Previously I have posted on the lack of openness and the lack of post-partisanship by Governor Markell’s Administration. The original post, which listed two items, can be found here. Just before Thanksgiving, the trend continued. The following is a press release issued by Dover attorney, Ron Poliquin, on November 20th (The same day the News Journal announced that Delawind’s proposal would be considered):
DOVER — Taxpayer advocate Ron Poliquin questions the Delaware Economic Development Office (“DEDO”) and Secretary Alan Levin’s acts of “deny and delay” in response to his October 20th Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request seeking details into DelaWind, LLC, executive vice president and Democratic U.S. Congress candidate John Carney’s application for state money.
“Today’s announcement is completely the opposite of Secretary Levin’s representations,” said Poliquin. The FOIA request sought details about the application, the process used to scrutinize the application, and whether Carney was given preferential treatment or not.
In an email, Levin initially denied Poliquin’s inquiry stating “…the principals of DelaWind have withdrawn their request for funding…” and “…since this application is no longer part of the public record, we will not be complying with your FOIA request.”
“The Administration’s misleading reply and failure to promptly comply with the public’s right to know what’s happening with their money increases the suspicion surrounding this application.” said Poliquin. Unsatisfied with Levin’s initial denial, Poliquin sent a follow-up request on November 3, 2009 which was forwarded to the Attorney General’s office. The office replied it would satisfy the request by November 18. As of today, no response has been received.
“It is a disservice to taxpayers anytime State Officials withhold information, especially when it involves a politician running for office seeking public funds,” said Poliquin. “Anytime such a large amount of taxpayer money is at stake, it should receive the most utmost scrutiny. Backroom deals cloaked in secrecy have no place in Delaware.”
In the spirit of full disclosure, Mr. Poliquin is running for State Representative as a Republican in Dover. In addition, he worked as my campaign manager during my first Senate race in 2002 and ran for State Treasurer in 2004.
The FOIA request was in reference to John Carney’s submission of an application for $350,000 of taxpayer money for the creation of a business to be a final assembly facility for wind turbines. Here are some salient points:
1) Secretary Levin stated that no response would be given because the applicant had withdrawn his application. However, within a couple of weeks of this response, the News Journal ran the following in an article on Mr. Carney’s application (The whole article can be found here):
A startup company whose management includes former Lt. Gov. John Carney is seeking a state investment of $350,000 to establish an operation in Wilmington to manufacture support towers for wind turbines.
Clearly, the application had not been withdrawn. Who in Mr. Levin’s office provided him with this wrong information and why? Or was there an attempt to hide the application?
2) The alleged withdrawal of Mr. Carney’s application does not remove the State’s FOIA responsibilities. For instance, what internal reviews or meetings had been held to discuss the application. Mr. Carney’s application had been scheduled for a public hearing. My experience on the Joint Sunset Committee was that DEDO does significant internal review prior to submitting an application for consideration for strategic fund money. Where is DEDO’s review, which was paid for by the taxpayer? The failure to release the State’s materials (even in a redacted form) is a clear violation of FOIA.
3) Mr. Carney announce on April 15th, 2009 that he is running for the US Congress. As a political candidate, he should not be receiving State funding that could, ostensibly, be partially used to pay him while he runs for public office. A Democratic Governor handing taxpayer money to a current Democratic Congressional Candidate is a bad idea. This is in no way a slam at the integrity of Mr. Carney or the other Delawind principals, whom I know to be very honorable, honest, and hardworking people. However, once you give taxpayer money to one candidate for office, where do you stop.
4) Despite an open FOIA request, which had been recognized by the Attorney General’s office, no response was received by Mr. Poliquin from the AG’s office by the date promised. Why was the AG’s office complicit in the Markell Administration’s obfuscation and delay only giving up the information after Mr. Poliquin’s repeated requests?
The Democrats circling the wagons by refusing to answer questions about spending taxpayer money is very troubling, but part of a growing trend. I’ll touch on the lack of transparency part IV in a couple of days.
The people will continue to be denied information under the state’s FOIA until the law is changed to require the AGO to represent the people instead of the state agencies/public employees. Also the law must be changed to require consequences when agencies/public employees fail to comply with the law.
[…] December 2, 2009 by charliecopeland This is an update of my previous post regarding former Lt. Governor and current US Democratic Congressional candidate John Carney’s request for $350,000 in State money, and the violation of FOIA conducted by the Governor’s administration. The previous post can be found here. […]
[…] For a couple of previous posts on the lack of transparency within the Markell Administration, check here and here. […]