The following message was sent to me today and I thought I'd share an outside point of view with everyone.
"Unfortunately, Wicomico County Government is like the "Titanic", it has just struck an unseen tip of an iceberg (corruption). Sheriff Lewis and Company need all the help they can get to keep the "Titanic" from sinking due to the greed and corruption involved. It is time the public knew the REAL STORY surrounding both Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury governmental operations. A government employee friend of mine put it this way, "If the public only knew one-half the story ........"
What a shame this is not an election year for the County Council and County Executive positions."
My own personal thoughts to this statement is, I'm not so sure punishing those in this new form of government is correct. I can appreciate the anger of ALL County Taxpayers, that's a given as I am one of them. I can remember back 2 years ago when I contacted the MDE after they had investigated the Salisbury WWTP and were in deliberations over how much to fine the City of Salisbury. I said, the Taxpayers didn't do all of the illegal things that had found. Fining them heavily, (IMO) is not the answer. They firmly agreed and stated that their intent is a positive resolution with a swift punishment IF the City rejected their demands. "Why take from Peter to pay Paul?"
That being said, this is about getting to the bottom of ALL of the corruption involved, removing those people who had any part of it, fixing what is broken and moving forward without hurting the Taxpayers any further.
I honestly believe Sheriff Lewis and Executive Rick Pollitt are indeed making every step to do so. I'll add, before the Blogs came along, many of you probably would not have known the actual depth of just how bad things are. I believe you would have heard about it, yet you might not have had much follow up. In fact, (IMO) it may have ended with the Ray Lewis portion and other sources would have decided it just wasn't worth getting into the County end of it and it may have been swept under the rug.
Now let's look into the future. No Mr. Comegys, not with a crystal ball. The logistics that I have seen from the past, (Mayor & some of the Salisbury City Council) would regularly reflect back to other issues and problems coming from this particular situation in the County.
What I see is accountability, such as, a HUGE break towards Taxpayers. Executive Pollitt stated that much of what has been stolen is covered by Insurance and the return of much of what was recently taken. OK, I'll buy that. However, I'm told this has been going on for 5 to 10 years now. Again, something you won't read in The Daily Times. I'm also told yesterday that it's not $400,000.00 worth of theft. It was announced it was up to $1,000,000.00 and guess what, I'm told that's not accurate either. I'm told it's more like $2,500,000.00 now.
With any hope and luck they'll get to the bottom of this and move forward without excuses. That would be what is called, professional results. Although the Governor may have reduced funds to Wicomico County, hopefully we can see light at the end of the tunnel with many expenses going WAY DOWN?
I'll close with this. I have been told that County Employees had been going to Lawn & Garden Companies and just buying them out of all sorts of things. Of course, each time they went in there they would purchase just under $1,000.00 worth of merchandise, keeping them from having to get a PO# from the County. This is yet another area the Sheriff's Department will have to look into. Mind you, the companies selling these products did nothing wrong, they simply sold products the County wanted to purchase. However, I'm also told you could find MANY of these products at County Employees homes. So just when you think it's over, it keeps getting bigger and bigger. Get to the bottom of it all without excuses in the future and give some relief to the Taxpayers.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
13 comments:
Joe,The blogs brought all this to light.Thanks to the dealings within the Salisbury City.Hopefuly this will be the beginning of the end.Sheriff Lewis has his hands full. Maybe he needs to bring in the FBI and the State Police.Lots of luck to him.I totaly agree we would not have gotten a clue from the Daily Times.Lets just hope for the best and see what developes.
Funny you should mention purchasing at local businesses--went into Ace the day and saw a notice posted near cash register stating City employees must show proper i.d. when purchasing. That seems strange. Don't know if the notice is still up there. The cashier told me they had 'so many' coming in from the City to purchase there.
If such a massive corruption & theft occured in one department, what guarantee do we have as taxpayers that it isn't happening in other departments as well?
Unless we fully face up & understand what caused this to occur and for such a long time, no one can guarantee that it isn't happening elsewhere. We seem to have one or two other losely monitored departments...
Shut it down Mr. Pollitt, send everyone home & bring in some serious auditors.
Robbed Taxpayer
anon 2:16=Rick Pollitt has taken the "BULL"county by the horns and hopefully this will be behind us in the next several months. HARDHEAD
The FBI has been informed and
the state police have been notified.The FBI will be involved
in any government wrong doing.
Joe
There are a multitude of issue surrounding the thefts of county resources, paid for by tax dollars.
Not the least of which flys in the face of your statement where in you said lets not entirely blame the new government.
The problem,as I see, it is there is only ONE new government person and that is the County Executive. Mr Pollitt. Mr Pollitt choose to retain all, who still serve him, Dept heads from the old style of government.
So if as you say these thefts have been going on for years than I ask who is responsible. Logic would tell me the dead wood Mr. Pollitt chose to retain is most likely the source of the problem. Not because they were a part of the actual thefts but that there ineptness, neglect or just outright incompetence lead to where we are today.
I am dismayed that Pollitt insist on retaining a local firm to audit the county. I am equally concerned that he has not called a press conference and very forcefully told us just exactly the course of action that was to be followed,too include the fact that irresponsible neglect by deparment heads would be delt with in the harshes possible manner.
To compound this,monumental failure of our local government the situation with the States Attorneys Office could not have occurred at a worse time. The lack of leadership in that office prohibits the S.A Office from being and active part of this investigation. Mr. Ruark must see the organizational necessity for his immediate resignation so that office can move on under new,competant, leadership.
If there is such a thing as a "Perfect Storm" in governmental failure we in Wicomico are experiencing it.
Not to change the subject but is there anyone else that reads the Daily Times Comments and would like to stick a pitchfork through "Hot Carl"s face?
As a taxpayer in Wicomico County, I think that ALL Wicomico County departments should be audited at this time.
I feel that an audit of the Wicomico County Department of Recreation and Parks, and the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, would raise some interesting questions concerning the financial actions of Gary Mackes and his staff.
I could tell a few stories about Mr. Mackes concerning appropriations given to his department by the county council for use at the Civic Center. Do they REALLY know what he did with those funds? I do!!!
I think that it is high time that Mr. Pollitt have a real auditor from outside of our area come in and audit each county department. This would assure the taxpayers that things are being done above board. It would also help to restore the long lost pride that people in this county have lost, and for good reason. It would be money well spent.
The same goes for the City of Salisbury. All of us know that Salisbury will not move forward under its present leadership. The corruption and mismanagement in the city is nothing short of deplorable. I would bet that an audit of all city departments would send some high profile people (like the Mayor) away to prison for quite some time.
To all of the city and county department heads, be aware. There is a new sheriff in town. This is a man that does not care who you are, who you know, or where you come from. He was elected by the citizens of this county because they knew his reputation for bringing down the bad guys. He is getting it done, and I commend him for it.
I challenge Sheriff Lewes and Mr. Pollitt to take the bull by the horns, and clean up all of this crap that is going on in our county. All of us would greatly appreciate it!!!
Anon 3:00 I agree with you totally but would add that Mr. Pollitt gave some of those people raises as a reward.
Back when we voted for the County Executive our choices were Alessi or Pollitt. There was no way I was voting for Alessi so I was a reluctant Pollitt voter. I hoped he would follow his campaign rhetoric and actually clean up and make our County more efficient.
I was very disappointed but not surprised when he gave out those raises.
Now that the criminal activity is coming to the surface he is doing the old government beaurcratic dance by promising to get to the bottom of it.
Mr. Pollitt, you had 14 months to review all those dept. heads. Your a little late.
Anon 3:08, just ignore that "HotCarl" character, his whole point of posting is to see who will take his bait.
No, not really, my thoughts were to poke hot carl's eyes out with an ice pick than drag him down the railroad tracks
Oh people love it when I say that
Anon 3:08
I do not read the Daily Times, who is "Hot Carl"?
Joe, why post everything you are "told". I can probably take a guess at the county worker who is feeding you this crap. All this is doing is causing more speculation that is unfounded. Im not saying that at the landfill this didnt happen, but believe it or not, in other departments there are real bosses that check purchases and not everyone can make purchases. How about just do this, instead of saying the general term county workers, specify either landfill workers or whatever. The rest of us "county employees" are getting sick of being lumped in with that bunch.
I disagree with the statements about Pollitt. There was/is so much to do in this county, to fix, to look into, to straighten out. That it is impossible to do it in a few years. Sheriff Lewis is in the same boat, so much needed to be done, he has the connections that he has made being a local that he is bringing the outside sources in to bring that department up to date very quickly but with still years to go. I have the utmost faith in Pollitt and Lewis to the best they can do for the county. Pollitt was right to give the raises, this county was behind in a lot of places. Plus I have not heard the mention of the loss of service the county will be getting by hiring new people to replace all the others that will be fired or in jail. That will take years to recover from. I also have the utmost faith in Redden, I grew up around him and respect him highly. I also have the utmost faith in Sam Vincent (the Deputy State's Attorney) he is by far capable of heading that office and handling anything that comes from this theft scheme. A change has come to play in this county and we are headed in a good direction with trustworthy directors. A good day for the county.
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