Call It A Comeback
I know the press is trying to be fair, but it’s misrepresenting what an audit does. It doesn’t go in and ask questions about procedures, it documents whether procedures are in place and implemented properly. It isn’t an allegation when it finds a problem–it is a problem.
What an idiot, absolute idiot the Governor is.
CMS is “ruffling some feathers” because it is changing purchasing policies established 10 to 12 years ago by Holland, who worked on reforming state purchasing laws, Blagojevich said.
Which misses the point of nearly every finding—the law was not followed in regards to RFPs, RFPs were changed with individuals working on them benefiting from the changes, RFPs were modified to fit particular bids instead of giving all bidders reasonable chances and then much of the bid was reinstated after being awarded at a lower level. That’s changing business, but it’s doing it to the benefit of particular companies and fails to meet any definition of reform.
Further, the savings cannot be documented–the agency in the most bizarre defense ever–insisted they estimated savings as they claim the law wanted, but they can’t demonstrate them. It’s nothing more than Faith Based Accounting.
The Daily Herald offers up this in relation to the audit:
Maybe Illinois government?s roots in political and money connections, quid pro quo agreements and wink-and-nudge contracts run so deeply that Blagojevich has found it harder than he expected to change business as usual. Maybe those he entrusted to make the changes have let him down. Maybe the governor intended to change the culture but once in office found it easier to follow a path of less resistance. Or, maybe, the governor?s office has satisfactory answers for many or all of the audit?s criticisms. But shrugging off the audit or attacking the messenger won?t do. Not with so many troubling questions at hand.
I understand the desire to want a response, but frankly, the lack of documentation is alone a point that there aren’t answers to the audit. The audit seeks out such materials–it not being available in so many cases means the agency is seriously troubled. An audit doesn’t raise questions, it answers them.
Mostly, state agencies are monitored by fire alarms. Someone interacting with the agency calls a Lege Member and tells them there is a problem. This works because the Lege has very limited time to monitor state agencies. However, the one type of police patrol they do have is an audit that seeks to determine if the agency is following standard practices on average–that this audit found such horrible findings on just spot checks isn’t potentially exculpatory as CMS seemed to argue, it is more damning than just finding a few issues. It says no one’s following the rules even when a metaphorical quick check is done.
The degree of seriousness of this audit cannot be overestimated.
And threaten to commit suicide if Tom DeLay continues to be attacked.
Shrug.
One nice thing about being in the minority–the incredibly stupid political moves that majorities always make become really funny.
I don’t do these often, but I found this kind of interesting:
Your Linguistic Profile: |
| 70% General American English |
| 10% Dixie |
| 10% Upper Midwestern |
| 5% Midwestern |
| 5% Yankee |
I grew up in Central Illinois, but spent many summers in Georgia with my Dad who worked for Lockheed and Martin Marietta there. The legacy of both continues. Of course, I’ll be heading to Greene County for the weekend with the relatives where pop is soda.
For all of his skills as a candidate, the Governor is completely tone deaf in relation to CMS with his first quote being:
“My understanding is that the conflict between the auditor general and CMS is sort of like a prize fight between accountants, OK?” the governor said. “There’s not a lot of muscle there but a lot of argument and quarrel.”
The strategy isn’t a horrible one if this was the first hint of these problems, but in this case, other Constitutional Officers have been involved on several of these issues including Hynes in relation to the time it takes to submit contracts.
The idea is to post-modernize the debate into a he said-he said argument between the two and stay above the fray, but in this case, for many reasons, this isn’t that easy to solve.
First, there is an arbiter of the legal issues called the AG and when she comes back with charges and clear findings, it comes down to state law.
Second, at this point, Holland has a lot more allies than does the Administration in the Lege. The Governor has angered most of the Democratic caucus at various times and the only real incentive is to go after him. He doesn’t have the political machine and 30 years of relationships that George Ryan had when he got into trouble.
The Republicans already have every reason to attack the guy, he just gave the Democrats a reason–to distance themselves from him and his falling poll numbers. When his numbers were up around 60%, people went with him because he had the public at his back, when that is gone, its better to oppose him if you are from a swing district and a Democrat. And safe seat Dems see little reason to back a guy who has cut him off at the shins.
Being difficult with the Lege can work–Edgar showed that, but you have to keep yourself popular and relatively clean.
Third, Holland worked for Phil Rock and knows the Lege well. He’s not just some hapless bureaucrat. He has long standing relationships on both sides of the aisle, and no one in the Lege is going to back the administration over him. He already did a bang up job on the audit response comments. As someone who has done a evaluation that include document reviews chosen from samples, everything in that audit stands as reasonable. He was smart in hitting back immediately instead of letting the administration get out in front of this and attack him.
Fourth, the audit provided a roadmap to those who want to follow-up and investigate what is going on–instead of just being one time report, this offers reporters months of stories with the documentation to back it up and a legit explanation to editors to give them the time to track down more examples.
Fifth, it hits at a time where the refrain amongst the chattering class is that he’s more of the same instead of changing business as usual. Combine this with number four and you have a meme starting just as the lines of attack for the general election are starting to get going.
I’ll go out on a limb and say Paul Campbell won’t be confirmed to head CMS–the audit is damning and his ridiculous claims that the audit gives them a chance to show off their good work is one of the most politically tone deaf statements ever heard in Springfield–right next to Wynn’s claim that he didn’t include the information on the Auditor’s office as a warning.
On top of that, Campbell is one of the few people in the entire fiasco with an easy to target problem–people don’t want to hear about state officials getting freebies and no one is going to defend him at the Statehouse.
From a Faithful ArchPundit Reader:
Agree on your point, but there was another recent article/column somehwere that also used this device (written like a blog) that TOTALLY MISSES THE POINT that the most recent entries come first and the first entries come last. Lynn’s column was therefore upside down.
I first kind of chuckled at it, but one of the more interesting things that does happen in blogging is how the story evolves and reading it from most recent to oldest does add an interesting element to how stories evolve so this is more important than one might think.
Wayyyyyy differently is taken on by the State Journal Register
GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH promised to change the way Illinois government does business. A harshly critical audit of Central Management Services released Tuesday would indicate maybe the governor’s administrators are doing things a bit too differently.
And that is putting Auditor General Bill Holland’s report in the kindest possible light.
The audit raises serious concerns about how Illinois’ chief administrative agency has conducted its business in the two years ending June 30, 2004. Holland’s report hit like a meteorite Tuesday, streaking in with a lot of heat and raising a huge cloud of dust.
Actually, the editorial is far too easy on CMS. The response section is one of the most obnoxious and deluded responses to an audit I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a few doozies. It was a complete denial of reality that was competently documented by Holland and his team.
Community Development Block Grant funds have been targeted by the Bush Administration to be cut. The problem is that block grant funding was the choice over specific forms of aid years ago to give states and localities more flexibility–now the Bush Administration wants to simply end them.
CDBG funds often are used for gap financing for affordable housing. When a project is under development and the numbers can’t quite make it a profitable without a boost, wise development officials apply CDBG funds to make up the difference (horribly simplified, but most should get the point). If these funds disappear, cities across America will see a significant decrease in production of affordable housing units by private developers.
On top of that, HOPE VI housing which is mixed income and provides significant support to families residing in them is being cut, because it hit the 100,000 unit mark. Kit Bond of Missouri is attacking these cuts because as one of the movers behind the movement towards HOPE VI programs to help the working poor, the original goal was to see how the program worked–and now that is has been largely successful in providing a more humane and integrated on class at least setting for families, the program is being pulled.
Richard Daley is protesting the cuts to CDBG, but to go further, the two most successful programs in providing livable and decent housing to low-income families are on the chopping block.
Especially in the case of CDBG funding, the disconnect between the President’s babbling about faith based initiatives and reality comes home:
The city’s block grant money goes for such things as “affordable housing, youth programming, health clinics, job training and support services for seniors, domestic violence victims and others with special needs,” Daley said at a news conference at Neighborhood Housing Services, 1279 N. Milwaukee Ave.
That not-for-profit group is one of 350 local organizations, from the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago to Hull House Association, that receive federal grant monies funneled through the city.
Officials in Washington talk about using faith-based organizations to help people, said Rev. Richard Tolliver, president of St. Edmund’s Redevelopment Corp., which has built eight housing developments with more than 500 living units with the help of $3.6 million in grants.
“Unfortunately, we can’t do it based on faith alone,” he said.
Funding over the years has declined. Chicago received $95.5 million in 2005, nearly $14 million less than the city received in 2002. If Bush’s proposal for next year is approved by Congress, it could mean a loss of almost $48 million, according to the mayor.
CDBG funding isn’t only for housing, but is the primary issue for which I have some understanding of the impact in terms of these funds.
Cities have largely been expected to warehouse the poorest amongst us for some time. Mayors like Daley, despite all of his faults, have done an admirable job getting the most out of these funds and effectively utilized the funds to help revitalize slums, the overall level of funding for these programs isn’t that high and for the dollar most cities use them very effectively.
ArchPundit