The Banana Republic of Minnesota, Part 5: Shotgun Edition

The legacy media has finally joined the effort in looking into the curious case of MNsure grantees.  MNsure is the Minnesota state government agency operating the state’s Obamacare health insurance exchange scheduled to launch on October 1^st.

Last month, MNsure announced the 30 recipients of a taxpayer-funded Federal grant to promote Obamacare in the state.  Lyon-Dugin Associates was one of a handful of for-profit companies to make the list of what MNsure describes as “trusted community organizations.”

Lyon-Dugin Associates is a private, for-profit company owned by Bruce Lyon-Dugin and Fran Lyon-Dugin.  According to documents on file at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, the company was created on August 3, 2012.  Questions remain as to how this year-old, two-person, for-profit operation so quickly rose to become one of the state's most trusted community organizations.

 

In the year prior to the founding of Lyon-Dugin Associates, co-founder Bruce Lyon-Dugin was employed as a sales consultant at Macy’s downtown Minneapolis store, according to his Linkedin® profile.

As reported by Jennifer Brooks of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, co-founder Bruce Lyon-Dugin has a colorful recent history.  Brooks reports that Mr. Lyon-Dugin “once brandished a shotgun at a Wisconsin deputy during a traffic stop.”  Brooks adds that,

news stories about the incident and his mug shot pop up during even the most cursory Internet search.

Here is one such story from Wausau, Wisconsin TV station WSAW published in July 2011.  I’ll just quote from the opening, verbatim, 

It all began Thursday evening at around 7:45 p.m. when the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department got a call about a possible drunk driver.

Deputies said Lyon-Dugin was seen driving in the Town of Merrill near County Highway H. They stopped the vehicle on County Highway K near Spruce Road.

When the deputy approached, Lyon-Dugin showed a shotgun.

All of which raises questions about how much vetting MNsure did of its grantees.  Brooks reports on some of the 70 or so applicants that did not make the cut,

Groups that applied but were not chosen include the University of Minnesota, Children’s Hospitals of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Urban League.

MNsure reports that it has not signed contracts with any grantees.  Brooks quotes MNsure as saying,

“MNsure has not and will not enter into a contract with an entity prior to a complete and thorough review. To date, MNsure has not completed this final stage for any named grantee and no contracts have been finalized.”

In my simple world, vetting should take place before grantees are announced.  It’s not clear whether any of the previously rejected applicants will be promoted, should one or more announced grantees not make the cut in the belated round of due diligence. 

Only in the Banana Republic of Minnesota would we have a process of “award first, review later.”