli medical device company in 2018.
A federal jury in February convicted Doron “Ron” Tavlin, 69, of Minneapolis, of one count of conspiracy to engage in insider trading and 10 additional counts related to securities fraud. That same jury found David Jay Gantman, 58, of Mendota Heights, not guilty of all charges against him. A third defendant — Afshin “Alex” Farahan, 57, of Los Angeles — pleaded guilty in 2022 and has yet to be sentenced.
“His crime was cynical and brazen. It was also reckless,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert wrote in a memo calling for a 3-year prison term. “Tavlin’s conduct had the potential to blow up a deal that a team of executives and financial advisers had been diligently negotiating for months.”
Tavlin is now scheduled to self-surrender Jan. 5 to begin his prison term, which will be followed by 320 hours of community service.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Tavlin learned about a secret, pending acquisition by Medtronic of Mazor Robotics, where he worked as vice president of business development, in 2018. Tavlin also previously worked as a consultant to the Ireland-based Medtronic, which also has a headquarters in Fridley.
Tavlin illegally tipped off Farahan, his friend, about news of the imminent acquisition and told him to keep the news secret. Farahan knew the deal would likely result in a boost to Mazor’s stock price and quickly bought more than $1 million of the company’s stock throughout August and September 2018. Medtronic announced plans to acquire Mazor, which specialized in robotics for spinal procedures, in September 2018 and the deal closed three months later.
Prosecutors said Farahan netted more than $245,000, and Gantman made $255,000 in profit by selling the securities quickly after the deal was publicized. Farahan paid Tavlin for the secret information about the pending deal — including a $25,000 kickback about a year later —according to prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who sentenced Tavlin Monday, also ordered Tavlin to pay a special assessment fee of $1,100 – or $100 per each count. Frank did not impose a fine.
Star Tribune
Charges detail assault in Minneapolis that led to shooting rampage, killing one in Kandiyohi County
Another friend of the ex-girlfriend arrived to help. He pulled up in a car as the group exited the apartment and Matariyeh immediately pointed a gun at him before pounding on the windshield with the gun. Everyone fled as Matariyeh ran back inside the apartment.
The two men met in a parking lot before attempting to return to the apartment. That’s when they looked up and saw Matariyeh on the balcony. Matariyeh immediately began firing multiple shots at them as they took cover behind parked cars.
It was around this time that Minneapolis police officers arrived and made contact with Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend. She believed he was still inside the apartment, but officers later learned that he had fled. They reached him on the phone. He told officers he was going to kill innocent people if he couldn’t speak with his ex-girlfriend or see his daughter, who was at daycare at the time. He later told police negotiators that “he wanted to go out by ‘suicide by cop.’”
All the while, Matariyeh was speeding westbound.
Police officers pursued him near Cosmos in Meeker County after being alerted that Matariyeh might have stolen another vehicle at gunpoint in Carver County.
Around 2 p.m. he pulled into the rural driveway of Peter Mayerchak in Lake Lillian. Mayerchak, who was in his yard placing hay over his septic mound, went and greeted Matariyeh, who shot him in the chest.
Mixing progressive dreams with dire warnings, a group of DFL leaders riled up a group of volunteers in St. Paul on Thursday morning, urging them to push on through the day’s freezing rain and fatigue in the remaining days before the election.
Several elected officials including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the group of about 150 campaign staffers, volunteers and union members about how meaningful their work is to keeping DFL control of the Legislature, as the electeds start a statewide bus tour to turn out votes.
“We are here to keep our trifecta here in Minnesota,” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar told volunteers on Thursday. “We’ve got five days, people!”
On the Republican side, House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said earlier this month that the House Republican Campaign Committee had raised a record $2.7 million ahead of the election and she said Republicans have also set records in volunteering and door-knocking as they work to break DFL control.
Minnesota Democrats hold a rally before starting a bus tour around the state to get voters excited, including Rep Ilhan Omar, Sen Amy Klobuchar, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Rep Betty McCollum and Sen Tina Smith on Thursday. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“Republicans have the momentum and resources heading into the final stretch to win the majority and restore balance to Minnesota,” Demuth said in a statement. “Minnesotans are ready to move on from the expensive two years of Democrat one-party rule.”
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she thought voters preferred action to the gridlock of divided government. “They’re looking for people who can get things done,” she said.
These last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts come as Democrats around the country push to keep control of state legislative chambers and try to flip a few statehouses that Republicans hold by just a few seats.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the national Democratic party that works on statehouse races across the country, has spent $500,000 on Minnesota races this year, including House races and the state Senate contest.
