City government whistle blower, Ravenstahl administration critic, Bruce Kraus enthusiast and Barack Obama supporter Matthew Hogue (D-Extreme Makeover) raised concerns about questionable spending at the Housing authority -- concerns which prompted our Mayor Ravenstahl to respond.The mayor was "surprised" that HACP "may have authorized expenditures that could be considered inappropriate," (emphasis ours) in light of the fact that "we've tightened our belt all across city government."
Matt H officially gives Mayor Ravenstahl kudos for taking "quick action." At the same time, he is pressing his case upstairs to the Federalies, and printing the name of Housing authority Executive Director A. Fulton Meacham Jr. in boldface type.
The Comet is less impressed and more confused by the Mayor's response. How can he claim authoritatively to have tightened our belts "across the board," and at the same time be caught off guard by a rash of frivolous expenditures going back two years?
The whole thing reminds us of Plowgate and Promotionsgate. "We are frustrated and upset. We were unaware of it until it was reported. Now thank you for reporting how frustrated and upset we are. Harrumph."
Thing is, Hogue is up on his social justice horse -- we don't see him letting HACP off the hook with an overly broad, interminable and ultimately inconclusive investigation. Stay tuned.
I wouldn't call Matt H a Ravenstahl administration critic. He's been a Ravenstahl supporter, some would call him a homer, from day one. He fails to see any fault by the mayor in all of this and continues to defend him "how would the mayor have known about the spending?" When the mayor says the buck stops with him then that means he is responsible for what goes on in all boards and authorities in the city.
ReplyDeleteI thought Matt H did an excellent job exposing the spending and coming forward via Griffen but he needs to connect the dots on the Housing Authority recklessness and the Ravenstahl administration's lack of leadership.
The problem with all these quasi-governmental agencies, authorities,is their independence.If we want true oversight by our elected official of these authorities,we need to bring them back into the fold.
ReplyDeleteThe word on the street is that Matt tried to shop the story to a responsible reporter and ended up with Marty. That was the reason for the 3 month delay in getting the word out.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, Matt is in for on rough ride. I would count on him not being invited to anymore political events for awhile. In fact, some people are quite upset with him.
And also, I especially like the fact that "Mr. Whistleblower" kept on working and collecting invoices for a year. What was his excuse, that he might have been under the microscope for coming in 2 minutes late? What a stand up guy, watching his back like that.
I understand the mission of the HACP but I don't agree with it. In the end Matt makes noise and nothing changes.
"The word on the street is that Matt tried to shop the story to a responsible reporter and ended up with Marty. That was the reason for the 3 month delay in getting the word out."
ReplyDeleteMarty had the story from day 1. The delays were his own fault.
"That being said, Matt is in for on rough ride. I would count on him not being invited to anymore political events for awhile. In fact, some people are quite upset with him."
That's fine. I know I did the right thing. I'm not concerned about political events.
"And also, I especially like the fact that "Mr. Whistleblower" kept on working and collecting invoices for a year."
Where did that come from? That's not the truth at all. I started finding these things right at the end before I went off on FMLA leave.
"The word on the street is that Matt tried to shop the story to a responsible reporter and ended up with Marty."
ReplyDeleteWhat's your beef with Marty already? He's actually Luke's go-to reporter, and Dan's as well. Why would they keep using him if he was less than reputable?
"I would count on him not being invited to anymore political events for awhile."
Well you know, the Lord tends to close doors and open windows simultaneously.
I can verify Matt's assertion that Marty had the story from day one. Back on November 1st Matt emailed me and told me, right after he had quit his job, that he had an interview scheduled with Griffen later that week to discuss his findings at the Housing Authority.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris!
ReplyDeleteThere are one or two people trying to minimize things for some reason. Must be some jokers at 200 Ross Street who are mad their spending ways have been outed.
Do you have an invoice for a "$2000" laptop?
ReplyDeleteMatt is into deleting posts now. I will post this here instead of his blog. Perhaps he can answer my questions instead deleting my comments as he has done on his blog.
ReplyDelete"I didn't know employees had to pay for copies of work documents when indeed they weren't even "copies."
It is the same thing as printing off E-mail's. Why would you pay for copies of your E-mail?"
Well, These were not e-mails. They were invoices. And they were no longer work documents, they were for your personal use after you took them home.
I am still interested to know if Matt, through his job duties had normal access to the invoices he copied.
In the future, for your benefit and the benefit of your future employers lets clear this up now.
Work Documents = Things you use for work.
Personal Documents = Things that possibly once were work documents that you took home and then gave to a reporter.
If Cyril Wecht is on trial for sending faxes worth dollars why can you just take reams of printed matter from a government agency.
If a reporter has to file a RTK and pay the fee for copies, why can you just take them?