The Delaware Coalition for Open Government and the Progressive Democrats for Delaware have issued a Joint Statement on Senator DeLuca on the ongoing issue of “double dipping.” Feel free to join this statement by signing your name, or “pseudonym,” below in the comments.
The recent announcement from the State Attorney General’s office that they cannot release information and/or records as to when Senate President Pro Tem Anthony DeLuca shows up to work is simply unacceptable.
The words of Deputy Attorney General W. Michael Tupman are as true today as they were in 2006: “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.”
Those words were true with respect to former State Representative Nancy Wagner, and they must be just as true with respect Senator Anthony DeLuca. Citizens 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 and effectively. We need to know that nothing is influencing their votes.
There is no security threat to anyone in providing that information. There is also no basis for denying their right to that information because the elected official is a merit system employee in his or her second job. That is really a distinction without a difference.
We request that Senator DeLuca and any similarly situated Senator or Representative voluntarily release that information, and waive the supposed protections a merit based employee receives under the law. Failing that, they should resign one of their positions. Because, quite simply, if we can’t have the records and the doors of government are being shut to the people, then Delaware’s legislators must be prohibited from having two state jobs.
We also urge the General Assembly to, once and for all, ban “double-dipping” on the part of all legislators and all state employees.
Signed,
Paul Baumbach, President, Progressive Democrats for Delaware
John D. Flaherty, President, Delaware Coalition for Open Government
C. Edward Brittingham, President, NAACP Delaware State Conference of Branches
Mark Blake, President, Greater Hockessin Area Development Association
Dave Bailey
Frieda Berryhill
Dan Bockover
Gemma Buckley
Jack Buckley
Rita Carnevale
Cassie Cathell
Paul Cathell
Valerie V. Cloutier
Mack D. Cochran
Susan Regis Collins
Richard Connell
Bonnie A. Corwin
Emily (Tuthill) Best Cramer
John Crowley
Alberta Crowley
Anthony J. De Marco
Avis W. DiBuo
Nick DiBuo
June Eisley
Jimmy “Chainsaw” Epps
Leann H. Ferguson
Jeremy Filliben
Gerry Fulcher
Catherine Gibson
Harry Glaze
Lynn Glaze
Phil Goldstein
Ken Grant
Karen Hartley-Nagle
Karen Heyman
Michael Heyman
Hardy Hoegger
Susan Howell
Rob Hurst
John Irwin
Al Jackson
Richard Kiger
Sandra LaBlanche
Philip Lavelle
Jerry Ledwith
Tanya Vaillancourt Looney
Stan Lucas
Christine Madden
R. Jerry Martin
Mike Matthews
Raetta McCall
David McCorquodale
Mickey McKay
John TC Megahan
Jason K. Melrath
Connie Merlet
Chuck Mulholland
Lois Myoda
Tim Myoda
Larry Nagengast
Bill Narcowich
Ed Osborne
Michelle Ostafy
Bill Pearson
Meyer J. Persow
Coralie Pryde
Robert Ruddy
Paul Sample
Tam Searle
Frank Sims
Cynthia L. Smith
Scott R. Spencer
Naomi Syken
Steve Tanzer
Chad Tolman
Jim Vandergast
Rosie Volpe
Katherine Ward
Pat Webb
Jack Wells
Frances West
C. Weymouth
Nancy Willing
Kent Woudstra
Kit Zak