Senator Adams’ Last Punch in the Gut
I have been talking to a few people downstate recently and have been getting a feel for the race for Adams seat. Honestly, I don’t know a damned thing about Polly, so I cannot tell you whether or not she would make a good Senator or not. I have met a few house painters, and they seem nice enough. And let’s face it, if she is a straight woman doing an interior design business in Rehoboth, she must be doing something right.
But this post isn’t about Polly. It is about what her Father pulled in his 2nd to the last day in the Senate. It is about the Violent Crimes Compensation Board (now re-formed as the Victims’ Compensation Assistance Program) and what the restructuring meant to one of Thurman Adams’ friends, Leah Betts.
The reform of the VCCB was the result of a review of the Sunset Committee. Among the things that the committee discovered is that the VCCB board members drew an annual stipend of $10K. This differs from other boards, like the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board or the Clean Water Advisory Council which are mostly made up of appointed volunteers paid like jury members. The JSC found:
The compensation paid to Board members increased over the years from $1000 to $5000 (1990) and in 2000 compensation was increased its current level $10,000, with the Vice Chair receiving $11,000 and the Chair $12,000.
interestingly, as I was reading the report, I noticed this:
F. The Joint Sunset Committee shall:
Send a letter to the Governor asking him to not move forward with reappointing any VCCB members whose term expires or who resigns before the JSC process is completed.
This request was not honored. Finally, the JSC made this recommendation:
5) Changes the current Board to an Appeals Board.The current Board members will serve out their existing term and continue to receive statutory compensation. Upon expiration of term, compensation will be $100 per day;
On June 16th, Leah Betts’ name was “read in” to the Senate record to renew her term. And on the very day that the JSC bill was introduced on the floor of the house, Leah Betts was confirmed for a 3 year term (at $10K/year). As you can see here (page 7), Leah Betts was a very good friend of Thurman Adams.
The next day Senator Adams was stricken and taken to the hospital. He never left.
Now, I have been hearing that Leah Betts was a player in this whole dump Eddy for Polly scheme. If so, perhaps that is what Senator Adams ended up buying for 30K, a shot at a dynasty.
Tags: Thurman Adams
Well goddamn…front page this shit for a week! This is damn good stuff.
What a sick, craven legecy.
Shot in the gut? That sounds dramatic. The story is not. It is a question of the best way to reorganize the board. The Governor and Senator decided to keep a competent ally of the senator in place. That is the way government works. You get a majority so that you can field a team which advances the policy direction the majority wants. That is not sinister. This is a policy enforcing board not a civil service position. Some how whether someone makes a few more thousand dollars a year does not sound like a shot in the gut unless you are the one losing it in this economy.
Stop dumping on Senator Adams. It may motivate his friends. I rather that not happen.
The fact that David is defending the cretinous Thurman Adams tells us more about David than it does Uncle Thurm.
David, that is bullshit. If you want continuity, you let her serve under the new rate for service, $100/day.
And, David, oh the stories I COULD tell about Thurman Adams. My grandmother is about three weeks older than he was and a few years ago she told me about growing up with him (she was born and raised in Seaford). She told me how shittily he (and fellow deceased tyrannical senator Jim Vaughn) treated my Italian-Catholic grandfather, who was also on the state police. Emphasis on the “Catholic” of course because, 60 years ago, many southern evangelicals seemed to have a problem with the Catholics as well as the Jews.
This man was nothing more than a thug who used his power to shove his bigotry down the throats of Delawareans en masse.
$100/day is $36,500/yr no?
I read that wrong at first – I think the $100/day is per diem for the few days actually worked, not a salary. Like compensation for jury service. That is why it is so outrageous to renew for 3 years @ $10K. We can look for some of that $10K to end up in Polly’s campaign accounts.
Umm, David, Leah Betts is not competent to do anything. She’s a legend in her own mind, willing to throw her weight around to get her way, party and community be damned. She’s one more cog in the Delaware Way that needs to waddle off into the sunset.
And why should we stop “dumping” on Uncle Thurm? He was a backwards-thinking biggot. We are better off without him, or his family, in the state senate.
What I love is that now David is so free with tax money all of a sudden.
If you live in Sussex, vote for Booth! Nothing with the Adams name in it is worth reinforcing. I know nothing about Polly but I did here her campaign announcement and just her voice makes me cringe. Squeakey high pitched voices grate on my raw nerves.
Polly Adams Mervine is likely what she appears to be: A blank slate.
Her platitudes masquerading as platform demonstrate that she hasn’t devoted a single moment of her adult life to thinking about what matters to Delawareans.
Which is why she seems to be campaigning for Vice-President of Laurel Junior High Student Council.
As such, El Somnambulo suggests this campaign slogan, cribbed from “Up the Down Staircase”:
“Polly Is Pretty, Polly Is Nice
Vote for Polly A for Vice.”
who is this mike matthews dude?
shorter david:
small government is good, unless it helps your friends
suddenly I am curios what other boards and comissions pay salaries…
Anoni: Check out the original News Journal story. It mentioned one other, IIRC, but I forget which it is.
I am who I am, sillypoorperson.
who is sillypoorperson and where did they suddenly come from?