DeLucagate — Why is Senator DeLuca pulling a Weiner?

The following is a press release from House Minority Leader Greg Lavelle as he releases a bi-partisan bill to clean up a now obvious hole in Delaware’s FOIA law. The reason that he has to introduce this bill is that Senator DeLuca continues to refuse to produce his full attendance records for his job at the Department of Labor and his position as Senate Pro Tem.

In fact, instead of releasing his records, Senator DeLuca is taking a page from New York Representative Weiner by blaming everyone else for his troubles. At first, Senator DeLuca tried to hide behind Delaware’s Attorney General by claiming his life was in danger if he let taxpayers know when he was at work. When the “my life is at risk” excuse didn’t work, he tried the “folks in the private sector are getting paid to protect their employer’s interests” excuse (failing to recognize the puny number of legislators that actually have private sector employers).

Sadly, Senator, it is not everyone else’s fault that you have come under such scrutiny. You made your bed, and now you must sleep in it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          June 9, 2011

Contact:         Stephanie Mantegna, House of Representatives, 302-577-8515

Stephanie.Mantegna@state.de.us

BI-PARTISAN LEGISLATION SEEKS TO EXPAND PUBLIC INFORMATION DEFINITION

TO PROTECT AGAINST “DOUBLE-DIPPING” OF STATE LAWMAKERS

            State Representative Greg Lavelle (R-Sharpley) today announced he has introduced bi-partisan legislation aimed at making state government more open and transparent to the public.

The legislation, also sponsored by State Senators Michael S. Katz (D-Centerville) and Karen E. Peterson (D-Stanton), would expand the definition of “public record” under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to include information collected or compiled by a state agency as it relates to the hours worked in a state merit position held by an elected official who is also a state merit employee.

Under the legislation, public record information may include electronic-swipe or time clock documents that record entering and exiting the workplace.

The bill comes in response to recent news report in which the Department of Labor and the Attorney General’s Office refused to fulfill a FOIA request from the media, asking that the workplace time sheets for Senate Pro Tem Anthony J. DeLuca (D-Varlano) be released to the public.  A FOIA request was submitted last month by a member of the media, asking that the attendance records of Senator DeLuca – a merit employee of the Labor Department – be released to ensure that the legislator was not “double-dipping,” the illegal practice of being paid for one state employment position while serving in another without officially docking the time.

Rep. Lavelle was also critical of Senator DeLuca’s proposed legislation that was a seeming attempt to preempt – as well as go further than – Rep. Lavelle’s measure.  That bill is expected to allow the time records of legislators, who are employed in the private sector, to also be subject to FOIA.  Today’s News Journal editorial also pointed out the absurdity of the bill, stating that the legislation “is the most ridiculous and intrusive invasion of privacy” and to “try to force other privately employed legislators to comply with what is essentially a public disclosure law is silly and childish.”

According to Rep. Lavelle, “The Senator’s bill is nothing short of a distraction.  The issue here is public integrity and accountability of tax dollars.  If former Representative Nancy Wagner and others were required by the Attorney General to release their records, my proposal simply extends that requirement to other legislators.   My legislation makes public the attendance records of those legislators who are also in a state job.  Very simply, if there is nothing to hide then no one has anything to worry about.  It’s a common-sense bill that I am surprised it’s taken this long to enact.”

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State Sen. Michael Katz says State Rep Bryon Short plagiarized his bill

Chad Livengood has the story at the News Journal Dialogue Delaware Blog:

Katz, Short spar over ethics

DOVER – State Sen. Michael Katz caused a stir in Legislative Hall on Tuesday after he accused Rep. Bryon Short of plagiarizing his legislation related to the accreditation of medical facilities.

After Katz issued a press release and called for an ethics investigation, Short returned fire to his fellow northern Delaware Democrat by accusing Katz, an anesthesiologist, of attempting to protect doctors with “watered down” legislation that “weakened” protections for patients.

Katz, D-Centreville, claimed Short “essentially stole” word-for-word language of a bill he had filed on May 12. Short, D-Highland Woods, introduced a similar bill with matching key passages on May 26.

Read more…

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Good Government is Good Government – From Left to the Right

I wasn’t asked to sign on, but I would have… Full disclosure is a good thing. It clarifies that there really is nothing to hide… I hope that Rep. Mitchell, Sen. Henry, and other double dippers come clean, too…

PDD/DELCOG CALL FOR RELEASE OF RECORDS  

        Contacts: Paul Baumbach, President Progressive Democrats for Delaware (302) 562-4546 

John Flaherty, President Delaware Coalition for Open Government (302) 319-1213 

The recent announcement from the State Attorney General’s office that they cannot release information and/or records as to when Senate President Pro Tem Anthony DeLuca shows up to work is simply unacceptable.

The words of Deputy Attorney General W. Michael Tupman are as true today as they were in 2006: “Just as the public has a right to know the salary paid to public employees, the public also has a right to know when their public employees are and are not performing the duties for which they are paid.”

Those words were true with respect to former State Representative Nancy Wagner, and they must be just as true with respect Senator Anthony DeLuca. 

 Citizens have a right to know if he is being paid for two jobs while only doing one. 

We have the right to know how the other 10 state legislators, who also have secondary state jobs with state agencies, spend their time. 

We have this right because we, as a public, need to know if our elected representatives are performing their duties on our behalf ethically and effectively. 

We need to know that nothing is influencing their votes.

There is no security threat to anyone in providing that information. 

There is also no basis for denying their right to that information because the elected official is a merit system employee in his or her second job. That is really a distinction without a difference.

We request that Senator DeLuca and any similarly situated Senator or Representative voluntarily release that information, and waive the supposed protections a merit based employee receives under the law. 

Failing that, they should resign one of their positions. 

Because, quite simply, if we can’t have the records and the doors of government are being shut to the people, then Delaware’s legislators must be prohibited from having two state jobs.

We also urge the General Assembly to, once and for all, ban “double-dipping” on the part of all legislators and all state employees.

Signed,
Paul Baumbach, President, Progressive Democrats for Delaware
John D. Flaherty, President, Delaware Coalition for Open Government

C. Edward Brittingham, President, NAACP Delaware State Conference of Branches
Mark Blake, President, Greater Hockessin Area Development Association

Dave Bailey
Frieda Berryhill
Dan Bockover
Gemma Buckley
Jack Buckley
Rita Carnevale
Cassie Cathell
Paul Cathell
Valerie V. Cloutier
Mack D. Cochran
Susan Regis Collins
Richard Connell
Bonnie A. Corwin
Emily (Tuthill) Best Cramer
John Crowley
Anthony J. De Marco
Avis W. DiBuo
Nick DiBuo
June Eisley
Jimmy “Chainsaw” Epps
Leann H. Ferguson
Jeremy Filliben
Gerry Fulcher
Catherine Gibson
Harry Glaze
Lynn Glaze
Phil Goldstein
Ken Grant
Karen Hartley-Nagle
Karen Heyman
Michael Heyman
Hardy Hoegger
Susan Howell
Rob Hurst
John Irwin
Al Jackson
Richard Kiger
Sandra LaBlanche
Philip Lavelle
Jerry Ledwith
Tanya Vaillancourt Looney
Stan Lucas
Christine Madden
R. Jerry Martin
Mike Matthews
Raetta McCall
David McCorquodale
Mickey McKay
John TC Megahan
Jason K. Melrath
Connie Merlet
Chuck Mulholland
Lois Myoda
Tim Myoda
Larry Nagengast
Bill Narcowich
Ed Osborne
Michelle Ostafy
Bill Pearson
Meyer J. Persow
Coralie Pryde
Robert Ruddy
Paul Sample
Tam Searle
Frank Sims
Cynthia L. Smith
Scott R. Spencer
Naomi Syken
Chad Tolman
Jim Vandergast
Rosie Volpe
Katherine Ward
Pat Webb
Jack Wells
Frances West
C. Weymouth
Nancy Willing
Kent Woudstra
Kit Zak

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Senator DeLuca failed to do his job. Will a note be put in his personnel file?

Chad Livengood continues to do a great job hounding Delaware’s government. Today, the News Journal is reporting that the Feds have cleared Senate Pro Tem Tony DeLuca (D – miscellaneous) of federal charges. What he wasn’t cleared of was not doing his job. From the article:

DeLuca’s job description, agency organizational charts, budgetary documents from the past six years and other documents reviewed by The News Journal also suggested DeLuca was supposed to be in charge of discrimination investigations.

However, according to the Federal investigators:

Office of Special Counsel investigators could find no direct evidence that DeLuca directed the expense of a federal funds for a discrimination contract with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

So Governor Markell has allowed a state employee to work for him for two years without doing his job. I know that they’re now under collective bargaining and so there is a grievance procedure, but it seems like there is at least one government worker who is unnecessary.

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Greg Lavelle Points Out The Reality of the Government Retiree Pension “Fix”..

In today’s News Journal, Rep. Greg Lavelle, the minority leader of the State House, has the following op-ed. It is sobering stuff. Too bad that the “leadership” in Dover won’t actually fix a problem when they have the chance…

As in most states, the growth of Delaware’s health care and pension costs has been on a trend that is not sustainable.

From 2010 to 2012, these expenses have increased from $493.1 million to $610.9 million. This represents a two-year growth of almost 24 percent and equals an annual compounded growth rate of 11.3 percent. Recent projections from the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council have state tax receipts growing just 2.4 percent in fiscal 2012.

Given these facts, Gov. Jack Markell was right to try to tackle this issue. After being blocked a time or two, he was able to establish a working group to hammer out a solution. This six-week effort was undertaken in the shadow of all the tumult in Wisconsin and other states that were also working to rein in apparently out-of-control costs and related issues.

The result of this effort is House Bill 81, which recently passed the House. The bill is projected to save $131 million over five years for an annual savings of $26.2 million. There are also 15-year projected savings figures that approximate this annual rate. Of course, the only thing more uncertain than a five-year government projection is a 15-year projection.

For some, this represented a champagne moment. While nobody bolted to Ocean City, Md., to avoid votes or otherwise shut down Legislative Hall, I’d like to suggest that it is premature to open the bubbly and declare this issue solved.

The annual savings of H.B. 81 represent just 4.2 percent of the total fiscal 2012 expenditure of $610.9 million. This still leaves a growth rate for health care and pension expenses of 7.1 percent and an annual funding “deficit” of 4.6 percent after taking into account tax-receipt growth of 2.4 percent. In dollar terms, this is $25 million a year in unfunded growth and represents a five-year compounded growth of 25.2 percent.

It has been pointed out that the savings from H.B. 81 are primarily coming from future state employees with minimal changes for existing employees. The existing and future benefit packages far exceed anything offered in the private sector, where employees generally contribute 30 percent or more to their health care costs and no longer have defined-benefit pension plans.

These are just the facts. The cost curve has not been bent but has been deflected. It is a step in the right direction but clearly not the last step that needs to be taken.

I understand that sometimes you take what you can get and appreciate the “yes” votes of a vast majority of my colleagues. I voted “no,” not to fault the effort, but to point out that if nothing else can be done and this issue is now politically off-limits, the deficit growth will have to be funded by cutting expenses elsewhere in the budget, raising taxes or growing the economy.

Current DEFAC projections for true indicators of economic growth in Delaware, personal income and gross-receipts taxes are not looking up. Of course, if and when they do increase, there will be other areas of the budget looking for that money as well.

Given all this, I’d suggest keeping the champagne on ice a while longer.

State Rep. Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley, is the House minority leader from the 11th District.

 

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Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings…

While the biblical phrase “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings… ” may have had different meanings over the centuries, one of today’s underlying meanings is that young children can often describe the “truth” that may be missed but should be otherwise obvious to all at the same time. With respect to the effort to keep legislators from trading their elected positions into also having a state job, and the additional pension and perks that come with it, the comments from Senator Margaret Rose Henry and Senator Tony DeLuca may have given the phrase a new and troubling meaning about our state and its future.

In response to HB65 and HB 75 (the fact there are two bills to do the same thing is a story for another day), which would out law the practice of adding another state job once elected, our good senators had the following to say to the News Journal:

“The problem with that is Delaware’s a small state,” Henry said. “It’s almost impossible not to find a job that’s not related to the state somehow. I would have trouble supporting that. It would eliminate a lot of employment opportunities, and I’m example of that.”

In the past, DeLuca has defended the practice, saying there would be “a lot of holes” in the General Assembly if dual employment were disallowed.

If this was just politics as usual, perhaps it wouldn’t really matter. The problem is that this mindset has become one of public policy with respect to economic development in Delaware and the United States. Their mindset is that government creates jobs. Heck, they will even create a job to make sure that the jobs they “create” are counted. In Delaware’s case, this initial assignment went to Vince Meconi who knows a thing or two about collecting multiple pensions. These people are constantly surrounded by state employee union representatives and others whose continual refrain is more, more and then some more. “More” to fund these positions only comes from one place and the mouths of babes know that as well.

Legislator leadership in Dover, the majority party that is, has only people who currently work in government or otherwise spent their careers in government and now believe that only government can create jobs.

DeLuca, Blevins, Henry, McDowell, Venables, Gilligan, Schwartzkopf, Longhurst and Keeley. Enough said.

The Governor’s office isn’t loaded up with private sector experience either.

In a Wall Street Journal op/ed today, Stephen Moore brings it all home about why this matters:

If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

Don’t expect a reversal of this trend anytime soon. Surveys of college graduates are finding that more and more of our top minds want to work for the government. Why? Because in recent years only government agencies have been hiring, and because the offer of near lifetime security is highly valued in these times of economic turbulence. When 23-year-olds aren’t willing to take career risks, we have a real problem on our hands. Sadly, we could end up with a generation of Americans who want to work at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Out of the mouth of babes indeed.

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Senator DeLuca Continues to be a Lightning Rod of Negative Attention…

Last June, Senator DeLuca refused to consider a bill allowing SEED scholarships for Delaware State University students. Along with allegations of outright racism, a great chorus of complaint arose and his caucus forced him to hold a special session in the middle of campaign season to vote on the bill.

During the fall/winter, Senator DeLuca with no approval from anyone else in the Senate spent tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade his Senate office despite widespread budget cuts across the State. He was also accused of giving preferential job treatment to his secretary.

Now, Senator DeLuca is accused of violating the Federal Hatch act by running for election despite potentially overseeing tens of thousands of dollars in federal funds. Senator DeLuca also got his plum job in the Department of Labor after achieving his leadership roles in the State Senate — smacking of insider dealing and crony corruption by Democratic Governor’s Minner & Markell.

So, what should the good Senator do?

Of course, another question that I could have asked was: “What should the Senate do?” But I leave that to your imagination (Ethics committee, anyone?)…

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Child Abuse: Why are public school students less deserving of protection than private school students?

In the State of Delaware, if you are or were abused by a priest or some other non-government employee, you can sue the individual alleged to have perpetrated the abuse, AND you can sue the person’s employer.

However, if your child attends a State of Delaware public school, and your child is abused by a faculty member, you have no recourse to sue the State. To slightly alter a quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All employers are equal, just the State is more equal than others.”

Is this a problem? According to The State Council for Persons with Disabilities (SCPD), “since 1999 there have been at least 15 public school teachers and employees in Delaware arrested for the rape and sexual assault of children.” Furthermore, according to the same SCPD memo, “The issue is not unique to Delaware. An Associated Press investigation in 2007 ‘found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic.'”

Why would we not provide equal protection to children who go to public schools as we give to those who go to private or parochial schools? Are public school children (many from low-income families) less deserving of our protection?

The Governor and the General Assembly have a chance to tell us what they think by voting on and passing HB 12 sponsored by Rep. Greg Lavelle. HB 12 would level the playing field by permitting children who have been abused to sue the State for damages.

We can also ask the same question about other persons with disabilities. An individual getting developmental services at a non-government organization can sue that organization. However, this same person at a group home run by the State cannot sue for protection.

Is this a problem? Well in 2008, Senator Cathy Cloutier was forced to write the Secretary of Health & Social Services, Vince Meconi, to inquire about a group home under construction in her district because of gross irregularities related to the facilities development and start up. Furthermore, we know that Delaware mimics national trends in abuse in our public schools, so why not group homes.

From a March 12, 2011 NY Times article:

A New York Times investigation over the past year has found widespread problems in the more than 2,000 state-run homes. In hundreds of cases reviewed by The Times, employees who sexually abused, beat or taunted residents were rarely fired, even after repeated offenses, and in many cases, were simply transferred to other group homes run by the state.

And, despite a state law requiring that incidents in which a crime may have been committed be reported to law enforcement, such referrals are rare: State records show that of some 13,000 allegations of abuse in 2009 within state-operated and licensed homes, fewer than 5 percent were referred to law enforcement. The hundreds of files examined by The Times contained shocking examples of abuse of residents with conditions like Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy.

The article goes on to describe the repeated transfer of accused workers from facility to facility rather than firing those employees — just like the Catholic church did with priests 20-40 years ago.

Now I have a lot of faith in the current HSS Secretary, Rita Landgraf. A lot of faith. However, in God we trust, all else bring data. And I don’t have any data. But what  I know is that there are 53 fewer people processing an increased number of food stamp applications. So what other personnel have had to be cut? Also, we know that prior to Secretary Landgraf, Secretary Meconi was asleep at the switch at the Psychiatric Center (numerous News Journal articles written on this and public hearings were held) and that there were problems with several group homes. How are those situations today? We really don’t know.

Since faith isn’t enough, why not give the residents of group homes the ability to seek justice through the courts just like those at private sector facilities have? Why are residents at Government-run facilities less deserving of protection than those at privately-run facilities?

Again quoting from the SCPD:

SCPD endorses [HB 12] since it would provide public employers with a legal incentive to be vigilant and responsive to evidence of sex abuse of students. Moreover, sex abuse within public settings appears to be a pervasive problem justifying redress if public agencies are determined to have been negligent in protecting students.

According to the New York Times, we can add other persons with disabilities to the “students” mentioned by the SCPD. Remember what the government memo in New York said regarding documenting abuse:

DON’T report in your notes that an Incident Report was filled out. IF IT ISN’T DOCUMENTED, IT WASN’T DONE.

How’s that for trusting government…

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Governor Markell to the Legislature — You folks are stupid!

Governor Markell has decided that in 2004 the Compensation Commission made a mistake. That would be 6 years ago. Now, the Governor was in the Treasurer’s office at that time, and so maybe wasn’t paying attention, but the 2004 Compensation Commission report was a highly read and controversial report. Not only did it recommend the Judicial salaries, but it also recommended that Lt. Governor John Carney receive a 12.5% increase. Even the Lt. Governor said that this was “too much”. The Commission’s report led then Representative Bob Valihura to introduce legislation requiring an up-or-down vote on the Commission report.

But, let’s for the sake of argument say that there was an error committed by the Compensation Commission in 2004 (The committee’s members were: Peter Ross, Andrew DiSabatino, Scott Green, Dennis Loftus, Harold Slatcher, and Dana Jefferson — a pretty reputable group). There was another Compensation Commission in 2008. Certainly, if an egregious error had been made, someone would have informed someone on the 2008 Commission. Or maybe even told one of the 62 members of the General Assembly to correct the error.

So, to summarize, 6 years ago, a highly respected Commission produced a professional report which made a recommendation that went into law. Since that time, 6 budgets have been drafted and passed and another Compensation Commission report has come & gone (This report was drafted by the same group as the previous report only Ernie Dianastasis replaced Andrew DiSabatino & Michael Jackson replaced Dana Jefferson ). Only now, has the Governor declared that he is righting a 6 year old wrong. The only implication that I can draw is that the Legislature is not bright enough to have seen this error or trustworthy enough to have been informed of the recommendation.

Note: The Compensation Commission has 2 members appointed by the Governor, 1 each appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Senate Pro Tem, 1 from the Business Roundtable, and an ex-officio member from the Office of Management and Budget. The 2009 report can be found here. I have a PDF version of the 2005 report, but was unable to quickly locate it online.

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Patti Blevins, Tony DeLuca & Senate Democrats Build “Wall of Separation”

The Senate Leadership has decided to build a “wall of separation” between the leadership office and the public. Construction on a new Pro-Tem Leadership office in Dover began 2 weeks ago when Legislative Hall was closed for Columbus Day.

For over 40 years, the Leadership Office has opened onto the first floor hallway. Evidently, this configuration brings the  average citizen too close to our Democrat Senator Leadership. I guess Senators DeLuca & Blevins don’t want citizens to have convenient access to them. Better make average citizens walk through a gate keeper while keeping the office out-of-sight. With the office out-of-sight, who knows what “hanky-panky” the leadership might get into.

In this era of unemployment, budget cuts, service cuts, home loss, the Senate Leadership is spending tax dollars to create their own little monument to narcissism. My understanding is that PVC pipe isn’t even good enough, only copper.

How much more out-of-touch can they get. Shame!!

 

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