( – promoted by Jack McCullough)
Hat tip to Vermont's 4th Estate on coverage of the quickly evolving issues surrounding Totten's October 15th illuminating report, “The Governor's Free Ride.” Indeed, Halloween day proved to be busy, heated and yes, a little on the scary side of Vermont politics.
The political debate today began on October 15th with the revelation of Jim Douglas' lack of accounting, reporting and reimbursing of taxpayer resources for his re-election campaign. Since Monday the 27th, Douglas has been trying to dodge, evade and deflect Gaye Symington as she pushed the issue forward into the press.
Douglas moved from one angle to the next, starting from a position that he didn't need to reimburse the state despite the fact that former governor Howeard Dean did so over his decade-long tenure. Then he countered that Howard Dean only reimbursed, “a token” amount of campaign-related expenditures back to the state (about $7500).
After Douglas' tenuous shift of blame to Dean, he and his campaign manager, Dennise Casey, attempted a side-shuffle fake-out by answering Symington charge exclusively on the cost of a required security guard. The Douglas/Dean comparison was still ascending, however, and on Thursday the Attorney General and Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources interrupted the play with a call of no-foul. But by Thursday afternoon, Douglas was once again on the defense at an appearance in Bennington, where Banner reporter Neal Goswami asked the question again:
“Aside from you security detail, is your campaign reimbursing the state for all campaign-related expenses?”
Douglas fell back to his safety: Symington's pro forma tax returns. A savvy player, he's never had to “down” the ball on the 20 yard line on his description of Symington's pro forma as “bogus.” In the world of politics you play the play the same way over and over again and it almost always works. But when the sport starts to get rough it's only a matter of time before a Douglas fade back will trap him behind his own 20 yard line. In this case, Douglas' 20 yard line is his life-long experience in government and his complete awareness that pro forma tax returns are accepted by the Vermont Tax Department on a regular, ongoing basis. The only thing “bogus” about the tax return squabble is Douglas' utter disrespect for Symington's husband, who stated early on that he wished to protect his financial privacy. And then there's self-described “cheerleader,” Brian Dubie, laughing and somersaulting away from Costello's 1040 Challenge. What's really bogus is that the governor's #2 gets a free pass as he stays on the sidelines, cheerleading away.
Meanwhile, it's Outside, a small group of protestors held cardboard signs reading, “We're not your ATM, Jim.” By Friday, larger clusters of protests were organized and took place in every county across Vermont. And the morning papers and mid-morning reports revealed an incumbent governor at wits end. Throwing an over-the-barn-roof Hail Mary Pass to GOP chair Rob Roper, Team Douglas filed a counter-complaint to the Attorney General's office alleging illegal activity betwwen the Symington campaign and Democracy for America.
It was a week for Jim Douglas that would end in a politically nightmarish Halloween.
But now it's November 1st and after a hard week of political football without advancing the ball, Jim Douglas has more trouble on his hands than ever before.
Gaye Symington, Vermont's to every Sarah Palin in the schoolyard,
moved back to a proven hit, referencing Symington's pro forma tax returns. (I'm not sure why no one has called Douglas out on his use of the word “bogus” in reference to pro forma documents, especially since the Vt Tax Department accepts pro forma tax returns on a regular basis.) By Friday, Douglas brought in the big guns of the RNC.
related expenses such as meals, travel, gasoline, office supplies and services, etc. When you consider that one round trip between Montpelier and Bennington is about 240 miles at this summer's average price of $4/gallon, it doesn't take a CPA to conclude that Jim Douglas spent a lot more than $0 on travel expenses over the last few months.
Still, it's not a ton of taxpayer money the governor is too cheap to put back into the state's coffers. Let's just say Douglas averaged the same as Howard Dean, per Terri Hallenback's research. That would be $2000 per election cycle — and that was in the days when gas was $`1.35/gallon. The ballpark figure ends up somewhere in the range of $6000.
But the way Jim Douglas, Dennise Casey, and now David Herlihy are dodging all around the question, the issue about money has evolved from a petty, eve-of-the-election squabble info something much bigger than it was when Totten's report was published in Seven Days 16 days ago.
As of November 1st the conversation turns into the uber-question of government integrity and the need for independent oversight.
If we take a break from parsing minutiae or following the quick-pointing fingers of blame, the underlying problem emerges as if a pattern in the carpet. Vermont's system of indivually practiced self-oversight of elected and appointed officials has become a quaint notion of our innocent past. The bloom has come off the rose in Vermont politics.
Given the last three election cycles in which we have begun to see more negative attacks than ever before . Jim Douglas has lead the pack, consistently eliminating his opponents with mockery and fear-mongering. Rich Tarrant's 2006 campaign comes in a close second given the frequency of ad rotation throughout the day. The nicey-nice days of campaigning are over.
in light of remarks made by the governor and the less than lackluster consideration of the matter by his political appointee, Dept of Human Resources Commissioner, David Herlihy.
isn't about money, and it's not even about proving a principle.
— which is now likely continue well past next Tuesday. Things are getting interesting all over the place, particularly in the Banner, Free Press, TA/RH, VTBuzz, and of course, Fair Game.
While Jim Douglas is spinning this as last minute campaign tactics, there's quite a bit more to the story than first meets the eye.But here's the thing: Ultimately, the questions be raisedwhat's at stake is the integrity of government, lacking independent oversight laws, policies and procedures.
Ironically, only 18 months ago, Jim Douglas rebuked Gaye Symington's proposal to establish a Code of Ethics into law with an independent council providing oversight of both the executive and legislative branches of goverment. Symington advocated for a legal framework that held herself to the same standard as everyone else. Jim Douglas, on the other hand, claimed himself and his political appointees to be “beyond reproach,” and suggested it would cost to much to set up a method to prevent corruption in government.
The question of government oversight remained mired in the details of heated exchanges. But as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. My report for GreenMountainDaily.com is below the fold.
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It's been a busy day. After reading the Bennington Banner this morning, it was clear that Shay Totten's story, “The Governor's Free Ride,” keeps unfolding with unexpected twists.
Above the fold I'll provide chronology, context and conclusion. Below the fold, look for a new complaint to the Dept of Human Resources in regard to Employee Policies & Procedures as well as my renewed complaint to the AG based on Jim Douglas' has admision of bypassing finance reporting procedures by paying these transactions “out of his own pocket.”
Nate Freeman reporting for GreenMountainDaily.com. Hat tip once again to Vermont's news journalists with particular gratitude to Shay Totten, Dan Barlow and Neal Goswami.
Chronology: Friday, October 31st
1. Douglas admits non-reporting of campaign finance related activity as reported in this morning's Bennington Banner. The most suspect procedures and policies violations regard campaign manager Dennise Casey, as reported by Totten just two weeks ago.
2. I submit my renewed complaint to the AG.
3. In the same Bennington Banner article, David Herlihy, Commissioner of Dept Human Resources said he “does not believe Douglas violated any ethics or state personnel policies,” and apparently conducted no review.
4. I submit a formal complaint to Herlihy at DHR, referencing Totten's article and Section 5.6 of the Vermont Personnel Policies and Procedures manual.\
5. DHR Commissioner David Herlihy responds to Symington's complaint in regard to the use of state resources for the private benefit of the Douglas campaign by saying, “It's really out of the governor's hands,” in reference to the cost of the governor's required security detail.
6. The Symington campaign reiterates its focus is on non-transparent, non-accounted and non-reimbursed expenses assocaited with meals, fuel, office supplies and other campaign-related expenses.
7. Commissioner Herlihy at DHR responds to my formal complaint via email one minute before end of workday saying he was unaware of Totten's article and is currently out on military service, unavailable until next week.
8. Assistant Attorney General, Michael McShane did not return phone calls nor respond to eamail regarding the intial complaint on October 30th. Dan Barlow reports the AG's position this morning's Times Argus/Rutland Herald.
Analysis & Context
1. Commissioner Herlihy is a Douglas political appoiontee and as such, cannot exercise adequate oversight of his superior. There is a significant lack of closed-loop oversight in the highest level of Vermont government. Political appointee and DHR Commissioner, David Herlihy, defends Governor Douglas on the question of Personnel Policies and Procedures without review. Political appointees are subject to the Executive Code of Ethics; however, only the Governor or his designated agent can enforce ethical violations. Instead of a closed-loop oversight model, Governor Douglas and his political appointees are practicing a “rinse, spin and put out to dry” approach to policy enforcement.
2. Dennise Casey delays the campaign finance story from going public by stonewalling journalist Shay Totten as well as members from the Vermont Press Bureau. Totten says,
After a week of dodging repeated questions about whether the Douglas campaign follows Dean’s lead, the governor’s campaign manager Dennise Caseytold “Fair Game” on Monday: “No, we don’t.”
This week, Douglas and Casey claimed the Symington campaign was forcing the issue at the last minute. Dennise could have and should have come clean to reporters long ago.
2. The Attorney General's office appears to have been remiss in it's conclusion that Douglas has not violated campaign finance law. In my complaint, I stated that Douglas “has not offered general accounting practices in delineating public expenditures such as the use of security details in his campaign finance reports.” This complaint should have led the AG to consider a possible violation of reporting requirements as implied by Sec of State Deb Markowitz as quoted in the Banner Friday morning.
3. Commissioner Herlihy has spoken out against accountability measures as recently as mid-March on the whistle-blower protection bill, as reported by Dan Barlow on 3/13/08 in the Rutland Herald.
Conclusion:
1. Jim Douglas has violated campaign finance law.
2. There is zero accountability in the highest tier of Vermont's executive branch.
3. Vermont needs a standard Code of Conduct established in law as is the case in most states as well as the Federal Government.
4. Legislators need to review Symington's 2007 call for independent oversight of both the Executive and legislative branches via this Code of Conduct law.
Mr. Freeman-
I was unaware of that story until you brought it to my attention. I am out today on military duty and will not be able to look into this until next week.
For those who are not too familiar with David Herlihy's positions on disclosure and accountability, here's the intro to Dan Barlow's report in the Rutland Herals back in March:
Official: VSEA reps shouldn't endorse whistle-blower bill
Author: DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau
Date: March 14, 2008
Publication: Rutland Herald (VT)
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MONTPELIER – Human Resources Commissioner David Herlihy said Thursday that representatives of the Vermont State Employees Association are violating a provision in their union contract by testifying in favor of a new whistle-blowers protection bill before a Senate committee. Herlihy, who opposes a new bill under consideration by the Senate Government Operations Committee, told lawmakers that the VSEA should not testify in favor of stronger whistle-blowing laws.
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