Tourism Department Admits to Breaking the Law
An excellent story showing how deep and prevalent the corruption is at the Capitol is Fox – 25's expose on the Tourism Department's illegal financial scheme. The agency admitted to paying bills and contracts out of a clearing account, instead of the general fund, escaping oversight by the auditors and contributing to the embezzlement of money from a state park. The director of the agency, Dick Dutton, claims he hid the embezzlement information from the commission that oversees the agency and of course himself to protect the criminal case against the embezzler. Dick has some explaining to do though because the embezzlement charges were filed last February....
Dick called it a failing in education rather than what it was, a systematic refusal to follow state law and agency policies. Dick claimed they were hiring an outside auditor, a hollow claim as had been asked about the allegations by Fox 25 and Dick told the reporters that "Your facts are wrong."
In fact Fox 25 was in possession of a tape showing agency head Dick Dutton threatening to fire the auditor that had uncovered the illegal transactions unless the person resigned immediately. The auditor was hired by the commission and reported to the commission and couldn't be fired without the commissions approval and on the recommendation of Dick Dutton himself. The Fox 25 story points out that there were no mention of the auditor or the firing of the auditor on commission meeting minutes or agendas despite the legal requirement of listing all agenda items in advance of the meeting. The law also prohibited Dick Dutton from meeting one on one with the commissioners and obtaining approval for anything.
