Posted on 01/10/2005 9:43:28 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Kevin Shelley bent rules, missed deadlines and failed to do proper paperwork as he spent millions of dollars in federal election money, state Auditor Elaine Howle told a legislative committee conducting its first hearing Monday to investigate the embattled state elections official.
Howle meticulously told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that Shelley's management failures, which also included the questionable use of federal money, added up to "disregard for proper controls and poor oversight" of money given California to modernize its voting systems.
But a representative of Shelley's office testified under oath that much of the audit represented "old news," and that the elections agency had committed itself to renewed compliance with rules and making California "a national model" in spending federal money.
Tony Miller, special counsel to Shelley, said the office has hired MGT of America, a Florida-based management and consulting firm to continue tightening its policies, devise new internal controls and develop a detailed new implementation plan.
"Indeed, we are going to dot every I and cross every T," Miller claimed, saying he accepted responsibility for many of the issues raised by Howle.
But Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, challenged Miller's promises "to get it back on track," saying months of bad publicity left the secretary of state's office no other choice.
"The question is: what was done with millions of dollars of public funds when the public wasn't watching?" he asked.
Shelley didn't appear at the hearing, but Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, a Democrat from Hanford and the committee chairwoman, said she might seek Tuesday to subpoena Shelley to appear at its second hearing, which is still unscheduled.
The 14-member committee hearing is the first of many, Parra said, as lawmakers probe the growing controversy swelling around Shelley's performance.
Howle's three-hour testimony recounted her office's stinging December audit of Shelley's use of Help America Vote Act funds, in which auditors alleged numerous instances of money steered, often without competitive bidding, to consultants who performed partisan work unrelated to the act's purposes.
Approved by Congress in October 2002, HAVA authorized spending almost $4 billion over three years to modernize U.S. voting systems after the numerous flaws in the 2000 presidential election. The money is meant to be used to replace punch card and lever voting machines with touch-screen electronic voting machines and establish statewide voter registration databases to protect against voter fraud and registration errors that prevent people from voting.
California's share is $350 million. It has so far received $181 million, but spent only $46 million, Howle said.
She said during 10 months starting in December 2003, 37 percent of the activity reports filed by paid consultants had "no relationship to HAVA activities." Howle also detailed how consultants hired by Shelley's office reported attending partisan Democratic events, a Celebration Day for Canada, an Equality Awards dinner and fund-raisers for state lawmakers as representatives of Shelley, often conducting activities to promote him.
Howle, a 20-year state auditor appointed to her post by former Gov. Gray Davis and reappointed last July by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is not registered to any political party.
"Certainly, some of these activities appear partisan in nature," Howle said. "They raise the specter of the appearance of partisanship."
Howle's audit also revealed that HAVA money paid for writing three Shelley speeches that had little to do with the election funds' mission.
Howle criticized the pace of spending in California, saying Shelley's office was authorized to spend $81 million before July 1, 2004, but spent only $46 million to replace voting machines and improve administration of federal elections in the state.
She said Shelley's office is also likely to miss a Jan. 1, 2006, federal deadline to build a legally required computerized statewide voter registration list. But Miller refuted the projection, saying the office now plans to make California's "Calvoter" database compliant with HAVA before the deadline.
Shelley has defended his office's performance, saying the October 2003 recall election interfered with HAVA activities and that other states would likely fare no better under similar scrutiny.
Shelley also faces separate federal and state investigations over $125,000 in contributions to his 2002 campaign that came from recipients of $168,000 in state grants for a San Francisco neighborhood center that was never built.
ON THE NET
Secretary of State: http://www.ss.ca.gov
fyi
What a foul creature. He's just doing things like he always did in corrupt-to-the-bone leftist san francisco.
Disregard? Poor oversight?
Sheeesh. I call it blatant abuse and fraud on the people of the State. Toast this guy!
BTTT!!!!!!
What this guy did and allowed to happen makes whatever Quackenbush was alleged to have done, pale by comparison!!!
Quackenbush is sunning himself on Waikiki Beach today probably. He's probably glad he got the heck out of CA. I wish I was on a beautiful Hawaiian beach right now.
BUMP and thanks for posting this, FReeper pal.
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