State Treasurer Chip Flowers had his news conference this AM that preceded the release of travel documents from his office. You can see a clip of the news conference at WDEL plus their story. The NJ also has some video and a story. Both stories highlight the apology (from WDEL):
For the first time in this controversy, we also heard Flowers say he’s sorry.
“I sincerely apologize for the confusion and the distractions that have occurred as a result of some mistakes made in this office,” he says.
So basically there are four things Flowers says he will do:
- He’s going back to the two organizations that help reimburse the office’s travel to get funds not claimed when Velda Potter was in office (not clear if this includes the Markell term too).
- He’s hiring a new Fiscal Officer to oversee the reimbursements process. You’ll recall that he’s blamed issues with these reimbursements on the recently retired employee.
- He’s going to use his own credit card for some of his own travel, and submit for reimbursements for whatever charges he makes doing state business. This bit includes a typical bit of Floweriania:
“If I’m at a business meeting and I order three pancakes, and the reimbursement only allows for two pancakes, the last flapjack is on me,”
Because as we all know, travel reimbursements are made on a per pancake basis. Because pretty much every breakfast place charges you by the pancake.
- He’s going to cooperate with the Finance Office in reviewing the expense operation in the Treasurer’s office.
Seriously, the only one of these that is especially meaningful is the one he saved for last.
I spun through the pdf of the expenses that was released this afternoon — you can see them all here (pdf, give it time to load) — and have just a few impressions (without looking at this closely):
- He loses a fair number of receipts!
- There’s claims of personal reimbursements but no documents here that prove it.
- Lots of room service!
- Seriously, I’m surprised at the lack of allocations for these charges, but I think that is related to what I’m used to seeing in my own job. But this is the state government, so making sure these charges are allocated to the right accounts may not make any difference to how they review charges and look at trends.
I’ve still got real work to do and will take a look at these closer shortly. In the meantime, feel free to look at these and let us know in the comments what you see.
UPDATE: OK, so I’ve had some time to look at this. I thought for awhile that I really should develop a spreadsheet to help in inventorying what is here, but decided against it. This is why:
- I just don’t see how this answers the questions that are open re: what happened during the extra days in Alaska. This data dump is accompanied by a claim that he is paying for the 13th and 14th now, even though he told everyone he was working those days. He just couldn’t tell us who he was working with. Deep Sigh. If you are working, you can make that case by naming names. This might fall of the radar now that a portion of it is paid for, but it doesn’t go away without a pretty big cloud over all if it, and the fact that way too many of us simply don’t buy what he’s selling here.
- The Vermont trip in 2011 has $1234.39 receipts missing – car, gas, a train ticket, Wilmington parking. Not a crime, but missing receipts are the norm here. Not evidence of someone who is cares about good custodianship of his own budget OR in making sure that expenses are accounted for with certainty. There’s charges on Flower’s bill that got transferred to Benner’s bill, but Benner’s receipts are not here.
- This dump is just incomplete. There are portions of Benner’s receipts on various pages (a portion of a train ticket, internet charges, a car she was a designated driver for), but her receipts are missing here, or the receipts of hers that are here are a mistake.
- There’s plenty of other items, that perhaps the Department of Finance should deal with — such as the fact that plenty of these hotel stays definitely are greater than the allowable per diem.
- Release of all of this info just reinforces the idea that there is very sloppy management over at the Department of the Treasury. Whoever told him to dump this stuff, blame it on politics, and keep up the drama isn’t doing him a bit of good. All anyone wants is to know that 1) taxpayer money is being respected; 2) the Treasurer can demonstrate some fiscal discipline in his own department and 3) that the state rules are being followed. I think we have to wait for the Department of Finance audit and report to know anything for sure.