Richard De Seve Archives

BE BREITBART: Update 10: DES Right To Know Update : DOIT and DES – a “gentle” (eh?) response

September 26, 2018April 19, 2012 Skip

Well, my first reaction to the “final response” was this quick note fired off to the RTK Dude:

Sidebar: slightly edited here as it turned out the copy outbound had a few less words than here – brain saying the words and the fingers went partially deaf.

Mr. Demas,

I am in receipt of your alleged final response – I can assure you it will not be a final communication. I find the logic contained herein to be very convoluted and tortured to conflate computer communication data packets with a personnel policy. While such a policy depends entirely on having such data records available, it is not a fact that those records are, in whole, subservient to that single purpose. Indeed, while the personnel policy is entirely dependent on those records, there are many other functions that those records could service as well and thus should not be considered exempt from our Right To Know request.

In fact, I thought of a half dozen in the space of 2 seconds – and I wasn’t trying hard.

In fact, we have already proven that the stated written policies of both DES and DoIT have not been followed either in respect to their letter of such nor their spirit. In fact, it is clear that your personnel policy does not even require using those records to take action in this case; I find with no small amount of irony that it is our records (where Mr. de Seve admitted his guilt to GraniteGrok and not to the State) that are serving as the bulwark of any actions that DES takes in dealing with Mr. de Seve. If it were not for GraniteGrok, he still would be breaking both DES and DoIT’s policies with impunity.

BE BREITBART: Update 9: DES Right To Know Update : DOIT and DES – convoluted hiding

September 26, 2018April 18, 2012 Skip

OK – still catching up here. Late on Friday, I received the latest update from the DES RTK dude – and to be honest, my reaction was two-fold:

turning on all the burners and the ovens of a commercial kitchen range had nothing on me.
And as Steve posted: Game On

April 13, 2012

David “Skip” Murphy

9 Gilford Glen Road

Gilford, NH 03249

RE: Request for Records Pursuant to RSA 91-A – Final Response

Dear Mr. Murphy

I am writing to provide you additional information in order to conclude DES’s and DOIT’s response to your request for records pursuant to RSA 91-A. The first and second preliminary responses issued by DES and DOIT on March 27, 2012 and April 5, 2012, respectively, addressed all of your specific requests except Request 7.c., relative to web traffic data. That request is the subject of this letter.

You requested “[a]ny and all electronic records that show outbound traffic to any and all non-State related websites from the IT department[‘]s proxy servers, outbound routers / designated Internet gateways emanating from the use of Mr. de Seve’s computer usage” and packet level records what will contain…[t]he [destination] IP address of such traffic generated by Mr. de Seve.” As previously discussed, DOIT’s system do not log capture, or otherwise retain packet level details or content of inbound or outbound internet traffic. However, DOIT systems do capture information about internet traffic initiated by users of state computers systems.

Your request for production of that internet traffic information is one of first impression. Therefore, DES and DOIT carefully examined how that information is generated, recorded, and used in order to determine 1) whether the requested information meets the definition of any governmental record under RSA 91-A:1-a, III, and 2) whether such information is subject to any exemptions set forth in RSA 91-A:5.

The Complete Dick de Seve Comment Stream

September 26, 2018April 7, 2012 Steve MacDonald

I know you have been waiting for this. It is the complete Dick de Seve comment stream from the Concord Monitor, compiled from November of 2008 until March 6th 2012. It is over 300 pages of PDF, for which I apologize–I could have formatted it better–but I provided the link to the Scribd site below. … Read more

Richard de Seve – gee, there’s more! Student reviews…..and he’s a Truther???

September 26, 2018April 3, 2012 Skip

OK, given how much GraniteGrok has been blogging about Richard de Seve and his political activities on the taxpayer dime, it was finally logical to Google him and see “have we been able to get our investigation out there?”. The answer is yes: the two highest rated search items are about his LinkIn profile – and then GraniteGrok’s posts start showing up immediately thereafter with no small smattering of other sites reposting our stories. But I found two other totally unrelated items about Mr. de Seve that were unexpected – Koofers.com (a student-rating-professor site) and a Letter that Mr. de Seve wrote back in 2006 at (where else??) the Concord Monitor (I have screen scraped the Letter if need be, given it’s content.). First, Koofers:

Only two students have rated him as a Law Professor; they aren’t impressed:

Arrogant, pompous, driven by ideology, more agenda – how could I be surprised? But that ain’t the worst of it! He decided to share his thoughts about 9/11 with us (emphasis mine):

BE BREITBART: Update 8: DES Right To Know Update : DOIT and DES – living up to their own policies (#FAIL)

September 26, 2018April 2, 2012 Skip

The last post on this topic (GraniteGrok’s Right To Know to the State of NH on the non-State biz use of the State’s network: political commenting) effectively ended on these notes:

“what did they know and when did they know it?“

and “they did know it all and they knew it when the packets went through the system.”

Which leads up to the next important question:“…can the State live up to its own personnel policies in this area?”

This actually breaks down into two parts:

Can the State technically actually do what the policies say imply based on the results sent to us from our Right To Know request?

And if the State can technically support its policies – are they actually using those technical tools and if not, why not?

Now, I would be remiss to not point out that part of RTK for our calculus is still outstanding – Mr. Richard de Seve’s outbound (of the NH State domain) emails which the DES RTK guy has told me, multiple times now, is in process:

Request 5:

5. Any and all of Mr. de Seve’s emails that were outbound of the NH State’s domain and whose destination were other than for another NH State employee.

Response to 5:

All known emails have been collected and are currently being reviewed to determine 1) whether they are responsive to your request and 2) whether they are subject to any privilege or statutory exemption under RSA 91-4. Responsive, non-exempt emails will be provided upon completion of this review.

So, this needs to be fit into the picture when they arrive. In the mean time, there is more to review and our interim conclusion at the end…

BE BREITBART: Update 7: Right To Know Request – IT/HR – Lunches, breaks aggregation and NH official policy

September 26, 2018March 31, 2012 Skip

The last post concerning our Right To Know request of the NH Department of Environmental Services (primarily) and Department of IT (secondarily) covered the NH policy on lunch and rest breaks:

DES’s standard workday is 8:00 am through 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday. This reflects a 7.5 hour/day, 37 .5 hour/week basic workweek which, consistent with NH Admin. Rule Per 1201.03, accounts for a half hour lunch period that is not considered work time. Also, pursuant to Per 1201.03, the workday includes a 15 minute rest period every 4 hours. Lunch and rest periods do not have to be taken at specific times during the workday. Mr. de Seve is assigned to a 37 .5 hour per week schedule that coincides with DES’ standard workday/workweek. As to the DOIT “Computer Use document” referenced in this request, please refer to the Response to Request 3, above.

Well, one of the Groksters read that and had a question (again, with an eye to the quantity of blogging that Mr. Richard de Seve did as he was allegedly working:

Are employees allowed, with their lunch break and rest breaks, to “stitch them” together and form one large break? If that is true, are they allowed to take them earlier or later than the normal lunch times (i.e., use them at the beginning of the day to come in later or delay them until the end of the day and leave early for the day)?

The DES RTK Dude wrote back this afternoon with his answer:

BE BREITBART: Update 8: DES Right To Know Update : IT data requests and response – network traffic (#FAIL)

September 26, 2018March 31, 2012 Skip

All of the posts in our DES Right To Know request concerning Mr. Richard de Seve massive blogging activities during work hours as he was allegedly working (while on the taxpayer dime) prior to this have been “preliminary”. We set the table, ordered from the menu, and enjoyed the appetizers. Now, it is time for the main courses -the IT (Information Technology) network data and what actions should have been triggered.

With our tech background, we wanted to be able to establish linkages and definitely prove:

BE BREITBART: Update 5: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve – RTK responses from the State of NH DES.

September 26, 2018March 29, 2012 Skip

Well, Monday the “RTK Dude” from the State of NH Department of Environmental Services (“DES”) gave me a call to let me know that we had “incoming” from to our Right To Know Request concerning Mr. Richard de Seve (apparently, we have helped his Google ranking – or our’s concerning him) activities and the State’s data concerning this. To be sure, it is an interim response – we asked for a lot and some of it still has to be researched and provided.

That said, this interim release has some very important news from our view point, and confirmed that there is trouble. To be sure, Mr. de Seve has already acknowledged his guilt for inappropriate use of State computer resources over a long amount of time to push his political agenda on sites outside of the State’s network. However, as we started to look into his activities, we quickly thought of more questions. Specifically, the State has written its Rule book – is the State actually living up to it in all aspects in regards to both the Letter of “the Law” as well as the Spirit of “the Law”? And are they doing the right things in the right areas to even have a shot of doing this?

BE BREITBART: Update 3: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve – signed policy copy

September 26, 2018March 28, 2012 Skip

I had more back and forth with the “RTK dude” yesterday. I will have to say, it is FAR easier in dealing with him than my local School Board when it comes to Right To Know requests! When we first filed our Right To Know concerning the political blogging at the Concord Monitor, we first thought that Richard de Seve (DES employee, chapter VP for SEIU, and former Delegate for Dennis Kucinich for President back in 2008, and Conservation Committee member in Gilmanton) had to follow the Dept of IT Computer Usage Policy. So, we asked for it:

Copies of the Mr. de Seve’s signed copies of the IT Department’s Computer Use policy that he signs at his annual review, showing that he has read, understands, and agrees to abide by

Well, the DES RTK Dude set us straight by gently informing us that DES had its own policy (posted here). Even though Mr. de Seve has already admitted his guilt in stealing time from NH taxpayers and citizens for his own political purposes, the DES RTK Dude, to satisfy the intent of part of the RTK, sent us a copy of Mr. de Seve’s signed copy of the DES Computer Policy Agreement (shortened for space by me, larger size after the jump):

So we have two facts in evidence:

This former lawyer willingly signed his acknowledgement that he had read and understood the DES policy on computer use.
Like I said above, he outright admitted to violating the policy in his email to Steve.

And no, we have not asked what the ramifications of this are – yet. That is not part of our Right To Know.

We also received some other answers to our Right To Know items – we’ll be posting them up later!

The NH-D.E.S. Break Schedule, and Other Mysteries of The Known Universe

September 26, 2018March 25, 2012 Steve MacDonald

We have it on good authority that Richard de Seve, State employee over at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, only reads and comments on the articles at the Concord Monitor-online, during his breaks. He did, after all, admit this too me, so what better authority can there be? And who am I to doubt the “word “of a long time Public employee, part time UNH professor, and high ranking member of the SEIU/NH-SEA?

That question answers itself, yes?

So I did a little test. I took another look at his last four years worth of comments at the Concord Monitor, and checked the posting times.

My conclusion? That DES either offers its employes a very liberal rotating break schedule that occurs with greater frequency than J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbits stop to eat or Dick de Seve is simply giving himself a “break” to read and or respond to content at the Concord Monitor, on any given work day, whenever the mood strikes him, in any one of these potential time periods.

BE BREITBART: Update 2: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

September 26, 2018March 25, 2012 Skip

Mr. Murphy,

As we discussed yesterday, I have mailed the Department of Environmental Services’ initial response to your request for records. A courtesy copy is attached hereto as a PDF file. Also attached is a PDF copy of DES’ Electronic Communications Policy.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you

(Emphasis mine, above) I mentioned in my last post that instead of the IT policy that the Department of Information Technology follows, the Department of Environmental Services has a different one (and that was sent to me by DES’s “RTK dude and Legal Eagle”, after being informed that DES follows a different tune than what the IT folks do):

The full JPG that I created from the sent PDF is after the jump. However, if you want to see the PDF, click here. And of COURSE, I had questions; those are after the jump as well. I will say that this policy is much weaker (from my techie eyes) than that of the actual IT’s policy. It would probably be a good thing if each departmental policy (under the “if 1, then many” logic, if DES has one, am betting all of the other departments have their separate (and weaker) policies. The IT dept certainly will know better the IT technical “problem areas” that span across the entire network far better than most other departments (although there are always “ringers” that do know more than some IT folks – motivation and curiosity can go way far) while being familiar for most of the biz scenarios that should / should not be allowable.

And I wonder how many of the departments don’t define their terms sufficiently well so that there is a lot of “grey area” in between the letters of the law (while ignoring the Spirit of the policy – and that of just doing a good honest day’s work for a honest day’s pay). Maybe another ‘Grok project – or maybe the IT Dept should be doing that all on their own…

BE BREITBART: Right To Know Request – IT and HR records for NH DES employee, Richard de Seve

September 26, 2018March 19, 2012 Skip

We’ve already posted a couple of times on the State employee Rickard “Dick” de Seve’ use of taxpayer paid time and computer services (Is A NH Public Employee Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?, So, what does the State of NH say about “Using The Internet to Sell his Political Agenda On Your Time?” and An Apology to the NH SEA/SEIU) on the subject, wondering about how a NH State employee (and former lawyer and present chapter VP in the NH SEIU [the Service Employees International Union, the union that represents most union employees employed by the State of NH]), could be posting so many political comments for such a long time on the NH taxpayer dime.

So last week we filed a NH RTK or Right To Know request, identified in most other parts of the country as an FOIA or Freedom of Information Act request. (Grokster Steve and I have been joined by Ed Naile of CNHT -the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers in the effort.) We asked for not only HR records (to establish when he was supposed to be working and if he had indeed read and signed the department internet use policy, and/or any warnings that were constructed based on his use of NH State Property. But that’s not all we asked for…

An Apology to the NH SEA/SEIU

September 26, 2018March 19, 2012 Steve MacDonald

No one understands the problems of perception like the Democrat Party. They invest a good deal of time and money into hiding what they are truly up to. Almost as much time as they spend painting pictures of their opponents for the main stream media to hang on your living room walls. So we should not be surprised when a prominent member of the New Hampshire SEA, a chapter president with the local SEIU, sees the kind of perception issues he creates when we uncovered months, even years of online comments, posted during office hours, while he was supposed to be performing state business, on the taxpayer dime, from the Department of Environmental Services, where he is employed by you and I.

Perception is a problem but not nearly as much of a problem as reality.