Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty withdrew her office’s request to give even more taxpayer money to an outside group that works for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO). That withdrawal came after an Alpha News report on the subject.
During Moriarty’s time in office, Hennepin County taxpayer dollars have gone to an outside group called the Wren Collective. In short, the Wren Collective is contracted to do various communications work for the county attorney’s office.
However, the HCAO already has a designated, in-house public information officer as well as other staff that do communications work. Further, Moriarty’s office can get temporary communications assistance from other Hennepin County departments.
Last week, a county board committee heard a request to extend the Wren Collective contract. HCAO requested that the contract’s term be extended through 2026 and $60,000 be added to the agreement; this would bring the contract’s total value to $210,000.
At that meeting, Commissioner Jeff Lunde was highly critical of the request. Lunde read portions of the Wren Collective’s website aloud which contained anti-Trump statements. He went on to say the Wren Collective “is not a PR firm, they are an advocacy group.”
Commissioners advanced the HCAO’s request in a 5-2 vote. Only Lunde and Commissioner Kevin Anderson voted not to advance the request. One commissioner, who supported the contract extension, said the request was already a part of the HCAO’s budget.
Alpha News published a story about this on Dec. 10.
The day after that story was published, the county board was poised to have a final vote on the extension. When commissioners took up the contract extension at that Dec. 11 meeting, Moriarty rose to speak about it.
Moriarty withdraws request for contract extension
Addressing the county commissioners, Moriarty announced that she was withdrawing her office’s request to extend the Wren Collective contract. As such, the contract will expire at the end of this year.
In her comments, Moriarty said the HCAO has saved $1.5 million this year amid requests from county administration to make budget cuts, and those cuts have resulted in her office not filling staff positions.
She also noted that the HCAO is being asked not to fill 25 staff positions next year. Because of this, Moriarty explained, her office decided to cut the Wren Collective contract. In short, Moriarty appeared to say the contract was cut to allow more room for staff hires.
“And it is not because it is political, [or] it’s a political advocacy group” Moriarty said about cutting the contract. “[The Wren Collective is] a terrific organization [and] they’ve helped us greatly. It is because we are once again trying to be good stewards of our money, of taxpayer money, which is not our money.”
Moriarty accuses Alpha News and Jeff Lunde of spreading ‘misinformation’
Moriarty also used her speaking opportunity before the county board to accuse Alpha News and Lunde of spreading “misinformation” about the Wren Collective.
Referencing Lunde’s previous comments, Moriarty said Lunde “put out very inaccurate information because he was looking at the wrong organization. That ended up on Alpha News. My office has paid for that, as has the Wren Collective which is a fine organization.”
In turn, Moriarty asked the county board for “an official retraction of that information, misinformation that’s been put out there by a member of this board. Because it has done tremendous damage to both that group and us.”
While Moriarty said the wrong organization was identified by Lunde and Alpha News, she did not herself identify the correct group. Instead, she mentioned that a staffer from her office sent commissioners “the correct information.”
None of the speakers at Thursday’s meeting specified what the “correct information” was, but Commissioner Marion Greene suggested that Wren Collective “come up with a greater distinction between the two sides of their business, or two businesses I should say, because it felt like a really easy misunderstanding to have.”
Alpha News contacted the county attorney’s on Thursday and Friday seeking this clarifying information. If the HCAO could easily provide that information to county commissioners, why not provide it to Alpha News?
However, Alpha News’ media inquiries went unanswered. Alpha News also contacted Wren Collective with a similar goal on Friday morning, but that inquiry has not been returned.
What is the Wren Collective?
On its website, the Wren Collective describes itself as “a team made up of former public defenders and policy experts who support elected officials, grassroots advocates, and other allies on policy development and implementation along with narrative change.”
The Wren Collective publishes regular newsletters which are available on its website; those newsletters are highly critical of President Donald Trump and his administration.
“Wren started in 2020 as a small LLC,” says the group’s website. “Its non-profit work began in 2021 and now is where nearly all of our work and staff members are housed. Over five years, we have grown from 4 staff members to 11. Our staff works and lives across the country. We are a team of lawyers.”
That statement, combined with Greene’s comments about the “two businesses,” all-but confirms the Wren Collective has both a nonprofit side and an LLC side.
However, neither the HCAO nor the Wren Collective mentioned this when Alpha News sought comment for the original story that frustrated Moriarty and identified the Wren Collective as a “left-wing nonprofit.”
For that story, Alpha News contacted the HCAO at 10:16 a.m. on Dec. 9. The media inquiry noted that Wren Collective appears to be a left-wing advocacy group and linked to the same website that Lunde read from — which appears to be the group’s only website.
The HCAO did not respond, or correct any of the information within the inquiry, prior to the original story being published the next day. Despite getting communications support from the Wren Collective, the HCAO has not answered basic Alpha News media inquiries.
The Wren Collective was also sent a similar media inquiry for that original story at 11:58 a.m. on Dec. 9. This inquiry, which noted that Lunde said the Wren Collective “is not a PR firm, they are an advocacy group,” also went unanswered prior to publication.
Without answers from Moriarty or the Wren Collective, questions still remain regarding the county’s relationship with this outside group.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
