PD Lays Out Blunt's Fee Office Scam
The Post-Dispatch goes front-page above-the-fold with a story by Jo Mannies on Governor Matt Blunt's fee office scheme. Jo gets an awful lot of information on the record in this story.
Here's the most telling part. Blunt is already starting to talk like a guy who knows he is going to end up appearing before a grand jury:
Jackson said the governor was not involved in the creation of the management companies and doesn't recall being aware of them. {emphasis added}
That sure seems like a very careful construction. But then again, I guess it depends on what your definition of "aware" is.
The PD even produced a snazzy little graphic to demonstrate the Blunt-Lott web.
The major unasked and unanswered question in this story is who ultimately benefits from these management companies. There is no reason for the Governor to cloak these transactions in such secrecy unless there is someone benefitting from the deal that he doesn't want the public to know about.
As Jac Cardetti says in the story, the Governor should require his fee agents to make the financial ties to the management companies publicly available.
"The management companies are set up to hide who ultimately benefits
from Gov. Blunt's fee office system," said Jack Cardetti, spokesman for
the Missouri Democratic Party. "That is what's so troubling. If Blunt
wanted to lift the curtain and let the sunshine in, he could require
his fee agents to disclose their contracts with these management
companies."
It's also quite interesting that the Governor claims that he had no knowledge about the management companies, yet his appointments director, James Harris, has previously acknowledged that he knew about them. They clearly don't yet have their story together on that piece of the scandal.
Random Fee Office/Garrett Lott Trivia
- Garrett Lott remains an officer in Missourians for Matt Blunt, Inc. and was Treasurer of Talent for Senate until just before the federal investigation began.
- Jason Otke, one of the fee agents mentioned in the PD story/graphic, is the brother-in-law of uber-lobbyist and Andy Blunt business associate, Jewell Patek.
- Tyler Alcorn (who was originally named for the West County fee office before it was changed over into the name of his wife) is a business partner with Lott in a company called Communication Strategies, Inc. Jo mentions this in her story, but doesn't give the name of the company.
- Garrett Lott was also the treasurer of the mysterious Missouri Millenium Fund, which funnelled money to Missouri Republicans from clients of Jack Abramoff.
- Several of the fee agents in the PD graphic also have ties to Rep. Nathan Cooper and his 158th Legislative Disctrict Committee, which has paid consulting fees to James Harris, the Governor Appointments Director.
- Those agents include Buddy Hardin, Abid Nisar and Damir Husic, among others that were not mentioned by the Post-Dispatch.
- The Creve Coeur office is in the name of James Day, who on the corporate records lists the same address in Wildwood as Karen Mohan Day, Governor Blunt's chief fundraising staffer. Though on Governor Blunt's campaign finance reports, Mr. Day lists an address in Marshfield, which would be quite a commute to Creve Coeur every day.
- The Kansas City equivalent to Lott and Cohen's operation is run by Stephanie Goodnight. Her company is called, cleverly enough, KC Management. Goodnight is the cousin of former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves' wife, Tracy.
More as I think of it.
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One other question
Since the state of Missouri is supposed to be broke....who is paying for Matts extended European Visit? Is he getting a resume together so he will look worldly when he runs for Kit Bonds Senate Seat ?
Spazaware?
Dear Spaz,
I sure hope that at the end of the story on all this fee-for-all that we don't learn that you had your bed feathered on the second floor landing at the top of the capitol stairs.
Sleep well.
Ignited
Â
The Governor's weak memory...
I noted above that the Governor is being very careful about what he says given that he is likely to end up in front of a grand jury.
When asked if he knew about the management companies, he said through a spokesman:
And last month, when asked if he had been strong-arming people to hire certain lobbyists and consultants, the Governor had this to say:
Both of those answers are different than, "No."
Check the numbers
Someone needs to independently confirm the savings Trish Vincent proclaims in changing the 11 state run offices to fee offices. In recent years the state run offices have been collecting the same additional fees that fee offices have been collecting. So is Trish’s number($7 million) netting income and expenses, or is it simply pointing out the expenses which have been eliminated and giving no weight to fee income? Do not rely on the numbers created by DOR Internal Audit, seek independent verification. Have you been to some of the former state run offices? I question that customer service is better.
Never made sense the state run offices were closed, now we are beginning to see why, GOP needed more plums to pass out.
Trish is only counting one side of the ledger....
Trish is intentionally deceiving when she says the state "saved" $7 million. She is only counting the expenses that moved off the books. She is not counting the foregone revenue.
Clearly the "new" fee offices are profit-making entities, or the Governor's cronies wouldn't have wanted them. It is a shame he permits her dishonesty on this matter. But then again, Spence repeatst the same lie.
Coincidence?
Does anyone know whether or not the sudden appointment of DOR's General Counsel as Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations is related to the fee offices scandal?
Hans zees Nothing. . . Nothing!