Senate panel hears Bureau of Mediation Services overview and unanimously recommends confirmation of Commissioner Johnny Villarreal

The Senate Labor Committee received an overview of the Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS) from Commissioner Johnny Villarreal and then voted to recommend his appointment as commissioner to the full Senate. The committee recorded the motion to recommend confirmation as passing.

Villarreal told the committee BMS is a neutral state agency, established under the Minnesota Labor Relations Act in 1939, whose mission (as later codified in the record under the Public Employment Labor Relations Act) is to promote orderly and constructive relationships between public employers and employees. He described the bureau's stakeholders as including more than 850 cities and townships, 87 counties, over 300 school districts and more than 40,000 state executive and judicial branch employees. Villarreal said the agency's budget is 100%…