Governor Daniels, Stop The Bleeding At FSSA

Defending an indefensible insider's contract at the most critical agency in state government isn't going to help your low approval ratings with every day Hoosiers. Please cancel the $180,000 a year contract for Richard "I'm Too Good To Play By The Rules" Rhoad and get rid of every person in FSSA who had any part in approving this sweetheart contract. And you might start with a person who is described as the agency's "General Counsel" and offers his agency this kind of advice in a legal memorandum for the agency:

"This arrangement was satisfactory for a period of time, but has now been determined impermissible by the Indiana State Budget Agency," says John Davis. Davis concluded Rhoad's contract did not violate the state's conflict-of-interest law because Rhoad was not on the state payroll when he negotiated the terms of his employment. Since the State Budget Agency would not allow the travel and lodging compensation for Rhoad, the FSSA could resolve the problem by making Rhoad a contract worker not covered by state employee pay rules, Davis wrote.The contract at issue here was the direct result of the need by FSSA to honor their end of an employment agreement."

As the AP informs us, "Davis signed and dated his memorandum the day after Rhoad, Davis and Roob signed a contract that would have paid Rhoad's private company up to $2 million over two years for Rhoad and two other employees to provide consulting work, including the duties of agency CFO." A first year law student could offer more sound legal advice than Mr. Davis.

Look at what they are writing about you Governor: "Disclosure this week of both contracts has drawn criticism from outside the Daniels administration as a sign of the cronyism and the wasteful spending that Daniels had campaigned against while running for governor two years ago." This is not good. Please stop the bleeding.