Welcome to your daily briefing on government developments in Minnesota. Today we're covering 5 key stories including updates on minnesota government headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
2 stories
The Minnesota Purchasing Group now provides centralized access to all bids, RFPs, state government contracts, and solicitations through the BidNet Direct portal.
MN procurement and contracting professionals can streamline vendor discovery and competitive bidding processes through this single state purchasing gateway.
The city provides access to agendas and minutes for city council and planning commission meetings, along with proposed ordinances and legal notices.
MN government professionals can track local legislative developments and procedural standards in Shoreview as a reference for their own municipal operations.
Reach professionals in this market
3 stories
Before incurring any cost on a federal grant, the question is whether 2 CFR 200 (Uniform Guidance) treats the cost as allowable, allocable, and reasonable. "Reasonable" is the most-litigated of the three; auditors will second-guess it after the fact using a prudent-person standard.
Disallowed costs must be repaid, with interest, and in serious cases trigger pass-through audits of other grants. The standard does not distinguish between intent and oversight.
Less-restricted federal employees may engage in partisan political activity off-duty — but never on-duty, never in the workplace, never using government property, and never while wearing identifying agency clothing. Social media posts from a personal device while on duty count as on-duty activity.
Hatch Act violations carry penalties from reprimand to removal. Career employees with strong records have been removed for posts that took 30 seconds to write at lunch.
Federal FOIA fee waivers must be granted when disclosure is "in the public interest" and not primarily commercial. The four-factor analysis (subject matter, informative value, contribution to public understanding, requester's commercial interest) is well-established but routinely misapplied by agencies as discretionary when it is mandatory if the factors are met.
A properly framed waiver request that addresses each factor explicitly is hard for an agency to deny without creating an appellate record. Most denials lose on appeal when the requester points to the framework.
Get Minnesota government intelligence delivered to your inbox every morning.
Subscribe FreeView all past issues
Feature your brand across the U.S., Canada, and select international markets and 10 industry verticals.
Become a National Partner