Possumblog

Not all Democrats are bad.

But they seem to be trying awfully hard. This one smells to high heavens, not so much for the program or who was involved, but for the brazen sense of privilege and favoritism amongst the main players. Report: Worley took Demo desk for refinishing at state school

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — Former Secretary of State Nancy Worley, vice chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, took a desk from party headquarters to be refinished by a state technical college that uses inmates to do the work, The Decatur Daily reported Wednesday.

Worley is paying for the refinishing at the Deatsville campus of J.F. Ingram Technical College. The school's president, J. Douglas Chambers, also said that Worley, as a retired public school teacher, was eligible to have it done by the state program.

But he told the newspaper that the school doesn't publicize the fact that it works on items from education retirees because there would be too many requests. He also said he would not have accepted the desk if he had known it belonged to the political party.

Okay, I have no love for Ms. Worley, but to her credit, she is paying for this herself (I suppose--although I find even that suspect), but this thing about it being available to her because she's an education retiree but we don't publicize that so too many people won't use the service is about the most inane thing anyone could come up with. Does the school's administrator not realize how bad this sounds!? And this special program for retirees--is it authorized by the state? Or is it just one of those little perks that people who have lived a life feeding at the public trough seem to think they're entitled to?

Look--you got only so much work your inmate workers can do in a year? Ask your retirees to submit a form that details their work requests, assign them a number, and have a lottery for the available spots. No one gets accused of favoritism, everyone gets to see what's being proposed, and the workers can plan their work load. And you can put a statement on there where the retiree affirms that the work is being done to their own personal property and not something for a political group.

But wait, there's MORE!

Worley, who left her post as an elected public official Jan. 15, said she contacted the school more than two months ago and asked if students could repair the party's desk and a personal wooden bench that she plans to use at her Democratic Party office. She said she was told about two weeks ago that the work could be done.

"I told them in the beginning that the desk belongs to the party," she said.

Ingram trains inmates to do work such as furniture refinishing, including inmates from the prison system's Frank Lee Youth Center adjacent to the Deatsville site. James T. Merk, dean of instruction at Ingram, signed the authorization form for Worley's work order and said he felt it was appropriate.

Chambers said he felt Worley was eligible to have the work done and that he sometimes authorizes projects if students would benefit from the work.

The Daily said paperwork at the college shows Worley paid a $171.94 deposit and is to pay the remaining $54.20 when the work on the desk and bench is completed.

Again, it would help if there was some way to actually SEE what this policy allows so we can read for ourselves who's eligible and for what. But the argument isn't that Worley personally isn't eligible, it's that she abused that eligibility to get work done on something that doesn't actually belong to her, and further, something that belongs to a political party. You know--a cynic might look at all this and think there was some sort of quid-pro-quo going on there, where the members of the Democratically-controlled House and Senate (several of whom already have nice cushy jobs with various two- and four-year institutions across the state) might fling a few more dollars toward the college in exchange for some nicely refinished furniture.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S STILL MORE!

State Democratic Party executive director Jim Spearman said Worley asked him if it would be possible to have the desk refinished at Ingram.

"I told her I did not think so because we are not a state agency or a charity," Spearman said. He said she replied, "We do have 'state' in our name, don't we?"

Now THAT, my friends, is NERVE!

And this woman is who we had running the Secretary of State's office.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at April 5, 2007 10:52 AM