The ongoing public battle between a suspended whistleblower and the state's workers' compensation agency lurched forward Monday when the whistleblower submitted an 18-page rebuttal to the agency's accusations of poor performance and mismanagement.

Jim Long, chief of support services for the embattled Workforce Safety and Insurance, submitted the letter to the agency, media and nearly all legislators at 10:30 Monday morning, in response to a letter the agency's head, John Halvorson, sent to him late last week. Halvorson's letter requested Long to submit a written response to the organization regarding several allegations of performance issues, so the agency may assess his "future employment situation."

Long refuted all of Halvorson's allegations, saying there seemed to be no documentation to support any of the accusations. Long quoted one of his performance reviews, which said, "Iam not sure how to heap enough praise and points for Jim under this section … . WSIis a significantly better place because of Jim."

Mark Armstrong, WSIcommunications executive, said agency was considering Long's letter and would not be able to respond for "some time."

Long was put on paid administrative leave in mid-November, shortly after submitting several documents outlining perceived violations to the Burleigh County state's attorney. Tim Wahlin, WSI legal counsel, sent an e-mail to Long on Nov. 15 notifying him of his employment status.

"It has been determined that, under the circumstances, your continued effectiveness has become compromised to the point that we must step back and regroup," Wahlin wrote.

Long later requested explanation regarding his employment status; on Wednesday, Halvorson issued a letter that alluded to inappropriate employee boundaries, relationships with board members and other members of management, to which Long responded point by point.

"Today my objective is to have the conduct Ibelieved amounted to criminal violations investigated by a neutral and professional party, and if the investigation confirms my beliefs, I want to see the offending parties disciplined, prosecuted or otherwise brought to justice,"he wrote.

He specifically addressed the allegation that he never brought his concerns or issues, outlined in the document given to prosecutors, to WSImanagement.

"Ireported my suspicions, beliefs and findings through my chain-of-command and appropriate peers,"he wrote, listing eight executives and board members total.

He also continued to question why he was never told of the poor leadership and management issues that Halvorson described.

"You know very well that employees are not normally suspended or fired without warnings and a history of bad performance,"he wrote.

"You know very well that good managers attempt to work with employees to correct performance deficiencies and resort to suspension or termination only after good faith attempts to remedy the deficiencies have failed."

Long challenged WSI officials to come up with a legitimate case against him, saying their letter had no facts to support the conclusions.

Ultimately,Long said, Halvorson's letter was a wash and an attempt to lay the groundwork before firing him.

"The thing about it is, the only thing that changed was me doing what Iwas supposed to do,"Long said in an interview with the Tribune. "That was me blowing the whistle."

Five employees have filed for whistleblower protection from WSI, the state's workers' compensation agency, citing concerns of retaliation for reporting a myriad of issues. "Whistleblower" is the term given to a section of the state's Public Employees Relations Act that shields workers from being fired for reporting certain job-related violations.

One whistleblower, Todd Flanagan, was fired in early December.

Click here to view a copy of the letter.

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