Disgraced, and thankfully - unemployed.
Sacramento Bee
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Friday announced he will resign after months of cascading allegations that he mismanaged his office, verbally abused employees, misused federal funds and accepted tainted campaign contributions.
Shelley, his voice breaking and his tearful wife at his side, appeared outside his San Francisco home and told reporters he would leave office on March 1.
The former assemblyman and county supervisor from San Francisco will continue to face a handful of state and federal investigations into his personnel practices, his handling of federal Help America Vote Act funds and his acceptance of campaign contributions that apparently originated with state grant money.
Among the accusations leveled at Shelley were:
* He created what the State Personnel Board concluded was "an abusive working environment" for his staff, shouting profanely in outbursts that aides described as "humiliating, manipulative and demeaning."
* He presided over a group of consultants paid with federal voting act money who operated with an eye toward polishing his profile. Many staff reports read like a summary of political networking, dutifully noting when Shelley's name came up at community events. He used some of the federal money to pay a law firm to write his speeches, for television ads in which he urged Californians to vote, and to produce pens, T-shirts, balloons and other trinkets bearing his name.
* Auditors examining how Shelley spent the federal money determined his office violated state regulations requiring competitively bid contracts and spent money without legislative authority. And because Shelley spent federal funds for unauthorized activities, they said, California could be forced to repay the federal government millions of dollars.
As Republican political consultant Kevin Spillane noted, you had to work hard to mess things up this badly at the secretary of state's office, an agency with a stellar reputation under former Republican Secretary of State Bill Jones.
"To have this range of problems on so many different levels and with such a degree of seriousness is truly remarkable," Spillane said. "It's just an incredible range of arrogant and stupid actions. Even for those of us who are cynical about how low politicians can go, this was quite a feat that he achieved."
No comments:
Post a Comment