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TOM SCHECK: Dianne Mandernach resigned after she was criticized for not releasing information on the cancer deaths of minors in Northeastern Minnesota. But many people say problems with the Minnesota Department of Health go well beyond that specific case.

Minnesota Public Radio News interviewed nearly two dozen past and present Health Department staffers. The consensus is that the commissioner's office has been more worried about bad publicity than good policy. And as a result, the department is far weaker than it used to be.

Sources cite several reasons for the slide, including a lack of funding for research and prevention, a lack of commitment to science-based research, and a commissioner's office that micromanages the department. Most of those interviewed declined to be recorded for broadcast and asked that their names not be used.

Past staffers, who now work for nonprofits and county health departments, said they were worried that the department would cut future funding as retribution. Current staffers said they were worried about being fired or suspended without pay.

There is precedent. NPR News has learned that an epidemiologist program manager was suspended for a week without pay for something he wrote in the Disease Control newsletter in 2006. Rich Danila wrote in that newsletter that "the health commissioner decided to discontinue paper copies of it."

The information was correct, but it was an embarrassment to Commissioner Mandernach. Danila declined to comment, but didn't deny he had been suspended. Acting Deputy Commissioner Carol Wolverton confirmed that Danila was suspended for several reasons.

A legislative hearing in June also revealed that some Health Department staffers were reprimanded for putting controversial subjects in writing. During the hearing, DFL Senator John Marty asked Mary Manning, the director of the department's Disease Prevention and Control division, if she was ever reprimanded.

MARY MANNING: It's not that anybody said I can't put anything in writing. I have, on certain issues, been discouraged from doing it, and I have been criticized for doing it.

JOHN MARTY: Can I ask who criticized you?

MARY MANNING: My direct supervisor and the commissioner of health.

TOM SCHECK: NPR News has also learned the department staffers have been reprimanded for speaking to reporters and members of the legislature. Diane O'Connor, who worked at the Department from 2004 until earlier this year, said she was reprimanded for merely attending an event where lawmakers were present.

DIANE O'CONNOR: That surprised me because I didn't talk to any lawmakers. I was simply listening and taking in information. I don't know. There didn't seem to be any confidence on the part of supervisors above me that I'd be able to check myself and not say something stupid.

TOM SCHECK: There have also been efforts to conceal funding shortfalls, delay reports, and scrub websites that include science that doesn't agree with Governor Pawlenty's political positions. Documents obtained by NPR show that the Health Department shut down a website that provided health information to students.

Notes and emails show that Education Department officials and the Governor's Office heard complaints about materials on the site. Other notes from health managers suggested deleting references to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender groups. The site is up again, but those references are gone.

Another note from a manager suggests the website should say that abstinence is one way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. One staffer declined to go into the details, saying it's, quote, "extremely political." A Health Department spokeswoman responded by saying the agency deleted several outdated links on the site. She said abstinence and family planning should go hand in hand.

Other documents show that the department deleted portions of a report that cited a lack of funding for services to prevent sexual violence. In fact, the department decided to trash 3,000 printed copies of the initial report that had been printed at a cost of $2,600 to the taxpayers.

Carol Wolverton with the Health Department said they trashed the initial report because officials wanted to make sure the methodology was right, but notes on earlier drafts show a key concern was funding. The final report does not include references to a lack of funding for victim services.

The final version also changed its recommendations to lawmakers. The draft suggested policymakers increase funding for victim services. The final report says, policy recommendations aimed at sexual violence before it occurs should be vigorously pursued. Woolverton says the final language isn't that different.

CAROL WOLVERTON: We've actually made it a stronger statement. We oftentimes will say, well, we need more funding. Well, this actually included we make a recommendation that we not only need to vigorously pursue and adopt the funding, but we need to sustain it.

TOM SCHECK: Others don't see it that way. DFL Senator John Marty of Roseville said he thinks the department changed the language because of a tight budget.

JOHN MARTY: We're seeing more and more times when the department is failing to do the right thing.

TOM SCHECK: Marty is the chair of the Senate's Health, Housing and Family Security Committee. He says he's shocked and disappointed that staff have been suspended without pay, that copies of reports were printed and then destroyed, and that websites were scrubbed.

JOHN MARTY: The more you dig, the more you would find. And I think every one of these cases, the story has been the same thing. The professionals in the department have done a good job. It's the political leaders of the department who are steering it off course.

TOM SCHECK: Marty says the DFL-controlled Senate will not confirm a commissioner who won't fix the Health Department. He says he's worried that the department is no longer focused on protecting the public's health.

One retired Health Department staffer agrees. Wayne Carlson, who retired as assistant director of community health in 2004, says he's worried the department is losing ground on important public health issues.

WAYNE CARLSON: More pregnancies, more abortions, more young smokers. And I don't think we've even made a dent in the minority communities and their health status.

TOM SCHECK: A former health commissioner says lawmakers and the governor have to take a share of the blame for the Health Department's problems. Jan Malcolm, who was health commissioner under former Governor Jesse Ventura, declined to talk about former health commissioner Dianne Mandernach and how she handled the Department. But she says, policymakers have not put a priority on public health.

JAN MALCOLM: Folks in public health get accused of having a chip on our shoulders because there's never enough funding for public health concerns. And I would say, yeah, we acknowledge that that's true. We do have a chip on our shoulders, but we think we've earned it. I mean, there's just been a systematic under-appreciation of the importance of public health.

TOM SCHECK: Malcolm says the commissioner of health is one of the most difficult jobs in state government. She says, a good commissioner will have to advocate for the governor's policies while listening to the concerns of scientists and public health professionals. Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio News at the Capitol.