What's with the Virginia GOP? Now we've got the AG in the mix.
The scandal involving the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is way bigger than I originally thought. Thanks to Kathy at Rudeclerk, we get a little more background.
In 2005, State Internal Auditor Merritt L. Cogswell produced a 51-page audit outlining all sorts of cronyism, waste and misuse of state property. "In painstaking detail, the audit substantiated 24 of 29 specific allegations brought against the agency by whistle-blowers." Here are just a few allegations:
1. In 2004, Dan Hoffler, chairman of DGIF's board of directors, William L. Woodfin Jr., director of the agency, and two game wardens: Col. Terry C. Bradbery and Maj. Michael G. Caison went on an African safari. Hoffler paid for the trip, but $11,532 for hunting gear went on the state credit card.
2. Hoffler, a wealthy Virginia Beach developer, gave Woodfin, Bradbery and Caison almost $50,000 worth of gifts.
3. Two watercraft and an all-terrain vehicle owned by the agency were kept at Hoffler's waterfront home on the Eastern Shore.
4. Game wardens were assigned to provide security at an annual dove hunt at Hoffler's estate, and two agency employees -- Bradbery and Betty Boyd -- were cited for running a personal business on state time.
And as Kathy points out there were multiple attempts to intimidate whistle-blowers even as far away as her Nelson County where she tells us about DGIF fighting FOIA requests for fish hatchery records and threatening remarks from then chairman Dan Hoffler.
Okay, now let's very carefully follow the timeline:
State Internal Auditor Merritt L. Cogswell's 51-page report was released on May 23, 2005 and forwarded to the State Police for investigation. Hoffler and Woodfin resign shortly thereafter. Next we have a July 6, 2005 Associated Press article indicating that the State Police had completed their review of DGIF and had forwarded said review to Attorney General Judith Williams Jagdmann who would decide whether a criminal investigation was warranted. Meanwhile Gerald Massengill, interim director of the agency, "says he's waiting for Jagdmann's decision before deciding whether to discipline employees." No decision was made by Jagdmann as she was essentially a seat-warmer for the months time between Jerry Kilgore's resignation from the office early to run for Governor and when a new AG would be inaugurated in January 2006.
On Aug. 31, 2005, a personal donation of $12,500 from Dan Hoffler is made to Bob McDonnell's Attorney General campaign. Another $12,500 from Hoffler's development company to AG Bob is made on Oct. 24, 2005. In January 2006, McDonnell is inaugurated as Virginia's Attorney General. He shortly thereafter appoints former State Senator Bill Mims (R-Loudoun) as his Deputy Attorney General and because of the campaign contributions made by Hoffler to his campaign, AG Bob hands the DGIF matter over to Mims.
Tick, tock, tick, tock. January becomes February. Winter becomes spring. Tick, tock, tick, tock. It's summer 2006. Tick, tock. Fall becomes winter. Twiddle, twiddle thumbs. It's now January 2007. Dum, dee, dum. Gosh, times flies. It's now June 2006, a year and a half later and thanks to the Virginian-Pilot we are again reminded... "Oh, yeah. What ever happened with that?"
?I?m shocked?, says Hoffler to the VP. ?I haven?t spoken to anyone about it in almost three years.? WTF?!?!? Nobody has spoken to Hoffler in 3 years?!? A man implicated in the charges all the way up to eye balls has yet to hear hide nor hair from the AG's office? Yet Mims is mum when questioned recently by the VP. "It's an ongoing investigation" was his lame-ass reason. Unbelievable! What the hell was AG Bob and Mims doing all that time? Were they like totally out on safari or something?