VSEA successfully goes nuclear: email public records acquisition creates a brand new world

Right on VSEA! Way to Go! :) n/t (0.00 / 0)

Nate Freeman

Northfield, VT

natefreeman@gmail.com

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by: mydog @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 10:14:25 AM CDT

General comment. (4.00 / 1)

As a current employee of VTrans, I am privileged to witness first hand the inner workings of government when you incompetent people for the qualification that they will agree with you.

As an example (this is before my time, but the story has been repeated verbatim from numerous people) Dave Scott was at one time a director of PDD (Program Development, essentially the work horse that designs projects) under Pat MacDonald.  Once Douglas took office, he wanted Scott gone.  The reasons were never clear to me, it's possible he simply wanted to clean house, however Dave was an excellent manager and didn't deserve to be fired even if he wasn't a Douglas man.  He did his job and was accountable for the people working under him - what more can you ask from a director?

MacDonald was told to fire Scott in some way shape or form.  Given that the directors are essentially working under the pleasure of the Governor, this wouldn't have been an unreasonable request.  MacDonald refused and Douglas canned her and installed Dawn Terrill (Terrill the Tyrant, as has been told to me) who proceeded to shit-can Scott at Douglas' request.  I don't know much about Terrill, but in general the impression that I've gotten is that she was more interested in installing people who would go along with Douglas' policies (and budget priorities) than competent and accountable employees.  

If this sounds at all familiar, it is because it's very similar to the situation at the Justice Department under El Presidente.  Or perhaps more to the point, similar to the Palin corruption scandal - though without the nepotism aspect of it being her brother-in-law.  

Long story short, I do not know if it's a good thing that people may find out exactly how their governments are being run.  In essence, agencies and departments like VTrans are supposed to operate apolitically - this hasn't been the case for many years (I can only speak of the Douglas years, Dean may have meddled as well).  How are tax payers going to react to knowing explicitly how their gas funds are being used?  Are they going to be upset to know that many of those dollars are being used to balance the general budget at the end of the year?  My expectation is that the "nuclear" event is mostly going to be met with a collective shrug.  How many people took to rioting over the fact that what is supposed to be the most apolitical branch of government (Judiciary) was being run as if it were the R.N.C.?

This may do a lot for the people already looking for more tomatoes to chuck at the jokers pulling the strings, but I am pessimistic that this will amount to any significant backlash to the Douglas administration...which is what I interpreted "Start the popcorn!" as.

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by: Gilean82 @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 17:15:28 PM CDT

By "start the popcorn"... (0.00 / 0)

...I was referring to what could be the beginning of a lot of email requests spanning the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and the craziness that might bring.

But clearly popcorn comes in many flavors.

undercaffeinated

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by: odum @ Thu Sep 04, 2008 at 17:19:56 PM CDT

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