May 19, 2020 Representative Rod Hamilton Representative Ron
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May 19, 2020 Representative Rod Hamilton Representative Ron Kresha Representative Jeff Schomacker State Office Building 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Saint Paul MN 55155 Dear Representatives Hamilton, Kresha, and Schomacker, Thank you for your letter dated May 17, 2020, which I learned about through media reports and received on May 18. I do appreciate Representative Hamilton reaching out to me before the letter arrived. In it, you ask whether I intend to enforce Minnesota law. I assure you that I have every intention of discharging my constitutional duty to the best of my ability. Additionally, you note you may consider reducing funding to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office as a result of my doing my job. I humbly defer to the Legislature on matters regarding appropriation. However, I believe some of the points you raise are rooted in some misunderstandings, which I would like to address. As you know, Minnesota is facing a deadly COVID-19 pandemic. As of this writing, more than 17,000 Minnesotans have been diagnosed with this virus and a total of 748 Minnesotans have lost their lives to it, with more increases expected over the coming weeks. The United States leads the world in COVID-19 deaths: the virus has killed more than 90,000 Americans and is now the #1 cause of death in the country. It is my duty as Attorney General, a member of the Executive Council, and a public servant to do everything within my power to protect Minnesotans from it. Among the work my office is doing to help Minnesotans through the crisis is responding to every one of the 2,000 complaints of price-gouging, 500 complaints of illegal eviction, and 100 complaints of COVID-19-related scams that Minnesotans have filed with us since the start of the peacetime emergency. No one and no area of Minnesota is immune to COVID-19. I am glad, as you point out, that some Minnesota counties so far have fewer than 10 confirmed cases of the virus. This is good news for which we can all be grateful. I must also point out that 10 counties in Greater Minnesota have more than 100 confirmed cases of the virus, and that that number is growing every day. I am particularly concerned about Minnesotans in counties like Stearns and Nobles, where numbers of COVID-19 cases are among the highest in Minnesota, and Minnesotans in counties adjacent to them like Morrison and Rock. I am also very concerned about the ability of health systems across Greater Minnesota to handle any spike in COVID-19 cases. As Minnesota’s chief legal officer, I have worked closely with Governor Walz to ensure that every executive order he issues is firmly grounded in the Governor’s emergency powers in Minnesota Statutes Chapter 12, which the Legislature duly passed, as well as in our state and national constitutions. One of those orders is Executive Order 20-56, which went into effect yesterday. It provides for the safe reopening of a range of businesses, provided they take measures to protect their employees and customers. The same order provides that bars, taverns, and restaurants may not begin to reopen before June 1, less than two weeks from now. Guidance for that reopening is scheduled to be released tomorrow, May 20. The vast majority of Minnesota’s bar and restaurant owners are doing the safe, lawful, and right thing during this crisis by keeping their doors closed, while still serving customers as allowed through take-out and drive-up. As hard as it has been for them — and I know it is hard — they are doing their part to stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep themselves, their families, their employees, and their customers safe from this deadly pandemic. They have my thanks and they deserve all Minnesotans’ thanks. In recent days, a handful of bar and restaurant owners have said they do not wish to wait any longer and want to reopen illegally. My office has reached out to them to try to educate them on their rights and responsibilities under the law and the risks to Minnesotans’ health of reopening illegally, and to secure voluntary compliance with the law without the involvement of the courts. In almost all cases, owners have agreed to comply with the law and I thank them for doing so. Your suggestion that this education has involved threats is not true. However, in one instance my office has had no recourse but to file an enforcement action in court to keep a set of businesses in and near Stearns County from reopening illegally. It was particularly important to take this action because according to the State’s COVID-19 dashboard, Stearns County now has the second-highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. All Minnesotans — especially the residents of Stearns County — can be pleased that once Stearns County District Court issued a temporary restraining order, the business chose to comply with it and not reopen. Thus to your question of whether I intend to continue to do my duty to protect Minnesotans from COVID-19, educate businesses about their responsibility to do so, and protect businesses that do comply with the law, the answer is yes. I also want to dispel two misunderstandings. First, the Attorney General’s Office has no authority under the law to levy fines directly. Although my office is authorized under Minnesota Statutes Section 8.31 and Executive Order 20-56 to seek restitution and civil penalties for violations of the Order, only a court may impose them. Second, all fines and settlements collected by the Attorney General’s Office go into the State’s General Fund, unless otherwise directed by the Legislature (for example, restitution may be distributed to injured persons, and the Opioid Stewardship Fund that you created in 2019 designated any funds received from opioid settlements specifically to opioid-relief efforts). It appears from your letter that you believe instead that my office retains those fines and settlements. This is not the case. They go to the General Fund where legislators are free to appropriate them as they choose. That said, it is my hope that all businesses comply with the law and the Governor’s Executive Orders. I have no wish to collect fines from any of them. Fortunately, the vast majority of the 600,000 business registered in Minnesota with the Secretary of State are choosing to abide by the law at this unprecedented time and protect their communities; only a handful of them are violating or threatening to violate the law and endanger their communities. I understand the difficult situation that business owners and all Minnesotans are facing in this pandemic. No one wants to delay the safe, responsible reopening of Minnesota businesses any longer than necessary. I am asking for your ideas and your help in connecting with your constituents about how we can do that. I ask for your partnership in creating bridges between Minnesotans, not wedges, so that we can save lives, remain as healthy as possible, and come through this crisis together stronger and more unified than we as Minnesotans have ever been before. Sincerely, KEITH ELLISON Attorney General cc: Minority Leader Kurt Daudt; Deputy Minority Leader Anne Neu; Representatives Paul Anderson, Jeff Backer, Dave Baker, Peggy Bennett, Greg Davids, Brian Daniels, Lisa Demuth, Bob Dettmer, Sondra Erickson, Dan Fabian, Mary Franson, Steve Green, Matt Grossell, Bob Gunther, Glenn Gruenhagen, Barb Haley, John Heinrich, Josh Heintzeman, Brian Johnson, Tony Jurgens, Deb Kiel, Jon Koznick, Sandy Layman, Eric Lucero, Dale Lueck, Joe McDonald, Shane Mekeland, Jim Nash, Nathan Nelson, Bud Nornes, Paul Novotny, Tim O’Driscoll, Marion O’Neill, John Petersburg, Nels Pierson, John Poston, Duane Quam, Chris Swedzinski, Linda Runbeck, Peggy Scott, Tama Theis, Paul Torkelson, Dean Urdahl, Bob Vogel, Nolan West .