Rural Export Center in Danger
Philly Acting Asst Secy grabs the money
“Color” me frustrated. I’m a big believer in the federal government's work, but I held senior positions for 15 years — appointed by two presidents in two departments, and I have learned some lessons.
One of these lessons is that getting credit for creativity, good work, and accomplishments can be a full-time job for the people deserving the credit to receive the credit. The difficulty relates to a specific category of people who hold senior positions but prefer to steal rather than work to make good things happen. That was then. This is now.
We have an ongoing situation in North Dakota, which is a perfect example.
In rural America, we depend upon our Rural Export Centers. Director Heather Ranck leads the Fargo, ND, Rural Export Center, whose research is used in Minnesota, North Dakota, and 28 other states.
Almost all small manufacturers in rural areas have good workers who can be depended upon to make high-quality products. What they need help with is how to (1) Find and evaluate distributors, (2) Ship goods internationally, (3) Get paid and finance the production or the customer, and (4) Get through regulatory systems, both foreign and domestic.
This essential work helps our small rural manufacturers be competitive with the giant corporations they compete with.
Sadly, we report:
David Olson, InForum: Director of the Fargo-based export center filed a whistleblower complaint. Now she’s fighting to save her job
It’s a classic bureaucracy strategy; as a veteran senior-level appointee in two administration’s major Departments, I have seen and endured the problem many times. People who do not have the talent to do creative work, to make change, or to create opportunities for others sometimes stoop to pushing the best people out. They want the money. They want the power. They want to favor their friends.
This is happening now to the Fargo Rural Export Center’s (REC) director — Heather Ranck. $1,000,000 was appropriated and signed into law, intended for the Fargo Rural Export Center. A senior career official — “Acting” as Deputy Assistant Secretary for U.S. Field Operations for the International Trade Administration (ITA), saw the $1 Million; he coveted it and assigned it to other locations for which the funding was not intended.
Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) have vouched for the fact that the $1 million was intended for the Fargo Rural Export Center. Director Heather Ranck did her duty, verifying what had happened to the money and filing a Whistleblower report. She was honest and signed her name.
The Acting Asst. Secretary — John Hanley retaliated first by yelling at Heather … how dare she question his decisions about the money initially intended for the ND REC? He followed up by putting Heather on Administrative Leave, i.e., paying her not to work. Now he wants to dismiss her from her job, again punishing her for staying true to principle.
There are, of course, many more details to this story, so we include both the first article above and a recent Editorial. Business owners are speaking up for Heather, and so are many past employees and interns. See below for a recent editorial:
David Olsen, InForum: Senators say money at heart of whistleblower dispute was intended for Fargo center
Allegedly, Mr. Hanley took the money to start new rural export centers — taking funds from Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. It also appears he wants to close the Fargo REC so he can relocate it to a lovely “rural town” like Las Vegas.
My goal for this SubStack submission is to draw your attention to rural America’s challenges. This is one of them — sometimes people think they can get away with “stealing” because it is rural America, and no one will notice, or at least no one will understand the need for rural federal programs, and when money is “re-directed, no one will care.
At MY RURAL AMERICA — a website and rural organizing tool that I am a founder of, our goal is to (1) defend rural policies, (2) educate rural citizens about how well-funded policies can help rural families, and (3) disclose whether rural elected officials vote for the needs of rural families. We rarely get involved in personnel issues.
However, this situation goes far beyond personnel. I invite you to read the attached stories and let us know whether you find this situation as wrong as I do by adding a comment. You can also write the Secretary of Commerce at thesec@doc.gov.