GRAND RAPIDS — KAXE is asking a court to compel Cass County to comply with the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.
News Director Chelsey Perkins filed a data practices complaint Wednesday, Oct. 21, with the Court of Administrative Hearings.
The complaint details Cass County’s decision to designate elected officials as employees for the purposes of public data classification, in response to a KAXE data request. Data about elected officials is generally presumed public under Minnesota statute 13.03, Subd. 1.
“It seems clear that the county is not going to voluntarily provide the data I have requested,” Perkins said. “As a local journalist, I believe it is my role to seek governmental transparency on behalf of the public. Residents should have the chance to evaluate the merits of a misconduct complaint against an elected official and determine for themselves if they believe the government handled its response to a complaint appropriately.”
KAXE filed a request May 18, 2026, to inspect public personnel data after the existence of a complaint against Sheriff Bryan Welk became public in an agenda packet posted before the May 19, 2026, Cass County Board meeting. It was at that meeting that Cass County made the employee designation.
After the meeting, County Administrator Josh Stevenson confirmed the complaint’s existence but declined to provide any additional data.
KAXE resubmitted its data request on Aug. 31, 2026, after receiving guidance from the Minnesota Data Practices Office. The office confirmed that the data sought was classified as public. On Sept. 10, 2026, Cass County again stated there was no additional data to release.
The Minnesota Department of Administration recently issued an advisory opinion involving Independent School District No. 831, Forest Lake Area Schools. In the opinion, Commissioner of Administration Tamar Gronvall contemplates a citizen’s data request seeking public data about an investigation into a misconduct complaint against a School Board member. The opinion concludes the data is presumptively public because the district had not made an affirmative determination that its elected officials are “employees.”
“The processes and procedures an entity uses to make such determinations cannot be done on an ad hoc basis,” the opinion states. “ ... An entity cannot rely on past practices or similar arguments to determine that an elected official is an employee in order to classify data about the officials as private under section 13.43 upon receiving a data request.”
In addition, Minnesota statute 13.03, subd. 9 directs that unless otherwise expressly provided by a particular statute, the classification of data is determined by the law applicable to the data at the time a request for access to the data is made.
The Court of Administrative Hearings (CAH) provides an expedited administrative process to address violations of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act found in Minnesota Statutes chapter 13.
Any person may file a Data Practices complaint with CAH to compel compliance with the Act. The Act provides that all state government data are public unless a state or federal law says the data are not public. "Government data" means all recorded information a government entity has, regardless of form or method of storage. The Act also says that government agencies must keep all data in a way that makes it easy for members of the public to access it.
Perkins is represented in the matter by Attorney Mark Anfinson, a longtime media law attorney focused on First Amendment cases and data practices.
Cass County has 15 days after it receives notice to respond to the complaint. The case has been assigned to Administrative Law Judge Joseph C. Meyer for a probable cause review. Within 20 business days following the filing of a response to the complaint, the judge will make a preliminary determination as to whether sufficient facts are alleged to proceed to a hearing on the matter, or whether the matter will be dismissed.
