Colin Bonini: The Watchdog Who Doesn’t Watch

Filed in National by on October 19, 2010

State Auditor Tom ‘See No Evil’ Wagner and State Treasurer-Wannabe Colin Bonini are now billing themselves as Delaware’s Fiscal Watchdog Team.

Set aside that the only watching they do is of their hairlines receding and bellies expanding. And set aside the fact that the Treasurer has little to do with ‘watchdogging’, and that  Bonini is really just trying to ‘get the rub’ from the amiable dunce in the Auditor’s office.

Let’s, just this once, take Bonini at his word that he’s a watchdog. Let’s also assume that past performance is a pretty good indicator of future performance, especially if you have nothing else to go on.

By any objective measure, Colin Bonini is the watchdog who doesn’t watch. He barks, but doesn’t watch.

Colin Bonini serves on, or, more accurately, is a member of, a committee charged with reviewing state agencies, evaluating their efficacy and cost-effectiveness, and recommending changes in how these agencies operate. The committee also can recommend termination of agencies that do not serve their purported public purpose. This committee is really the public watchdog committee.

This committee is known as the Joint Sunset Committee, and it’s currently chaired by Sen. Dave Sokola (I understand that Sen. Bethany Hall-Long is now co-chair) and Rep. John Kowalko, who have done some strong work on this oft-maligned committee. The reason that this committee is maligned by many legislators is b/c, if it does its job well, it pisses people off, which legislators studiously seek to avoid. You see how pissed off Sen. ‘Uncle Thurm’ Adams was with the JSC’s actions on the Victims’ Compensation Board, since a couple of his cronies ended up in the crosshairs. In other words, the perfect committee for a dedicated watchdog.

Which, Colin Bonini is not. Don’t take my word for it. Take a gander at his JSC attendance record for public hearings and meetings since he’s been a member (you need to click the ‘Next 30’ button to scroll through the yearly records):

2010 — 13 out of 16
2009 — 13 out of 17
2008 — 5 out of 16
2007 — 1 out of 13
2006 — 7 out of 14
2005 –Zero out of 15
2004 — 1 out of 11
2003 — 7 out of 22

Even allowing for the relatively respectable attendance the last two years when his plans to run for office became public, this is abysmal. Let’s do the math, shall we?:

Meetings and Hearings Held: 124
Meetings and Hearings Attended By Bonini: 47
% Meetings Attended By Bonini: 38%
% Meetings Attended By Bonini Pre-2009: 23% (21 out of 91).

Memo to the News-Journal: Please feel free to double-check these figures and then report on it.  Best of all, nobody even needs to use gasoline to do the ‘legwork’. It’s public info, and it’s online. I, for one, think that Bonini’s established pattern of not doing anything during a twenty year career is germane to this race. As (what remains of) the Fourth Estate, don’t you?

Let’s also remember that Bonini used to be on the Joint Finance Committee until his OWN Senate Rethug colleagues replaced him.  Maybe, just maybe, he didn’t show up there either? (Good luck trying to pry those numbers out of Delaware’s most secretive government entity.) Let’s also remember that Bonini has proudly stated that he has not voted for a single state budget, most of which were crafted by a committee evenly split between R’s and D’s, and several of which he presumably helped to craft. He has never voted for a single dollar for schools, roads, state police, etc. Come to think of it, he’s never voted to fund the agency he seeks to head.

And, in a caucus that can easily fit inside a phone booth, he has never held a leadership position. Never. Both D’s and R’s that know Colin Bonini know that he is unfit to serve in any important capacity. They have seen over the course of many years the sheer laziness of Blowhard Bonini.

He has cashed a state check for close to twenty years now, and has done nothing to earn it. Now, he wants to be our watchdog. The only thing we know he’ll watch is a far larger paycheck being direct-deposited into his account. Which is what he’s wanted all along.

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  1. Delbert says:

    Sunset Committee meetings must be terribly boring. Maybe he just grabbed the minutes from them for review after the fact. I think he might end up being your “watchdog” anyway, though. And then maybe a contender for Governor or Congress. Treasurer’s office is a good stepping stone in that regard. I think that’s how Tom Carperbagger got started, isn’t it? Then a GOP incumbent’s sex scandal got him into the House and we’ve been stuck with him ever since.

  2. Yep, that must be it, Delbert. And it must be boring voting on recommended changes and, you know, actually recommending changes.

    Boring government stuff,for which he was handsomely compensated, even though he didn’t do his job.

    Hope that there’s nothing ‘boring’ for him to do as treasurer, as past history suggests he’ll be too bored to do it.

  3. I love when the wingnut justification squad comes to justify GOP incompetence.

  4. anon says:

    Charlie Copeland is reminiscing, together with John Still, about a letter he wrote to Minner in 2007 urging her that somebody (other than Copeland) really ought to figure out a way to cut spending by 5-10% The letter is also signed by Bonini.

    Charlie (and Bonini) obliviously miss the reality that since that letter, the Delaware budget has been cut 8% in real dollars.

  5. Delaware Dem says:

    Sounds like Bonini is committing fraud. I mean, he is getting paid to do a job. He is not doing the job. So, he should be fired. Not promoted.

  6. Yogie says:

    Please don’t let this lazy loud mouth get elected state-wide

  7. Jefferson says:

    “It’s your money, I’ll take it even when I don’t show up!”

  8. MJ says:

    Bonono is not fit to be Treasurer, much less a state senator. What we don’t need is someone who just shows up for roll call so he can justify getting his check.

  9. Delbert says:

    It isn’t just Bonini’s fault. It’s all those bums in the Del. Legislature. Every time this state has a money surplus they put 14 more troopers on the road or figure out some other way to blow it that will cost perenially by expanding the government. Every time there is a surplus in a Del DoT division, for example, the bosses have to figure out a way to spend it so they can get the same amount next year in case they need it. Then when hard times hit and collections decline they keep the same big government. You can ridicule Sussex County for having no tax base and fewer amenities all you want. But who is crying for money shortage now?

  10. kavips says:

    What Delbert does not seem to be getting, is this:

    When a candidate does not have sufficient qualifications for the office he seeks, and when he has to manipulate and create a past in the vague hope that it gives him a temporal aura of electability, then he shouldn’t be promoting the fact he is the watchdog of Delaware’s taxpayers, while on his watch, state House Republican pet projects, are what ran us into the ground.

    Duh.

  11. To Get My Vote says:

    Well he is keeping up his non-showing up ways. Missed another debate last night. Maybe he thinks he has this race in the bag due to the unsavory tactics and scheming pulled last week….

    He should probably guess again.

  12. Delbert says:

    He’s been in the Del.Legis. for 16 years or so. Nobody is more qualified than he is to write checks for the tax&waste fleecing you are doomed to continue to endure.

  13. Stormy says:

    I tried to tell you guys this last spring but no one seem to think he was a problem. This guy was able to get a variance to his driveway where the people that lived there 30 years were not & had to use Captain Davis Drive. He is as crooked as a drunk carpenter.

  14. mediawatch says:

    Delbert,
    16 years in the state legislature and he’s had absolutely no success, no positive impact. You think he’s qualified to write checks? All he’s done is show he’s capable of cashing them.
    When I think of waste in government, the first thing that comes to mind is Colin Bonini.

  15. Delbert says:

    Mediawatch,
    …and all of his cohorts in the Del.Legis.

  16. kavips says:

    Saying “no” to all government spending is a cop out. Currently there is not soap in any of our public school’s restrooms. It was deemed as an unnecessary expense by the republican party that is running Bonini.

    You can’t cut spending . We are already there. If a kid shits, he brings it back to class on his hands because of this mantra that we are spending too much of the peoples money…

    We need to spend more, which means those who have money need to pay more.. At least a little more for soap…

    Delaware cannot afford any cuts. We need soap in our schools restrooms…

  17. Delbert says:

    They need to cut those free school lunches the kids are getting because they come from parents who are too cheap and lazy to pack them a lunch. That’ll pay for the soap to wash not as much poop off their hands. Then they need to fire about 20 state cops and half of the Prob.Parole staff. What ever happened to the good ol’ days when the Dems were soft on crime? (They learned from Reagan that doesn’t get as many votes.) So the Spenders are flushing your 4th Amendment rights down the drain just as bad as the GOP.

  18. Geezer says:

    “It isn’t just Bonini’s fault. It’s all those bums in the Del. Legislature.”

    You’re missing the point. All those other bums show up, even if it’s only to collect the mileage money.