Roseville's Mindy Greiling Talking About St. Peter Security Hospital

Editor's note: Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, issued this as her most recent e-mail alert to constituents:

Friends,
 
We haven’t burned the midnight oil at the Capitol much yet, but we’re putting in long hours trying to bring the 2012 legislative session to an end.

But there are still a lot of issues remaining that require action before we can turn out the lights for good. One of those issues that I’m working particularly hard on is advocating for the St. Peter Security Hospital for people with mental illness.

The Security Hospital has been in the headlines recently. This past week David Proffitt, the Security Hospital’s administrator who was just hired in August, resigned after allegations he had created a hostile work environment.

During a trip St. Peter in March with families of patients at the Security Hospital I met with Proffitt and was impressed with his reform-minded attitude of making things better for the people there as well as their families. I can't comment on his leadership style but hope he is replaced with a person with the people skills to implement what he was fighting for.

The issue that I’ve been working on is getting the hospital the money it needs for remodeling to effectively carry out its mission. Gov. Dayton requested $40 million for the St. Peter Security Hospital in his bonding proposal, but the Republican bills don’t put in a penny.
 
Unfortunately, up until this past week, the House DFL proposal did not either, but when I talked to the DFL Ways and Means members and our bonding lead, Rep. Alice Hausman, they agreed to put in some predesign funds.  DFL Lead Rep. Lyndon Carlson and Rep. Hausman met with the governor this past Tuesday on bonding issues and let him know that I had advocated for this change as well. 

Now key DFLers in the House will work with the Governor to hopefully have a good result for that unsafe and non-therapeutic building.