The old story: LBJ in an early and nasty election is said to have suggested circulating a story about his opponent’s un-natural affection for farm animals. An aid said no one would believe it. LBJ replied he knew no one would believe it but that all they needed was to have him out there denying it.    

Big time Brian Dubie champion Haley Barbour and his Republican Governors Association seized on results from a quite meaningless Seven Days survey.

A total of 30 people responded to the survey but the RGA perked up at the fact that Shumlin “won” the Ethically Challenged category .Only 12 people voted for Shumlin but the RGA wrapped it up into a press release.  

Seven Days readily admits the shallowness of the poll ….

the likelihood that "winners" of our dubious categories could have easily been victims of lawmakers ganging up to smear an opponent. As a front-runner for the gubernatorial nomination, Shumlin certainly has a big target on his back.

Seven Days Blurt column chides the RGA for using unreliable ammo and suggests they find something with more meat on its bones for an attack.  But then almost wistfully Blurt ponders this what if

…But what if survey respondents answered the survey questions honestly? It still wouldn't be conclusive, but it would make you go hmmmm…

 

Maybe at best there might be no denying the survey shows 12 people don’t like Peter Shumlin

 Vermont’s acting Commissioner of Public Service David O’Brien still suffers the anguish resulting from a Christmas party several years ago. In attendance at the party was Vermont Yankee VP Jay Thayer whose power plant Commissioner O’Brien regulates.The suggestion of appearance of conflict has been in the news off and on since the holiday party.

This week O’Brien responded in a letter to vt.digger.com and makes a statement that reads as if he wished for a lot less openness in his life and more secrecy during Sunshine Week.  

In hindsight I regret being forthcoming about my personal holiday party, I should have answered that it was no one’s business who visits my home. Ever since this matter was first raised I feel as though my personal space has been invaded.

So the take away lesson learned isn’t that he should or could have worked to avoid a potential appearance of conflict of interest but that he should have kept the visit secret from the public. I guess we will never know if he threw a St. Patrick’s Day party?  

Governor’s Executive Code of Ethics  

Appearance of a conflict of interest" as used below in §§ III (A) (2) and (7) means the impression that a reasonable person might have, after full disclosure of the facts, that an Appointee's judgment might be significantly influenced by outside interests, even though there is no actual conflict of interest.

The city of Barre used Federal stimulus money to buy six new handguns, 21 Taser guns, and five new shotguns, including one nonlethal version that shoots bean bags.  

The Tasers have been used twice since their purchase was approved in August. Each case involved disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Both of the people tasered were women and it was the same policeman in both incidents.  

From the Times Argus here is the play by play in the latest incident starting from after the first Taser shot was fired.

…Osborn [a 58-year-old homeless woman] responded to this by laughing and saying “you got me,” bending forward and continuing to laugh, police said in a news release.  Duhaime then used the “drive stun capabilities” of the Taser, which required him to place the Taser directly on Osborn’s body as opposed to shooting the probes, Bombardier said.  

This method worked after several attempts, Bombardier said, but the officer and Osborn ended up on the ground, and Osborn took a swing at Duhaime and missed, leading to the citation for attempted assault.

The Barre leaders responded to reporter’s questions about the tasering  

–City Manager John Craig said Osborn's stubborn refusal to place her hands behind her back as Duhaime allegedly requested and her decision to cross her arms to make it more difficult for him to place her in handcuffs amounted to the sort of active resistance contemplated in the policy.  

–Mayor Lauzon said he isn't interested in quibbling over the difference between "active" and "passive" resistance, suggesting that as soon as someone is informed they are under arrest – as police say Osborn was – any resistance is active.  

-Protestors who lock arms to make it difficult for officers to arrest them could be fairly viewed as actively resistant, chief of Police Bombardier said.

But this switch to web-based government, just like the switch to web-based flight reservations and banking, means better service to clients at lower cost to the service provider. Not too good to be true. March 7,2010

Governor Jim Douglas’ resident smart tech man, Tom Evslin, is still threatening Vermont with an earlier promise of a government that will be run just like web-based flight reservations and banking services. He has expanded on this theme lately and now highlights the wonder of ATMs and computerized bank records as examples of efficiency for state government.  

Another newly added folksy illustration of life after our technological revolution is how easy it will be to apply for a hunting/fishing license. (Currently Hunting /fishing licenses can easily be purchased at most general stores in Vermont.) Perhaps he’s keeping it simple out of consideration for those that don’t share his vision of Vermont bureaucracy “in the cloud.”

But once records become electronic, they're wherever you need them to be. It doesn't matter whether they're in a corporate data center, on a disk in a state office. or somewhere off in a huge computer center operated by Google or Amazon (technically this is called being "in the cloud"). When you need access to them, they're where you are. You can withdraw money from any ATM (at least if you don't mind fees); you can charge at any store; and you ought to be able to go into any government office to do whatever government business you need to do.

He never touches the potential problems with cloud storage of public records on systems accessible through Google or Amazon. Previously his performance at the Vermont State Recovery Office was rated 47th out of 50 at providing required public access to economic stimulus spending and contract bid information. Evslin is a smart fellow, yet he persists in making simple arguments for his brave new world, with only fleeting references to what he calls “current organizational constraints.”  These constraints would surely involve “attendant discomforts, confusion, and fears,” but Evslin glosses over these specifics and proceeds speedily past. No reason to dwell on job and pay cuts.

Anyone with a minimum familiarity with web-based transactions knows the fur-balls that electronic data can cough up. I wish he trusted in his vision and Vermonters enough to raise the level of discussion above 1960’s Popular Science Magazine.  Stop chatting up the wonder of a government as futuristic as ATMs and airline flight reservation systems.

How about an open discussion about who wins and who loses in your bureaucratic cloud? Get out from the closed door meetings and explain to Vermont citizens, (or clients as you call them) how these changes will challenge them.  

UPDATE: The Free Press reports this deal is off. Cool. Wonder if that means they’ll ask for their contribution back from the Governor. -odum

The Free Press takes note today for Vermonters of the imminent arrival of approximately 33,000 tons of contaminated soil. This hazardous soil will be shipped to Interstate Waste Service’s Moretown landfill. The dioxin-contaminated soil is coming from a Massachusetts Superfund site where wood was treated chemically. This ARRA funded cleanup will make way for a 120 space parking lot. According to a Foxboro Ma. Newspaper, it will take roughly one thousand round trips and 100 work days to haul it away.  

Vermont Powerless unless the soil is reclassified?

The soil is a hazardous “substance” according to Federal EPA and must be removed from the Massachusetts site. However, in logic that’s worthy of Catch 22, the soil is not a hazardous “waste” and therefore can be dumped in Vermont. A manager at Interstate Waste’s Moretown site couldn’t say “offhand” if they tested leachate for dioxins.[to clarify: leachates at the Moretown Landfill]     Vermont’s ANR Dave DiDomenico says unless the Federal EPA reclassifies the soil as hazardous, it can do nothing to stop the dumping in Moretown.

“They are private landfills. We can’t force them to take a waste, and we can’t not allow them to take something that isn’t hazardous,” he said.

 

Douglas’ Waste Service Donations

In July last year Seven Days and Green Mountain Daily noted that among other donations   Governor Douglas had received large (by Vermont standards) $2,000 campaign donations from the Interstate Waste Service Moretown landfill and a small landfill in South Hadley Mass. The South Hadley landfill is owned by the town and operated by Interstate Waste Services.  

Will the State of Vermont suffer a population decline if Phil Scott loses his race for Lt. Governor? Writing in the Free Press, a fellow from Lamoille County applauds State Senator Phil Scott. He also declares his intention to leave Vermont if any Democrat becomes governor.  

The writer praises Scott’s “measured” and “old fashioned common sense approach” on trying to stall the vote on Vermont Yankee. I want to congratulate Sen. Phil Scott for separating his campaign for Vermont's lieutenant governor from the issues at hand. Oddly though, the writer takes a less measured approach than the one he claims Scott might possess. The writer declares his intention to leave Vermont if any of the five Democratic gubernatorial candidates win office. [emphasis added]

I have lived in Lamoille County all my life and have always loved Vermont. However, I have made a promise to myself and my wife that come November, if any of the five announced Democratic candidates for governor wins the election, I cannot stay in this state.

You know maybe old-fashioned-measured-common-sense isn’t what you think it is.  My guess is this urge to flee may be inspired by the example set by Scott’s campaign manager Glenn Wright of Ocala, Florida.

Wright very publicly moved from Vermont to Florida last year based on financial considerations. At the time,waggish rumors circulated that some top Vermont Republicans helped him pack-up his portfolios. He wrote movingly of his financially fueled anguish at the time

we can’t take it any more and are taking the only possible alternative: leaving Vermont.

Could one man’s actions have set in motion a broadly based, formerly latent, Republican flight instinct? Have the persistent yet unproven folk tales of upper bracket flight  fueled a generalized Republican exodus threat? Vote down this school budget or we all leave the town. Vote down this highway bill or we leave. My way or I pack it up and leave.

Old fashioned measured common sense or tough going.  

It’s Friday end of another long late winter week. How about some zombie news?

During a 2006 summer festival at a Minneapolis shopping mall seven zombies created an event to illustrate mindless consumerism. The group "calling themselves zombies and almost touching people.” were the subject of 911 calls complaining about them walking "in a stiff, lurching fashion" throughout the mall. For musical accompaniment the zombies carried packs of audio equipment with wires sticking out which police claimed looked like a bomb or simulated WMD.  

Court News Reports All but one member of the group were held at the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center for two nights; the minor in the group was taken to a juvenile detention center.    Jail officials confiscated Sternberg's prosthetic leg, explaining that he might use it as a weapon. The group members were initially booked on charges of displaying simulated weapons of mass destruction, a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But a sergeant reviewing the case determined that none of the sound equipment seized fit the definition of a simulated WMD.    Authorities returned the property, including [Zombie] Sternberg’s prosthetic leg, and released the group without filing a formal criminal complaint.

 

Now, years later a Minneapolis circuit court ruled that police should not have arrested the zombies. However the court dismissed a lawsuit for damages.

The zombies claimed their arrests and overnight detention were unconstitutional. Discrimination was alleged in the complaint over the confiscation of one zombie’s prosthetic leg.

The St. Louis-based appeals court reversed on the Fourth Amendment claims, saying the plaintiffs "were engaged in protected expressive conduct."   "[A]n objectively reasonable person would not think probable cause exists under the Minnesota disorderly conduct statue to arrest a group of peaceful people for engaging in an artistic protest by playing music, broadcasting statements, dressing as zombies, and walking erratically in downtown Minneapolis during a week-long festival," the three-judge panel wrote.      Nor was there probable cause to arrest the plaintiffs for displaying simulated WMDs, the court added.

 At the Vermont Senate vote on Yankee re-licensing newly appointed Senator Peg Flory proposed an amendment that called for supporting a new reactor be built on the Vermont Yankee site.

I wonder if she realized that rate payers in many states are being asked to pay nuclear plant construction costs in advance.    

The advertised nuclear power rebirth is facing more problems than those generated by Vermont Yankee’s ongoing tritium leak. Daunting start up construction costs scare private investors away. New plants can cost a quarter to one hundred percent of an entire utilities market capitalization.  

Federal backed loans guarantees and local rate payers will be footing major portions of the bill if utilities have their way. In states with nuclear power projects, utilities have lobbied for the ability to charge rate payers while construction is in progress. Residents of Georgia, Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Missouri may all be required to cover the advance costs of new nuclear power construction.  

Financing has always been one of the biggest obstacles to a renaissance of nuclear power. The plants are expensive, and construction tends to run late and over budget. …

So utilities have turned to state legislators and regulators to help contain capital costs. In states such as Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, utilities have won permission to charge customers for some of the cost of new reactors while construction is still in progress — a financing technique that would save utilities a couple of billion dollars for each reactor. Previously, utilities had to wait until power plants were in operation before raising rates, as they still do in most states.Washington Post

Similar to Vermont Yankee, another decaying Vermont power source is leaking. Lame duck Governor Jim Douglas is leaking Hooverism throughout the state.  

Encased in his proposals, often buried, but not too deeply is the crumbling old philosophy of a trickle-down man. The philosophy is crumbled, looks ancient, and should not be given license.    

He has proposed spending cuts which would result in  1,000-1,400 fewer jobs in Vermont according to economist Tom Kavet. This toxic Hooverism will trickle-down and ultimately poison and slow growth.  

"Total economic impacts could approach losses of $50 million per year in gross state product and exceed $40 million per year in personal income," Kavet wrote in his analysis.  "It's exactly what is happening across the country when state governments cut back," said Kavet, who testified before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee by telephone Thursday. "It acts as a drag on the economy.

Douglas said. "Our goal should not be to create or maintain jobs in the public sector," he said. Rutland Herald

Incredibly Governor Douglas is calling for the full Hoover; tax cuts for the wealthiest Vermonters .He repeated his calls on VPR’s noontime news program yesterday. As always Douglas fails to site any factual sources for his claim that upper income residents are leaving the state.  On VPR his anecdotal evidence included five unnamed CEO’s he knows, a Burlington businessman who may know two dozen tax refugees and one accountant who also may know a dozen.

Oh, would that the governor would call on these normally bold captains of industry to come forward and tell their sad tales publicly so all the little people might understand their anguish. Perhaps they could commiserate with the 1,000-1,400 that may soon be unemployed by Douglas’ spending cuts.

Yesterday, the Vermont Senate voted 26-4 to close Entergy’s Vermont Yankee power plant by 2012.

But, hey, it still leaks 24-7.

“… brings new insight on plant operation”* Yesterday while the Senate was voting, Entergy reported that after investigating itself for misrepresenting the existence of underground piping, they had suspended four more top level engineers.

Included, somewhat incredibly, is the head of the team currently investigating the underground leak of radioactive tritium.  These four suspensions makes a total of 11 high-level people suspended, disciplined and officially reprimanded for involvement in the underground pipe issue.

Entergy Nuclear announced Wednesday that it had suspended four additional senior Vermont Yankee employees – including the man who had been leading the investigation into the tritium leak – after it concluded its investigation into whether its employees lied to state regulators about the existence of buried pipes carrying radioactivity.  

Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said that no successor had been named to replace Dreyfuss on the tritium task force, but he stressed that finding the leak was a "team effort." He declined to say when Dreyfuss and the others were placed on leave and he said he couldn't say what administrative leave entailed.  Also placed on leave was Dave McElwee, Entergy's senior liaison engineer who was the main technical point man on regulatory issues for the company in Montpelier.

Prior to the tritium leaks and revelations of lying…err…misleading statements, Dreyfuss and McElwee were both featured prominently in Entergy’s public relations campaign; the rapidly terminated iamvy.com PR blitz. Before this current unpleasantness began, Vermont Yankee Site VP Mike Colomb (also among those admonished for the underground pipe deception) described the ad campaign’s goals like this:

“brings new insight on plant operation, as the featured employees — all Vermont residents — express in their own words the pride and dedication they bring to their jobs, and why it is in the best interest of all Vermonters to keep the plant in service.”