Otto Bremer Trust appoints president of Cretin-Derham Hall High School as third trustee, but legal questions remain
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With the dust still swirling or settling on multiple legal battles, the two trustees of the Otto Bremer Trust have appointed attorney Francis M. Miley, the president of Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, to fill a vacancy on their three-member board.
Miley, who has served the private Catholic school as president or vice president for 15 years, will retire from Cretin-Derham at the end of the school year, according to a school spokesperson.
Miley, a former assistant Ramsey County Attorney, previously taught at St. Thomas Academy and has some 30 years of management and leadership experience administering nonprofits and working in government. He is expected to join the Otto Bremer Trust, one of the state’s oldest philanthropies, as a trustee full-time as of June 1, though some key legal questions remain about his appointment. The trustees have submitted a petition to Ramsey County District Court to have Miley confirmed.
A spokesman with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office on Thursday indicated the division of their office that regulates charities would soon file a letter with the courts laying out any “thoughts, positions or objections,” but it would, ultimately, be up to the judge to confirm or deny Miley’s appointment, or order additional proceedings.
Miley was once the vice president for strategic planning and administration for what is now the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and before that oversaw the Ramsey County Attorney office’s truancy intervention program.
“I am deeply honored to have the privilege of being appointed a trustee,” said Miley, in a written statement issued Thursday through the philanthropy. “It is a sacred duty and honor to steward the incredible legacy of Otto Bremer in the work we do to improve and enhance our region.” He said he looked forward to working with trustees Charlotte Johnson and Daniel Reardon “and the entire team to continue OBT’s tremendous record of charitable investment in our community.”
Spokespeople for Cretin-Derham and for the Otto Bremer Trust said he would not be granting interviews to news media.
An 80-year history of giving hits legal stumbles
Since the St. Paul-based philanthropy’s founding in 1944, the three trustees — initially all of them close advisers to German immigrant, banker and philanthropist Otto Bremer himself — have chosen their own successors. That pattern was disrupted last year when a Ramsey County District Court judge removed Brian Lipschultz from the board following concerns raised by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office.
Ellison, through the division of his office that regulates charities, had attempted to replace all three trustees following allegations of self-dealing. His office pointed specifically to the trustees’ efforts to sell the philanthropy’s chief asset — Bremer Bank, one of the state’s largest farm lenders — and to additional concerns regarding Lipschultz, his use of staff time to run his side business and his aggressive dealings with nonprofits backed by the philanthropy, including allegations that the trustee used charitable funding to exert personal and political influence.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals last month rejected an effort by Lipschultz to regain his seat.
“Lipschultz’s persistent improprieties support the district court’s determination that his removal serves the best interests of the beneficiaries and the Trust,” reads their legal decision. “Lipschultz continually breached his duties to the Trust’s beneficiaries.”
It’s unclear if Lipschultz, who had previously named Wendy Rubin as his preferred replacement, will pursue a further appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. The two remaining trustees, who were not unseated by Ramsey County District Court Judge Robert Awsumb last year, clashed in their dealings with Ellison’s office last summer as they attempted to chart a course for how best to select his replacement.
Since its founding, the Otto Bremer Trust has distributed more than $1 billion in grants and philanthropic investments throughout Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
