Monday, August 08, 2005

Blunt should release license fee office plans

KOAM's 5 p.m. news featured the news, which is not news to people who read this blog, that Governor Matt Blunt, in the guise of privatizing driver's license fee offices, has managed to find a way to reward campaign contributors.
The KOAM report noted that the people he chose to run fee offices in Joplin, Carthage, Independence, and Springfield, were major contributors to the governor's campaign in 2004. Blunt, during his visit here last week to inspect drought conditions, said these offices were awarded strictly on the basis of management plans. It did not matter if the person who received the office was the lowest bidder, only that the management plan met his specifications.
That would lead me to believe that certain people were told what the governor wanted in his management plans and those people, most of them campaign contributors, simply gave him the plan he said he wanted.
It is my understanding that KOAM has made efforts to get these plans through the Freedom of Information act, obviously without any luck. The plans should be released as part of the public records.
There could only be two reasons why they have not been. One, no management plans exist, or two, every one of them is the same.
It is nothing new for governors to reward their campaign contributors,, even though it is a sorry practice. What is different about this governor is the long and winding road he takes when it comes to the truth.

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