Inspired in part by questionable spending at North Dakota's workers compensation agency, a legislative committee plans to review state agency policies for offering benefits to selected employees.

Some agencies buy top administrators memberships to such local service clubs and business organizations as chambers of commerce and economic development groups, records show. One department bought an annual membership to the Bismarck zoo.

Data recently compiled by the Legislative Council, the Legislature's research arm, showed state agencies spent $3.15 million on dues and fees to professional associations and service clubs during the 2005-07 budget period.

The new scrutiny of agency expenditures comes as the chief executive of North Dakota's Workforce Safety and Insurance agency faces two felony charges of allegedly improper spending of WSI funds.

Sandy Blunt is accused of paying illegal bonuses to four employees, and spending more than $11,000 on restaurant meals and other amenities. South Central District Judge Robert Wefald is expected to decide before month's end whether Blunt should go to trial on the charges.

This week, the Legislature's interim Employee Benefits Programs Committee plans to review the results of a benefits questionnaire recently circulated among state agencies.

The survey asked for details about spending on employee service awards, college tuition, membership dues and use of leftover sick leave days to speed up an employee's eligibility for a full pension benefit.

Rep. Frank Wald, R-Dickinson, the chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee on education and environmental issues, said the relatively small costs of professional memberships and club dues add up when dozens of agencies are involved.

Most of the expenditures appear legitimate, Wald said, but he questioned whether taxpayers should foot the bill for agency administrators' memberships in service clubs and local chambers of commerce.

Attorneys must belong to the State Bar Association of North Dakota to practice law in the state, and those fees would be justified, Wald said. However, some agencies also pay for their lawyers' memberships in local bar associations, where the public benefit is less clear, he said.

"When I see Rotary memberships, or Lions Club, or Kiwanis, or the Fargo-Moorhead Chamber of Commerce … you have to ask why those are necessary," Wald said. "You're not talking about a lot of money for each one, but when you add it all up, it is $3 million a biennium."

In the last two years, the Department of Human Services spent almost $206,000 on professional organization dues and membership fees, records show.

Some of the money went for memberships in the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce and local chamber organizations in nine cities, as well as memberships in local Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis and Sertoma clubs in at least six cities.

The department spent $80 during each of the last two years for family memberships to the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, which entitle family members to free admission.

Heather Steffl, a Department of Human Services spokeswoman, said the zoo memberships were for the use of clients at the agency's regional human service center in Bismarck.

Directors of the agency's eight centers statewide are encouraged to take part in local chambers of commerce and service clubs, she said.

"It enhances their ability to get to know the community around them," Steffl said. "It really helps us in our working relationship with our programs and our services, and I think the benefits outweigh the expense of the memberships considerably."

One objective of Chamber of Commerce and service club memberships is to promote the hiring of people with disabilities, Steffl said.

"We network through those service clubs to educate and inform our community businesses as to what the capabilities are of folks who have disabilities," she said. "Especially now, with a low unemployment rate, it's been extremely beneficial to the business community, as well as to our folks with disabilities."

The Employee Benefits Programs Committee normally focuses on state employee pension and health insurance issues.

"We're just trying to get a better view of what is going on," said Rep. Bette Grande, R-Fargo, the committee's chairwoman.

"Once we get our hands around this, we can figure out what needs to be written into the law, and what needs to be reinforced as, 'No, you shouldn't be doing that,'" Grande said.