ICYMI, Randy Brock made a last-ditch effort to breathe life into his doomed candidacy for Governor, when he demanded a boatload of documents regarding state settlements with employees. Last Friday, the Shumlin Administration released the most relevant documents, thus defusing Brock’s ability to raise ersatz questions about the issue.
As far as we can tell, Brock hasn’t had a chance to read the documents — well, at least he hasn’t run to the microphones claiming to have found a smoking gun — but hey, VTDigger has stepped into the breach. One of its busy young bees, Nat Rudarakanchana, did look into the issue and came up with something of a bombshell — or at least a Roman candle. In the past five years, Vermont has spent nearly a million bucks on settlement claims with state workers according to information obtained from the state’s insurance carrier.
Wow, a million dollars. Big money. A sign of lax management by the Shumlin Administration, no?
Well, er, that would be no.
Of the 21 settlements listed in the document, 16 occurred during the Douglas Administration. Including ten of the eleven biggest payouts. The total score in dollars: Douglas $782,012.44, Shumlin $189,300. Even if you adjust the figures for Douglas’ longer tenure, he out-settled Shumlin by a wide margin.
As you might expect, Douglas has an explanation that could well have been made by Shumlin himself:
“With any group with large numbers of employees, there are going to be issues that require this kind of resolution,” said Douglas. “It’s just the nature of employment in a large organization.”
And another Brock balloon goes “pop”.
the scandal in a pizza box delivery guy didn’t show up. Wonder what Herman Cain is up to these days?
Let’s hope hindsight is 20/20 and Brock now publicly calls on Jimmy “Cuts R Us” Douglas to explain his reckless actions, which, as you note, go way beyond the actions of Shummy. Funny…Brock sat in the Senate for years, but, oddly, I don’t think he was on the Gov’t Operations or Gov’t Accountability Committees, where he might have been able to address his settlement concerns a little more. Guess he’s enlightened now.
This is a yet another blatant and cheap campaign ploy that has imploded on Brock. He really should stop coordinating with the Wilton campaign. Nothing but bad advice coming out of that camp.