Once upon a time in a land known as Appalachia West (more commonly, Idaho), a Governor named Clem appointed 19 members of Idaho’s Health Insurance Exchange Board, a panel authorized by the Idaho Legislature to set the rules and regulations for implementing a state-based insurance exchange. The Chairman was a guy named Weeg, a retired executive director of Health West.
One of the Board’s 19 members was a guy named Chan. In typical A-W (Idaho) fashion, Chan got the Board’s executive director, a gal named Dowd, to award his computer company a technology contract worth up to $375,000. Chan quit the same day his company was awarded the sole-source contract.
So Chairman Weeg did the right thing — he went to the Idaho Attorney General and requested a full and complete investigation to determine if there was wrongdoing in awarding the contract. Didn’t he? Wait … What? He didn’t? Really? No, he didn’t. Remember, this is A-W (Idaho), not someplace that believes public officials should be held to the rule of law.
No, Chairman Weeg decided that his committee would hire a private attorney to conduct what passes for an investigation in A-W (Idaho).
According to a news story by Associated Press reporter John Miller, “Board members of the Idaho health insurance exchange said Tuesday that they will keep secret the findings of a $15,000 taxpayer-funded investigation into how one of its own members won a lucrative no-bid contract.” As Chairman Weeg reported after today’s meeting, the Committee’s private attorney/investigator found that Dowd and the Committee “violated no law, that lapses of judgment were made around the procurement policy and conflict-of-interest policy.” Weeg went on to say that the public will never be allowed to see the results of the investigation, because , “It deals with personnel, and it’s done under attorney-client privilege.”
This sounds less like a personnel matter than a posterior protection proceeding, commonly known as ass-covering. Isn’t it reassuring to know that the Committee’s privately-hired attorney has decreed that there was no criminal wrongdoing by the people who hired him? Imagine that!
If only there was an Attorney General in A-W (Idaho). If only there was a US Attorney in A-W (Idaho). If only…
Wayne Hoffman was right – we should have just stayed out of this fiasco. But, I have always thought, that Idaho is too greedy, they cannot resist the temptation of ‘free money’ so they took it and they ran with it, thus we have this mess. I am so tired of laws that cover for incompetent government employees while I work so hard to bail their sorry asses out. I am really really really sick. of. it. A real Attorney General in Idaho is a concept that most folks,in Idaho will never grasp, because they really do not know what the position represents, most likely because we never had one.
Comment by Stebbijo — November 12, 2013 @ 9:14 pm
Stebbijo,
Oh, I think the people in Idaho get exactly the quality and level of law enforcement they want.
In their zeal for “local control,” many of Idaho’s legislators opted to limit the authority of the Attorney General, choosing instead to give it to each county’s prosecuting attorney. You see, some legislators are not the most honest people themselves. While the AG cannot often unilaterally override a local prosecutor whose prosecutorial decisions may be dictated more by political expedience than facts and law, the Governor can. Ours won’t, but he could.
The Legislature could (but won’t) give the AG concurrent authority with local prosecutors. That should result in something none of the corpus corruptus politicus in Idaho want: Aggressive county prosecutors who fear being upstaged by an equally aggressive AG’s office. Think of it as friendly (or not so friendly) competition to see who can deliver the best service to the people. There would be another benefit. With more qualified prosecutors competing for “career cases,” there would be a demand for the law enforcement agencies to deliver higher quality cases. Overall, that improves the quality of applicants and training for Idaho’s law enforcement agencies. And a third benefit: Those new and improved prosecutors would also force Idaho’s district court judges (or at least 1-JD’s) to perform their judicial duties more diligently and competently.
Comment by Bill — November 13, 2013 @ 6:54 am
and…if pigs could fly.
Comment by up river — November 13, 2013 @ 8:44 am
“Dowd maintains that she vetted Chan’s hiring with Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s staff before making the move [to contract with Chan without Board approval]”
Kind of brings a new definition to the Webster Dictionary definition of ‘vetted’.
Perhaps the State of Boise would favor us servants with a ‘Boise Dictionary’ so that we might be better able to understand the ‘process’. I would be interesting to learn the Boisean definition of ‘common sense’.
Comment by up river — November 13, 2013 @ 8:51 am
up river,
Unfortunately, we don’t know if the word “vetted” was uttered by Dowd or simply chosen by AP reporter Miller to characterize the discussion between Dowd and Otter’s staff. It implies staff approval where none may have been intended or given. Or maybe explicit approval was given. The word is not precise enough.
Comment by Bill — November 13, 2013 @ 9:03 am
Bill, I understand your point. I absolutely, get it. ‘High end’ criminals in Idaho never get prosecuted, but they will get promoted. And, remember it takes a ‘reporter’ to keep felons off the Judicial Council here in Idaho. Professional investigative journalism is a rare find in Idaho these days. The entire Senate and Governor Otter almost put a felon on the Judicial Council until it was exposed by Dan Popkey, that the candidate was caught embezzling within the Idaho Transportation Dept and had a prior criminal record. The only time our AG’s office does anything is when someone upsets their tidy apple cart – oh, and they sue drug companies. Who knows where that money goes?
Comment by Stebbijo — November 13, 2013 @ 9:29 am