FARGO — The director of the Rural Export Center in Fargo, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, could lose her job for disciplinary action she says is retaliation for her whistleblower complaint to prevent the improper use of federal dollars.
Heather Ranck was told in late June 2023 that she was being placed on a 30-day paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
That initial leave was renewed several times and, as of the time this story was published, Ranck remained on administrative leave.
Ranck says she was in the dark about what her leave involved until early October 2023, when she received a "notice of proposed removal," along with accompanying materials.
That same month, Ranck's attorney, Joe Pekich, sent federal officials a written response refuting allegations made against Ranck by the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, which oversees the U.S. Commercial Service, the federal agency for which Rank directly works.
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 personal identifiable information involving people she supervised should be handled.
Ranck maintains there is no truth in the allegations and counters that she is the target of retaliation by a higher-ranking official in the Commerce Department whom she named in a...
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