Transparency in Government

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As reported in last week’s Citizen newspaper by reporter Gail Ober, some Central NH citizens have filed a lawsuit questioning a small sliver of the "stimulus" funds flowing from the Federal government.

Local activists Doug Lambert and Thomas Tardif have filed a fourth lawsuit against the Belknap County Commission and the Delegation, this time challenging the county’s right to apply for a federal stimulus grant.

The suit claims Sheriff Craig Wiggin did not comply with all the requirements of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) when he applied for the $217,000 grant and that the commission doesn’t have the authority to designate him to be the grant coordinator.

Earlier this spring, Wiggin received permission from the three county commissioners to apply for a JAG award for equipment for six qualifying Belknap County communities.

The Sheriff’s Department, as coordinator of the grant, will get a 10 percent management fee — or $31,000 — that it will also use for equipment, including a repeater to improve radio communications, a camera and a computer.

The suit claims Wiggin filed for a nonconstruction grant that included a "secret ineligible $30,818 narrative list of purposes" and later claims the Belknap County Special Operations Unit or SWAT Team is a "private military group" and cannot make use of a federal grant.

[snip]

Tardif and Lambert prevailed in a lawsuit against the county for going behind closed doors to appoint Wiggin to replace then Sheriff Dan Collis, who left after his 2006 election to take a job in the private sector.

This involves the so-called JAG grant process which I have written previously about here here here here here and here. Having exhausted all efforts to get the appropriate officials to right what we view as wrong, we had no choice but to litigate. The matters at hand are too important to not pursue to their final conclusions. News of the suit brought out the usual suspects, comrades, water carriers, and useful idiots. Here is my response and explanation:

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As I wrote in this prior post, when it comes to the federal dough (Recovery Act “stimulus” funds) flowing into local law enforcement agencies via the 2009 JAG grant program, it sure would be nice to know if the correct state and federal procedures to add these new monies for budgetary spending were used anywhere, be it here in the Granite State, or throughout the country. As I have noted, following on a botched sheriff vacancy appointment process, a failed budget procedure resulting in the first default in history, an improper supplemental budget attempt, and the head administrator’s conviction and jailing for theft of public funds and equipment, Belknap County continues to defy the letter of applicable state and federal law with its present grant application process.

Reading the actual document itself, the JAG says that the applicant

“must make the grant application available for review by its governing body not fewer than 30 days before the application is submitted to BJA.” 

The May 7th Daily Sun reported that at their meeting the day before,

“all the commissioners were concerned that they could not read the grant application itself.  Wiggin explained that the application process was conducted entirely on-line, making it impossible to provide the commissioners with a copy of the document until after it was actually submitted to the justice Department.”

The application was submitted on 11 May, 2009, and copies were not made available, according to a conversation with Administrator Debra Shackett, to County Commissioners until May 19th. Hardly “not fewer than 30 days before the application” was submitted. In fact, the Commissioners—who are not even the legal governing body—didn’t see it until a week AFTER. This hardly comes close to following the letter, or the spirit, of the oversight and accountability supposedly called by the law guiding the grant.

Beyond that, the other big piece to this is the public TRANSPARENCY angle. In reading the documents, you discover the JAG calls for transparency. The big question is what happens when it is ignored, as is the case here in Belknap?

Other than a few stories about goodies coming courtesy of the generous federal government (using borrowed money our great grandchildren will still be paying for through inherited national debt), the public remained unaware that the JAG/ Recovery Act clearly states that the application

“must include a statement that the application was made public and that, to the extent of applicable law or established procedure, an opportunity to comment was provided to the citizens and neighborhood or community organizations.”

That never happened.

At this time, after sending materials to county, state, and over TWENTY federal officials and agencies via fax, certified mail, email, and FEDEX, we await their response. You would think that SOMEBODY would care about what’s happening with this grant, given the track record involving Belknap County and the last time it received substantial monies from the Feds. You see, as Belknap County botches the present grant process, a recently revealed audit of a prior one completed by the federal government revealed  badly flawed– most likel, illegal– methods were employed:

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Following up on yesterday’s post alleging improprieties in Belknap County…

When it comes to the federal dough (ARRA "stimulus") flowing into local law enforcement agencies via the 2009 JAG grant program, I’d sure like to know if the correct procedure to add these new monies for budgetary spending was used ANYWHERE, be it here in the Granite State, or elsewhere throughout the country. The NH AG’s websiite has the methods by which a New Hampshire TOWN must do a supplemental appropriation, but is silent on sheriff’s departments and, more specifically, counties. The letter we addressed to the County Convention [posted below] outlines the basic problem as the process was conducted by the Belknap County Sheriff. Unlike the RSA for the town, RSA 31:95-b,  the county has no "go-around" for supplemental appropriations & MUST follow 24:13 & 24:14.
 
Beyond that, the other big story is the TRANSPARENCY angle. "Oh, Doug, Obama’s gonna make it right– You know, the "new transparency movement" blah-blah and all that?" And indeed,  the JAG really does call for transparency. The big question is what happens when it is ignored, as is the case here in Belknap?
 
I believe that this is an important story because it demonstrates that, to the government types, when it comes to "free" money, the ends justify the means. But when Joe or Jane Sixpack break the law, well, then they MUST pay a price. In this instance, beyond mere government, we’re talking law enforcement here– they’re supposed to ENFORCE the law!

Also, this money is being wasted, and it appears the Sheriff is doing a flim flam by selling it locally as a laundry list of goodies he will buy, while claiming to the feds he’s keeping 10% for "administrative fees." Oh, and Laconia is giving an extra 10% for, who knows what? They would have been better off to "go it alone" and pay the grant in house, for what they’re paying the Sheriff to "administer". They are paying approx $20K of their eligible allocation to the Sheriff. They could have gone with a part timer, or overtime and ended up with more to waste... er, I mean spend on the cops’ goodies & training.

I still can’t believe we’re borrowing monies at the fed level and sending it here for a bunch of gadgets & frivolous miscellany. More cops on the troubled streets of Manchester? Maybe. Tasers for Gilford and an $8,000 computer tower? No way! Believe me– I’m on the budget committee in Gilford. If the cops need a new computer tower, WE’D BUY IT! And I’d vote YES!!!! But why do the feds need to do this? What purpose does it serve? That argument aside, when the government insists on doing such things, shouldn’t it be done within the law? Does the Sheriff feel the law is fine for thee but not for he?
 
Just imagine this scenario playing out statewide. Nationwide… Now, we’re talkin’ some REAL bucks!

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