DeLuca Releases Some Records
DeLuca did his document drop, the News Journal reports:
The inch-thick stack of leave requests released late Tuesday night by a Senate Democratic staffer detail the hours DeLuca says he was absent from his $68,913 Labor Department job and bear his signature and that of Labor Secretary John McMahon, to whom he reports.
The limited records released by DeLuca only span the period from January to May of this year.
Of course, the key records sought – the swipe card data – was not released. This data would show the actual times DeLuca was on his DOL job. He’s still claiming personal safety, a claim that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense:
The request for card-swipe records was denied on the basis that it could endanger DeLuca’s personal safety and also is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act under a law passed in the post-9/11 efforts to tighten access to documents that could be used by terrorists
DeLuca is still pushing his disclosure bill, which would also require disclosure for legislators working for private companies. Personally I think DeLuca is pushing this broad bill because he know it has no chance of passing (I don’t think you can require private companies to release this kind of data) but he can say he tried. Meanwhile, we should probably take a closer look at a bill being proposed by Greg Lavelle:
Meanwhile, at the other end of Legislative Hall, House Minority Leader Greg Lavelle plans to introduce legislation that would remove the Freedom of Information Act exemption for officials such as DeLuca who hold down merit system jobs in state government. It also would specifically include card swipe data under FOIA.
Although DeLuca’s proposed legislation would broaden the state’s disclosure laws, Peterson and others questioned whether such a bill could gain enough support to become law. And even if it were to pass, Flaherty pointed out that public access to the records would effectively be limited.
DeLuca’s bill is very revealing. The fact is, a private employer can choose to pay a legislator for the time he or she isn’t there if they want to. It’s their money. DeLuca, Keeley and Viola are merit employees paid with tax dollars. It is very clear that DeLuca doesn’t see the difference between public and private monies, which is scary since he controls those public dollars.
Another question, for anyone who sees that “inch-thick stack” (insert Weiner joke here): is there anything on the “leave requests” that indicates that they were filled out prior to the last two weeks?
Ah come on…it is possible that he started keeping those records after all this happened. Much more interesting would be to have all of his leave slips since becoming protem. Along with card swipe records and payroll records. It is so like this man to make this about everyone else. Small man, small mind.