Feb. 10—FARGO — Nearly two dozen contract workers and interns who formerly worked at the Rural Export Center in Fargo are demanding in a letter that federal officials reinstate Heather Ranck as the center’s director.

Ranck was placed

on administrative leave in late June of 2023,

and she remains on leave while she waits to find out if she will keep her job in the face of a removal action she says is retaliation for a whistleblower complaint she filed last April with the Office of Inspector General.

In a letter dated Feb. 7 and addressed to a number of federal officials, 20 former export office workers called the effort to fire Ranck unjust and they asserted “the country and America’s rural exporters need Heather back.”

The individuals who signed the letter formerly worked for Ranck at the Rural Export Center, or when she was in charge of what was then a U.S. Commercial Service office, which is part of the Department of Commerce.

One of the officials the letter is addressed to is U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

Carter Pedersen is one of the 20 people who signed the letter of support for Ranck.

He was a student at North Dakota State University when he worked for Ranck from about 2016 to 2017, a time when the U.S. Commercial Service office had not yet transformed into the Rural Export Center.

Pedersen, who now works for a large international company, said Ranck wasn’t only a boss but a trusted mentor who guided him and many others in finding good employment.

He described Ranck as the ideal of what a public servant should be.

“She stands up for what’s right,” Pedersen said.

Ranck’s whistleblower complaint filed in April 2023 alleged patterns of abusive treatment, harassment, retaliation, gross mismanagement, and abuse of authority involving the International Trade Administration, an agency of the Department of Commerce that oversees the Rural Export Center.

Ranck named herself as the person who brought the complaint, and she named Joseph Hanley, acting deputy assistant secretary for U.S. field operations and national field director for the International Trade Administration, as the source of the problems.

Ranck says she filed the complaint because she believes the International Trade Administration wrongfully diverted $1 million in new funding away from the Rural Export Center, for which she believes the dollars were intended, and instead put the money toward opening seven other rural centers around the country.

The Department of Commerce has said the allegations in Ranck’s complaint were investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.

Ranck said she was informed the reason her complaint was dismissed was because the enabling legislation behind the $1 million in additional funding for rural export support said the money was to go toward rural export centers — plural — and not a specific export center.

U.S. Sens. Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, R-N.D., have

said that at the time the $1 million was approved,

they anticipated it would go to the Rural Export Center in Fargo.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has said that at the time the money was approved, only the Rural Export Center existed.

According to Ranck, Hanley made a trip to the Rural Export Center in Fargo in June of 2023, claiming in advance that it was a courtesy visit to catch up on what had been happening at the office.

Instead, Hanley arrived at the center accompanied by an attorney and an armed security guard, according to Ranck, who said she was told she was being placed on a 30-day paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Ranck, who has been on administrative leave ever since, said she was not told the reasons for her leave until early October 2023, when she received a “notice of proposed removal.”

Ranck said she is accused of three things: being too closely engaged with members of Congress; refusing to follow directives to promote newly created federal jobs in locations elsewhere in the country; and violating rules relating to how personally identifiable information involving people she supervised should be handled.

Ranck says the allegations are unfounded and contends that the action to remove her is retaliation for the whistleblower complaint she filed in April 2023.

Regarding the accusations Ranck faces, the Department of Commerce said it did not comment on personnel matters.

Ranck’s case has had a hearing before James Golsen, deputy director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the International Trade Administration, who is one of the officials to whom the Feb. 7 letter was addressed.

As of the time this story was published, Ranck was waiting to see how Golsen would rule on the allegations against her.

Individuals who signed the letter of support for Ranck worked for her between 2005 and 2023.

Part of the letter reads:

“During our tenures, we saw first-hand how Heather fought to get resources and support for North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota businesses.

“She developed impactful new programs and services that now are used nationwide. She never lost sight of the agency’s mission, even when under significant pressure and challenges from the bureaucracy,” the letter added.

The letter concludes with a demand that appropriate actions are taken to restore Ranck’s good name, “so she can get back to serving America’s rural exporters.”

Ranck said the decision to include students in the promotion work the export center did was a conscious one, because it gave students a front-row seat to all the processes.

“This has built up the next generation of international trade professionals, and it is incredible to see the impacts the students have gone on to make,” she said.