Notes For Friday, December 13, 2002

FLORIDA MEDIA SLOW WAKE UP TO AUDIT SCANDAL: On Thursday, several Florida newspapers finally caught up with the rest of the nation, publishing an AP Wire Story about John Ellis Bush's scheme (with Chief Justice Rehnquist's daughter, no less) to obtain a delay in a federal audit of Florida's pension plan to avoid embarassment in the election.

The circumstances of the first request for a delay make the story make it particularly juicy: the governor's chief of staff, Kathleen Shanahan, called to request a delay on April 15, the day the audit was supposed to have started. "A top aide to Rehnquist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Shanahan described her request as urgent and asked Health and Human Services officials to get the message to Rehnquist, who was at a department reception." What was the urgency?

The gist of the newest AP story is that Bush's attempt to sidestep the issue - claiming the delay was no big deal because the audit would not have been finished before the election anyway - is hogwash. ("A draft audit of Florida's pension fund would have been completed before Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election if federal investigators hadn't agreed to delays sought by his office, according to government documents provided Thursday to congressional investigators.").

The other excuses proffered by Gov Bush and Rehnquist have already been debunked. The inital claim that audits are routinely delayed is untrue. In the original AP story, the nation's most senior inspector general, OPM's Patrick McFarland, is quoted as saying: "I can't recall being involved in any decision when we put one off or postponed one for any reason", said Patrick McFarland, inspector general for the Office of Personnel Management. McFarland is the government's longest serving inspector general at 12 years."

Bush's other explanation, that the delay was necessary because of a change in pension fund personnel, is baseless as well. A previous AP story reported that neither the outgoing (Herndon) nor the incoming (Stipanovich) pension fund chiefs were consulted about the need for a delay, and saw no need for a delay. "Tom Herndon, the pension manager who retired in June, said he saw no need for a postponement. His successor, Coleman Stipanovich, was hardly new to the pension fund; he was Herndon's top deputy. Stipanovich said that while he believed it would be wise to have him in office before the audit began, he never requested a postponement from the governor." Indeed, Rehnquist's subordinates told her that the reason for the delay offered by Bush was insufficient - "Rehnquist [was told] that Florida's justification for seeking the postponement -- waiting for a new director -- made no sense because the same records would be audited no matter who was in charge" - yet Rehnquist granted not one, but several postponements.

The AP story was picked up the St Pete Times, the Lakeland Ledger and the Gainesville Sun.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution and the NY Times recently covered the story as well. 6:31 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]