Plain and simple.
While Jason tackled this story lightheartedly on Sunday, the announcement from the State Attorney General’s office that they cannot release information and/or records as to when Senate Majority Leader Anthony DeLuca shows up to work at his two state jobs deserves more serious attention.
In recent months, colleagues, including DeLuca’s fellow Democrats, have begun questioning how he balances what amounts to the responsibilities of two full-time jobs as president pro tem of the Senate and an administrator at the Department of Labor. A state law prohibits lawmakers from charging the General Assembly and a state agency for working at the same exact time, a practice known as double dipping.
There is no doubt in my mind that Tony DeLuca is double dipping. If he were innocent, he would release those records to prove it. That he has somehow gotten Attorney General Biden and his office to cover for him, when there is a precedent for releasing the information, speaks volumes.
Citing an anti-terrorism statute, the Department of Labor, Capitol Police and Chief Deputy Attorney General Charlie Butler denied the newspaper access to information showing when DeLuca enters state offices and Legislative Hall. The Department of Labor argued that disclosing DeLuca’s attendance and building entrance records “would show a pattern” of his daily movements and when he takes vacation each year, possibly leaving his home vulnerable to burglars.
Butler also upheld the Department of Labor’s resistance to release DeLuca’s attendance records, which would show whether his pay is docked for being absent to attend to legislative matters in his 11th District and his Legislative Hall office.
Butler’s opinion comes five years after the Attorney General’s Office ordered the Capital School District to release attendance records for then-Rep. Nancy Wagner, contending disclosure would not violate the teacher’s privacy.
“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,” Deputy Attorney General W. Michael Tupman wrote. Five years later, Butler says DeLuca’s attendance records for his second state job at the Department of Labor are off limits to public disclosure because of DeLuca’s status as a protected merit system employee.
This is simply unacceptable. As Deputy Attorney General Michael Tupman said, the public has a right to know if we are being robbed by Tony DeLuca. We 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. We need to know that nothing is influencing their votes. And as state residents, we also need to know that we are getting our money’s worth from state employees we pay. The people, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, need this information to determine whether or not their employees are in fact doing their jobs.
There is no security threat to anyone in providing that information. Quite simply, and to be frank, no international terrorist is going to target an obscure state lawmaker. You all in Dover are not THAT important. And while there is always a risk that some deranged freak is going to take a gun to a state building and gun down someone, that risk cannot be hidden behind to excuse denying the people access to their information. There is also no basis for denying their right to that information because DeLuca is a merit system employee. That is really a distinction without a difference.
Without this information, I am forced to assume that Tony DeLuca, and anyone similarly situated (Helene Keeley, John Viola, etc.) is in fact stealing money. I, and I believe all of my fellow contributors at Delaware Liberal, demand that they voluntarily release that information, and waive the supposed protections a merit based employee receives under the law.
Failing that, I demand their resignation. From their legislative posts, preferrably. Because, quite simply, if we can’t have the records, Delaware’s legislators must be prohibited from having two state jobs.
It is the lack of trust that fuels this demand. Assuming the Attorney General’s office is acting in good faith here, it is their lack of trust in the people, assuming that some will use this information for their criminal purposes, that motivates the refusal to release this information. And that leads us to demand that all legislators be prohibited from holding two state jobs. You don’t trust us, we will not trust you.