This memorandum notifies Kirsten Franzen of the intent to dismiss her from her position as Chief Compliance Officer for cause. She is placed on paid administrative leave and her access to NDUS systems is terminated. She has the right to request a pre-termination review within 5 days. The reasons for dismissal include her failure to establish a functioning compliance program, set up required fraud awareness training, establish trust with colleagues, unprofessional conduct, providing misleading statements to the Audit Committee, disagreement with her reporting structure, and refusal to implement a preventive compliance program approach.
This memorandum notifies Kirsten Franzen of the intent to dismiss her from her position as Chief Compliance Officer for cause. She is placed on paid administrative leave and her access to NDUS systems is terminated. She has the right to request a pre-termination review within 5 days. The reasons for dismissal include her failure to establish a functioning compliance program, set up required fraud awareness training, establish trust with colleagues, unprofessional conduct, providing misleading statements to the Audit Committee, disagreement with her reporting structure, and refusal to implement a preventive compliance program approach.
This memorandum notifies Kirsten Franzen of the intent to dismiss her from her position as Chief Compliance Officer for cause. She is placed on paid administrative leave and her access to NDUS systems is terminated. She has the right to request a pre-termination review within 5 days. The reasons for dismissal include her failure to establish a functioning compliance program, set up required fraud awareness training, establish trust with colleagues, unprofessional conduct, providing misleading statements to the Audit Committee, disagreement with her reporting structure, and refusal to implement a preventive compliance program approach.
Copy: Dr. Larry Skogen, Interim Chancellor From: Murray G. Sagsveen, Chief of Staff Subject: Notice of Intent to Dismiss for Cause Date: November 10, 2014 This is notice, in accordance with paragraphs 2-5 of SBHE Policy 608.2, of my intent to terminate your employment for cause. Effectively immediately, you are on paid administrative leave. Your access to ndus.edu email and to the NDUS digital files will be terminated. We will notify the Attorney General to terminate your Special Assistant Attorney General appointment. You shall surrender your digital and other keys to NDUS buildings. You may have accompanied access to the Horizon building and offices on the 10th floor of the capitol during working hours this week to remove personal items; you may not have unaccompanied access to the Horizon building or the 10th floor of the capitol during nonworking hours. You have the right in the next five calendar days, in accordance with paragraph 3 of SBHE Policy 608.2, to respond in writing and request a pre-termination review. If you request a pre-termination review, I shall consider any documents that you submit to me prior to 1:00 p.m. on November 17, 2014. If you do not request a pre-termination review, I will submit my recommendation to the Chancellor after five calendar days. If you submit documents for a pre-termination review, I will submit my recommendation to the chancellor after an opportunity to review the documents you submit. This is also notice, in accordance with paragraph 1 of SBHE Policy 608.2, to terminate your employment without cause effective May 11, 2015, if the Chancellor terminates your employment, if you appeal his decision in accordance with paragraph 4 of SBHE Policy 608.2, and if you prevail on appeal. The reasons for this notice follow. 1. Failure to perform your duties as a Chief Compliance Office. Chancellor Skogen assigned you as the Chief Compliance Officer more than one year ago. When he hired me in November 2013, my responsibilities included supervision of you and the compliance program. We have approved your attendance at compliance-related continuing education programs at a significant expense to the NDUS. However, he and I agree that you have made no visible progress to establish a functioning compliance program.
2. Failure to set up fraud awareness training. Each NDUS employee is required to
complete fraud awareness training each year in accordance with SBHE policy 611.10. This training has most recently been delivered through Moodle software. In the past, this training was required to be completed by June 30th of each year. Following consultation with the Human Resource Council, and with the concurrence of the Chancellor and me, the training completion deadline was changed from June 30th to December 31st to better coincide with the start of the academic year and those activities. This project was assigned to you and, notwithstanding repeated requests, you have failed to set up this required training. 3. Failure to establish trust with your clients. An attorney is successful only if the attorney can establish trust with colleagues and clients. You have failed to establish a trusting, collegial relationship with colleagues and clients. The Chancellor has advised he does not trust you. I do not trust you. At least one president has advised that he did not want you on his campus during a visit by Department of Education Office of Civil Rights personnel. 4. Unprofessional conduct. After becoming increasingly disappointed and frustrated with your failure to establish a credible compliance program, I asked Dr. Lisa Feldner whether I could assign you to CTS, to provide legal support to that critical organization. It is my understanding that Dr. Feldner discussed this matter with you before I had such an opportunity. It is also my understanding that in a public establishment and in the presence of at least one other person (not employed by NDUS) you informed Linda Donlin that you would not accept a reassignment to CTS, that you want to report directly to the SBHE, and that you would like a severance package in exchange for a resignation. 5. Misinforming the Audit Committee. During the Audit Committee meeting in Fargo on August 21, 2014, you provided misleading and inappropriate statements to the Committee. 6. Refusal to accept that you do not directly report to the SBHE or the Audit Committee. The Chancellor has established an organizational structure in which you report to the Director of Legal Services. You have expressed disagreement with that decision and have expressed that disagreement directly to the SBHE, the Audit Committee, colleagues, and individuals not employed by NDUS. 7. Refusal to implement a preventive concept for the compliance program. The Chancellor and I agree that the best practice for the NDUS compliance program should be training to inform NDUS personnel about key compliance issues (e.g., Title IX, SBHE policies, etc.) in order to prevent inadvertent or unintentional noncompliance. However, you have stated to me (and others) that I do not understand compliance. I do understand that the NDUS has very limited resources for a viable compliance program, so the emphasis must be training and auditing in an effort to avoid noncompliance with identified state, federal, and SBHE requirements.
Therefore, it is my conclusion that your failure to implement a viable compliance
program and your recent conduct require that I serve you with this notice of intent to dismiss with cause.