Bethany Beached: Day 37!
Kids, today we take a deep dive into Delaware Way cronyism. Dating back to 2017, featuring BHL and one of her political allies. The reward? Another job for which the crony was unqualified and was not required to go through a proper hiring process.
Let’s first start with Tanner Polce, who is but a footnote in today’s tale. He indeed has a job with the Brandywine Valley SPCA. Don’t worry, not directly with animals. He’s a PR flak. His title? Chief Advancement Officer. I think we can all agree that few agencies do better work than the Brandywine Valley SPCA. Our two cats would agree. The SPCA has been a national leader in driving toward no-kill shelters. In fact:
A big influence was consolidating animal control for dogs and humane law enforcement at the state level under the Delaware Office of Animal Welfare (OAW). In 2016, the BVSPCA was awarded a five-year, state-wide animal services contract by the OAW. The BVSPCA was the first contracted shelter to deliver no-kill life-saving, which it has sustained each year.
Patience, patience, I’m getting to my point–and I do have one.
The Delaware Office Of Animal Welfare was legislatively created in 2014. Sen. Patti Blevins, who served on the General Assembly Animal Welfare Task Force, sponsored the key bill.
In November of 2016, Sen. Blevins, who was President Pro-Tem at the time, lost her reelection bid to Anthony DelCollo. On November 14, 2016, she wrote the following on Facebook:
Over the last two years, I was proud to work with my dear friend and our next Lt. Governor, Bethany Hall-Long, to make real progress on mental health and substance abuse treatment in our state. I know Bethany will continue her focus on that area in her new role alongside Governor-elect John Carney.
We’re almost there. Blevins wasn’t out of a job long. On January 30, 2017, immediately following the installation of Carney and Bethany Hall-Long, Patti Blevins was handed the job of Director of the Office Of Animal Welfare:
In an interview Wednesday, Blevins, 62, said she plans to focus on evaluating the office’s policies and procedures, improve on local partnerships and examine the interactions between animal control officers and the community. She declined to be more specific, explaining that she needs to become more familiar with the organization.
Public Health Director Karyl Rattay, who was responsible for hiring Blevins, dismissed accusations of favoritism.
“We wanted the best and most qualified person for this position,” she said Wednesday. “No one knows the animal welfare landscape as well as Patti.”
‘The animal welfare landscape’.
In her new role, Blevins, 62 will earn a salary equivalent to her predecessor’s, totaling more than $84,000. That represents a 22 percent increase from her salary as the chamber’s highest-ranking member, she said. On top of that, Blevins will receive an annual state pension of roughly $34,000. Unlike most regular state employees, former elected officials who become state employees are entitled under law to pension payments in addition to their regular salaries, according to David Craik, state pension administrator.
This almost defines a sweetheart deal, one engineered at the highest levels of the Carney/Hall-Long administration. It’s not as if there weren’t a bleepload of qualified candidates:
State health officials said they conducted a national search to replace Brown, who announced her departure in October. The job posting for the animal welfare director position expired on Oct. 26, while Blevins was still campaigning for her Senate seat.
Rattay said she had “made contact” with 70 other candidates and was still actively recruiting for the position prior to her conversation with Blevins.
A national search. 70 candidates. A missed deadline. No problem: Patti needs a job. It stunk at the time.
She lasted something like five months.
This is not the only time that BHL has interceded on behalf of a former state legislator, in this next case, one who ‘fell upward’ after blatantly failing at a job that was created just for her.
But that’s a story for another day. And another episode of Bethany Beached.
Forgot to mention–Patti’s long-time election strategist was Ann Farley–who is one of BHL’s few remaining supporters, at least publicly.
How and when did BHL intercede for Blevins? I’m not picking up what you’re putting down there.
Missing this link too.
I’m connecting the dots. Feel free not to believe that she interceded. But someone higher up on the food chain did, and BHL was the only one singled out by Blevins for effusive thanks. Plus, the Ann Farley connection is real and ongoing.
If she didn’t, then answer me this: How does someone who didn’t even apply for a job when a national search turned up 70 possible candidates get that job?
It’s clear that some sort of fix was in. That hire was shady from the start. But it could just as easily have been Carney making the call, or Blevins herself putting the squeeze on. There’s no evidence that BHL connived to get her pal hired. A year-old Facebook post does not an intercedence prove. I know you don’t care, but this one is an overreach.
Wasn’t a year old. November 2016. Carney and BHL were inaugurated in 2017. And they were elected in 2016. During the time after election, it appears that DHSS didn’t interview a single one of the 70 applicants from the nationwide search who had, unlike Blevins, filed before the deadline.
I take Bill’s point that Markell could have been involved as well. But I don’t think he would have intervened w/o either Carney’s or BHL’s go-ahead.
Besides, it’s part of a pattern. BHL got her husband that job in NCC, which is why Gordon said he couldn’t fire him.
And we have yet to get to the Rebecca Walker story, in which BHL made sure that she ‘fell upwards’ after she failed at a job she literally created for herself. Was indicted, in fact.
That one’s coming soon…
Respectfully, I think you’re connecting dots that don’t exist, or you’re squinting really hard to see connections.
This story (www.capegazette.com/article/former-senator-takes-reins-office-animal-welfare/123536) pretty clearly says that they reached out to Patti a full month before Bethany was sworn in:
“We approached Patti about the job in December because of her qualifications and background; not the other way around,” said spokeswoman Emily Knearl, adding that recruitment efforts continued until Blevins accepted the position.
You’d have to believe Bethany pestered Markell (who was still governor) into hiring Patti. Add in that Patti was announced 10 days before Carney took the reins.
Not disagreeing with you about Patti getting a sweetheart deal, but c’mon, I think you’re trying to fudge something that doesn’t add up.
I first learned about the Blevins issue when this bill came up in 2021, and thought enough time had passed that surely the legislation to solve for this could be agreeable. I was wrong. https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48462
Notice Rep Bentz didn’t sponsor, and benefits from that. Funny to have Bennett lead this with her ultimate conflict of interest with Dover.
Hot off the press;)!
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2023/10/26/bethany-hall-long-campaign-finance-audit-reporting-errors-no-violations/71335129007/
So it looks like all the campaign quitters were just wildly overreacting to very minor errors.
““During these campaigns, there were times my husband and I lent the campaign money or charged campaign-related expenses to our credit cards,” she said. “Some of the loans and expenses were not correctly entered. With the help of accountants, we are reconciling the campaign account.”
Sounds like they commingled funds.