Doug Hoffer, has been taking a look at  the way current Auditor, Republican Tom Salmon, has been using taxpayer dollars.  You might say that he has been auditing the Auditor.

What has he discovered, you ask?

Democratic / Progressive candidate for State Auditor Doug Hoffer said current State Auditor Tom Salmon’s $5,000 payment to his former political campaign coordinator for managing the Auditor’s online weight loss program is “a big, fat, waste of taxpayer dollars.”

It seems that Mr. Salmon, in one of his not infrequent lapses of judgement, saw fit to take money from the State’s General Fund to hire John Kleinhans (who is said “former campaign coordinator”) to provide an online coaching program entitled “Accountable to You, Accountable to Me,”  which was introduced in December of 2011.

The title is ironic, as this hire only serves to illustrate, once again, that Mr. Salmon thinks he need be accountable to no one.

Apparently it was the Auditor’s rationale that the program, which could be accessed online, would help Vermonters to set personal improvement goals, like weight-loss, smoking cessation or saving money.  

Once again Mr. Salmon seems to have been bored with his own elected position and was looking to move into a different arena of influence; perhaps the Department of Health and Human Services(?)

Accepting the assignment, Kleinhans noted, “I am really excited. This is a morale boosting vehicle where Vermonters can stand up and make themselves better and their communities better after a difficult year.  If we could find 1,000 Vermonters to save 2012 dollars for others, that is over 2 million dollars…It blows my mind!”

The hyperbole was somewhat overspent (as were taxpayer dollars) in this case.  Doug Hoffer discovered that, as of this week, the Facebook page created for the program boasts only 120 “Likes.”  As Hoffer notes, that is an average cost of $41.66 per “like.”

This is what happens to the Auditor’s office when a political hack comes to regard it only as his personal stepping stone.

Now, we on GMD have had a lot of fun with Tom Salmon’s clueless tenure in the Auditor’s office.  As he prepares to exit the office he has once again given us reason to smack our heads in comic disbelief.

Except that it isn’t very funny when so many in the State have had to make do with so much less over the past couple of years as it became necessary to adjust to lean times.  And it is a reminder that voters must think carefully what sort of person they want to occupy the Auditor’s office.

Do we want another displaced pol just marking time in the office until the stars align for his next political ascension; or do we want Doug Hoffer who has a genuine vocation for the office, and has been actively engaged throughout the Salmon years in providing the kind of focussed analysis that has been lacking from the incumbent.

I say this not because I have any particular dislike for Vince Illuzzi.  I do not.  I just don’t think he is the right man for this job; or that he has the necessary commitment to apolitical grunt work that is so necessary for the State’s longterm economic health.

I fear that his long legislative history may tempt him away from the impartial and dedicated focus essential to the Auditor’s work; and that he may succumb to the impulse to try and legislate from the Auditor’s office.

Let’s finally get it right this time.  We’ve had enough of distracted dilettantes.  Let’s put Hoffer in the Auditor’s chair in 2012.