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Tom Salmon: In Search of the Lost Chord?

by: Doug Hoffer

Wed Feb 01, 2012 at 08:57:39 AM EST


( - promoted by Sue Prent)

Tom Salmon has done it again. See his latest effort on behalf of Entergy at vtdigger.

http://vtdigger.org/2012/01/31...

Here is my response.

There he goes again. First, Mr. Salmon said, "As state auditor, it is my duty to evaluate the performance of state government. I would be remiss if I didn't point out that state government has wasted a lot of taxpayer money..."

Recent events regarding energy policy and Vermont Yankee are the result of elections and legislative action. Decisions by our elected officials are unavoidably subjective and cannot be audited like a state program. Mr. Salmon's comments were about policy decisions. The fact that money was spent reflects choices made by our elected officials. That's their job; not Mr. Salmon's.

Mr. Salmon also said, "PSB Chairman Jim Volz and members David Coen and John Burke have the duty to remain objective in the face of shrill, arrogant anti-nuclear zealots who could care less about the practical issues involving energy policy."

Wow. It's ironic at best that Mr. Salmon - who routinely ignores the statutory limits of his own job, feels the need to lecture the members of the PSB about their responsibilities.

more below

Doug Hoffer :: Tom Salmon: In Search of the Lost Chord?
This is reminiscent of Mr. Salmon's bizarre ex-parte communication with a state judge over a year ago when he complained about "insincere" public records requests and told the judge how he should do his job (and suggested that there be "boundaries" for public records requests).

Mr. Salmon often says he is "unemotional." Presumably, this means he is objective. So when he uses words like shrill, arrogant, and zealots, we have to wonder where he left his objectivity.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Mr. Salmon has compromised his objectivity. In august of last year, he called for Burlington Telecom to be auctioned and made unflattering remarks about Burlington's elected officials. At that time, his office was conducting a legislatively mandated TIF audit of Burlington. To make such remarks during an audit of the city compromised his objectivity.

A year ago Mr. Salmon said he didn't want to be State Auditor anymore and hoped to run for U.S. Senate, Governor, or Lt. Governor. Having changed his mind, he now seeks to change the definition of his job so he can do what he wants without giving up his very well-paying job. This is not what taxpayers expect of their State Auditor (and what is he not doing while pursuing these other activities?).

This is just the latest in a series of press releases and media events by Mr. Salmon about Vermont Yankee. Perhaps he should resign and register as a lobbyist for Entergy; this press release certainly reads like it was written by Entergy.

Clearly, Mr. Salmon would prefer to be a legislator or chief executive. But he's not. He's the State Auditor and he should act like one.

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Raise Your Voice!

The more Auditor Salmon's Big Brain goes wandering, (4.00 / 1)
the more I think someone ought to take a very close look at how the office of the auditor is doing while he is "away."

Question (0.00 / 0)
Is salmon an endangered species?  

Dumbing down America (0.00 / 0)
With people like Salmon already in office, it makes your skin crawl to think about all the other morons that will be elected in November.    

Who audits the auditor? (4.00 / 2)
A serious question, actually. Does anyone in state government have the authority to take a look at how The Big Fish spends his time and his office's resources?  A Legislative committee, perhaps?  

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."  --Frank Zappa

You mean (4.00 / 1)
An arrogant, shrill, emotional legislative committee? One that was elected by shrill, emotional, arrogant Vermonters?

[ Parent ]
well (4.00 / 1)
the Auditor is largely independent of the legislature

having said that, the legislature does have the power of the purse; in addition, it could also revise / refine the statutes that define the Auditor's responsibilities

but you don't really want to reduce the Auditor's budget, you just want to get more value for the money spent; the Auditor talks a good game about making government more effective but he doesn't really back that up with data (in my view, he can't)

another option is to revisit the jobs allocated to the Auditor's office; last year he used a vacant slot to hire an additional administrative aide instead of another auditor; if I'm not mistaken, the legislature can look at the number and classifications of the jobs in the office

in theory, one could ask the Society of Vermont CPA's to weigh in on the issue but I assume it would be viewed as too political and they would decline the invitation

I suppose the two Government Operations committee's could ask for a review of the Auditor's Office; however, who would they get to do it and how much would it cost? it seems unlikely but if they wanted to I would recommend a group composed of former state auditors, former deputy state auditors, and former senior employees of the office

in the end, voters have the final word; unfortunately, most know little about the office; the details are too wonky for most; and so-called "down ticket" races struggle for ink and air time so it's tough to reach people (especially in light of Mr. Salmon's endless PR efforts, which are curious since he claims not to care about his political future)

I'm open to suggestion

btw - all state auditors are subject to periodic assessments by auditors & staff from other states (peer review); while these are important, they are not likely to reach the issues presented by Mr. Salmon's erratic behavior (I doubt they they would look for weird op-eds unrelated to actual audits); in any case, it appears that a peer review has not been conducted sine 2007 so the office has not been reviewed for Mr. Salmon's entire tenure


[ Parent ]
"Oh, that's just Tom" (4.00 / 1)
is the attitude.Seems the Vermont media,after the initial hubbub following the DUI,his rambling news conference and his late night email FU to 7Days Shay Totten rarely question the propriety of his behavior.It's just accepted as standard Salmon fare.



today's Randolph Herald (4.00 / 1)
reports Salmon will be featured speaker at next meeting of the Central VT Friends of the Tea Party.

can you (4.00 / 1)
provide a link or more information?

[ Parent ]
Yup! (4.00 / 1)
The Tea Party would suit him well.  A lot of "spouting off," generating plenty of heat with absolutely no light.

[ Parent ]
Now (4.00 / 1)
I have the little tea pot song in my head.


[ Parent ]

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