Hatch’s lack of concern for charitable trusts predated WCAL dustup

Two independent radio stations at colleges in two separate states, both sought by one buyer: Minnesota Public Radio.

Advocates for both stations ask their state attorneys general to investigate whether the prospective sales violate laws governing charitable trusts, the structure under which the stations raise funds from donors.

Last month, Florida’s AG agreed to examine whether MPR’s current bid for WMCU at Trinity International University runs afoul of charitable trust law. But in Minnesota four years ago, Mike Hatch, then Minnesota’s attorney general, declined to investigate a similar deal for WCAL (now MPR’s The Current) between MPR and St. Olaf College. WCAL donors thought they saw politics in Hatch’s lack of interest in exercising oversight of a deal involving a charitable trust when the willing parties were powerful people at MPR and St. Olaf.

Now, through a comments thread at MinnPost, comes anecdotal testimony that even before the WCAL deal, Hatch seemed not to have time for charitable trust concerns — even when invited to speak to a roomful of people who cared deeply about them at a Minnesota Planned Gifts Council conference. According to one attendee, 30 seconds on the issue was all Hatch could muster before veering off-topic into extended populist broadsides.

“Hatch clone” though she may be, his successor, Lori Swanson, engaged the issue in a pending case regarding WCAL in Rice County District Court, suggesting that the court continue its investigation.