(C) Minnesota Reformer
    This unaltered story was originally published on MinnesotaReformer.com [1]
    Licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 [2]
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Senate working group will meet privately to address sexual harassment report

By:   ['Ricardo Lopez', 'More From Author', '- March'], Minnesota Reformer
Date: 2022-03 

The Minnesota Senate has formed a private “working group” to address the conclusions of an independent report that found a “lack of clarity and understanding” of sex harassment policies by some state senators and staff.

The group is chaired by Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake. Its GOP members are Sens. Carrie Ruud of Breezy Point and Julia Coleman of Waconia. The DFL members are Sens. Kari Dziedzic of Minneapolis; Mary Kunesh of New Brighton; and Lindsey Port of Burnsville.

The Reformer published a story in July on claims by former Senate DFL staffer Cynthia Callais, who said she was sexually harassed by Clay Schwartzwalter, who served as campaign manager to then-Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury. Callais’ complaint was never investigated by the Senate; Schwartzwalter has denied harassing Callais.

Callais was also a legislative aide to Sen. Jason Isaacson, DFL-Shoreview, who is the half brother of Schwartzwalter.

The Senate authorized an outside investigation into whether the Senate followed its sexual harassment complaint policy, not whether harassment had occurred.

Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman said in a December email to senators and staff that the report would remain confidential but “indicates a lack of clarity and understanding of the policy’s obligations on the part of some Senate members and staff.”

Ludeman said in an email on Tuesday that any recommendations by the working group could be adopted by the Senate Rules Committee.

“This is a non-public development meeting to consider recommendations generated from the investigation report,” he said. “Any work group product would be in the form of recommendations for change of Senate policy to be considered by the Rules Committee, which, of course, would be a public meeting.”

A Senate GOP spokeswoman directed inquiries to Ludeman’s office.

Lawmakers are exempt from the state’s public records laws, which means they have no legal obligation to provide records to the public about internal deliberations.

As a result, it’s unclear what the working group will discuss.
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