The governor has strongly reaffirmed his support for moving the state's workers' compensation agency back to the oversight of his office.

"Every organization goes through difficulty,"said Gov. John Hoeven. "But the problem is, we're unable to address it, because we don't have the authority."

Hoeven Tuesday also continued to push for an outside review of Workforce, Safety and Insurance, to focus on management issues and the claims approval process, although he said his office would not participate in any review of the actions of the agency's whistleblowers.

He said the long-term solution is to put the authority and oversight of the agency back under the governor's office, adding that has been his position since he took office.

He also recognized and supported an initiated measure that would put the agency under his control.

"I support it, and I will continue to express my support for it,"he said.

Furthermore, a representative from the governor's office may meet soon with the WSI board of directors, after the board discusses and votes in a special meeting on Monday to reword a motion which requested a three-member committee find and supervise a consultant to review claims and personnel issues.

The three-member committee was initially intended to be comprised of a representative from the governor's office, state auditor's office and WSI, to find an outside consultant to review claims issues that were raised by internal auditor Kay Grinsteinner and to review the auditor's "processes and procedures employed in bringing these issues to light …"

State Auditor Bob Peterson denied the request, however; Peterson was concerned WSI's scope of the review was retaliatory in nature.

"You want a review of the 'processes and procedures employed in how issues were brought to light',"Peterson wrote in an e-mail to chairman of the board, Bob Indvik. "On the surface, this appears to be an attempt to gain evidence regarding an individual's conduct who has not only filed for whistleblower protection, but also appears to have fulfilled their professional responsibility of bringing serious issues to light."

The governor also disagreed with any review of whistleblowers' actions.

Indvik said he was disappointed with Peterson's decision, but added that the board will continue forward.

"(We'll) probably just make a new motion saying the board wishes to join the governor's office in submitting an RFP,"Indvik said. "We still want a representative with the governor's office."

And the governor's office still wants to be involved, said Ryan Bernstein, legal counsel for the governor. The goal, ultimately, is to have all personnel working together to help the injured worker.

Five employees of the agency have filed requests for whistleblower protection in the past month, including Grinsteinner and Chief of Support Services Jim Long.

Long was put on paid administrative leave on Thursday. He submitted a letter late Tuesday to the office of the attorney general requesting his reinstatement.

"I'd like to get back to work,"Long said. "Idon't feel right about being paid and not being asked to work. I'd like to get back to work as soon as possible."

Long said in his letter to Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem that he believed his suspension was retaliation.

"Based on my interpretation of events, this suspension is clearly retaliation due to my cooperation with law enforcement officers pursuant to an active criminal investigation on parties who had an active role in my suspension."

The state Bureau of Criminal Investigation had executed a search warrant on Oct. 19 for a journal kept by Mark Armstrong, WSI communications executive. According to court documents, Long had been interviewed by BCI special agent Mike Quinn on Oct. 18 as part of a follow-up investigation into the allegation of misuse of sick leave by an employee at WSI.

At the end of the interview, Long said he provided copies of pages from a notebook, which Long said he acquired from Grinsteinner. She had found the journal, made copies of it and returned it after a brief search of Armstrong's office; she said she was concerned that open records requests were being improperly handled and that audit information she'd given to former board member Evan Mandigo was "leaking back" to WSI employees, according to the internal investigation of the matter, which she signed.

(Reach reporter Crystal Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)