State Treasurer travel scandal heats up
The you-know-what has really hit the fan with the whole Oregon State Treasurer Travelgate story. Now quite a few folks in power are demanding that the rogue state treasury employees who put themselves above the law because they are Masters of the Universe stop taking personal freebies from the Wall Street weasels.
But of course, there's always one rich old '80s throwback in the crowd who thinks corruption is o.k. because everybody does it. Besides, "All I care about is making money. Screw ethics." So totally Goldschmidt. So totally Portland. Of course, the guy is a former chair of the Portland Development Commission and an Arthur Andersen alum. And he just got reappointed to a brand new term running the state's investment board, by an inspiring vote of 16-14. So you can see how this whole thing happened.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see where the case goes next. As we've mentioned before, we hope and pray that the IRS and Oregon Department of Revenue get involved. If they do, heads will surely roll. As they should.
| Posted at 9:33 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (4)
If memory serves me correctly most state agencies follow federal perdiem regulations. This normally allows a traveller a maximum amount for hotel and a daily perdiem for meals. Usual application is to reimburse actual or maximum on hotels and the entire meals perdiem, regardless of actual expenditures. This should be pretty easy to follow...
Posted by Dean | April 23, 2010 10:31 AM
I'm sure the defense of "every body does it" will now be used by all us simpletons if we are drawn into an IRS or OR Department of Revenue dispute. Of course we'll win because the law has to be applied equally.....ah huh.
Posted by lw | April 23, 2010 11:33 AM
Of course Demorest is a throwback, and his ethical views are preposterous, but there is great beauty in his quote about the fake outrage of the elected officials. They're getting all up in arms about other people being unduly influenced by the money/benefits they are getting from those they oversee.
Hello, Kettle? Pot calling.
Posted by Miles | April 23, 2010 12:11 PM
Jack, Can you do a FOI request for the entire list of state employees who enjoy (I'll be they do!) exemptions from the no-gifts-over-x ethics rule? We need to give Kulo the chance to say he didn't know about all of them, not just this bunch.
Posted by Shirley U. Jest | April 23, 2010 1:52 PM