Where’s The Transparency?
NOTE: This is a copy of my appearance on Bill Reddish’s show last Friday. If you heard it on the radio, then just skip to the end. There’s a little SURPRISE.
Information that is public should be readily available to all citizens, but especially to those who are elected to represent those citizens. Unfortunately that just doesn’t seem to be the case in the
Citizens and their elected representatives have, over time, made repeated requests for information - often to no avail. If you happen to be on Barrie Tilghman’s “No Fly†list, as I proudly am, you have to jump through a myriad of hoops followed by a FOIA request, followed by paying some exorbitant fee to get your information.
REMEMBER – Bob Caldwell was forced to fill out a FOIA request to even get copies of the validated petition forms from his own petition drive.
Councilwoman Debbie Campbell has been forced to file FOIA requests in the past to get information and she’s an elected official! They even tried to charge her until City Attorney Paul Wilber was informed that he could face disciplinary action from the state bar for doing something so outrageous!
John Pick, acting as Barrie Tilghman’s stooge is at the center of most of this. Information that is, or should be, readily available cannot be provided unless it goes through Mr. Pick’s hands first. An example occurred just the other day.
Mrs. Campbell asked for some fairly simple information from Tom Stevenson, the head of the Department of Neighborhood Services and Codes Compliance. She wanted some information on the number and types of rental units in the city because she was responding to a request for information on the subject that was made of her. Mr. Stevenson said that he couldn’t provide her with the information. He had the numbers readily available, but he was under instructions that any information had to go to Mr. Pick first.
What could possibly be Mr. Pick’s (or the Mayor’s) motive for such a move? If you think through this logically there can only be two probable reasons:
- To delay Mrs. Campbell (or a citizen) in receiving the information so that it would
no longer be of any use. Or… - To permit Mr. Pick (or the Mayor) the opportunity to alter the information in
order to provide false information, perhaps to preclude embarrassment.
Now I know that these are strong charges. However, I do know of at least one instance where Mr. Pick took information from a department head that was prepared for Mrs. Campbell and then altered that information.
I also know of at least one instance where Mr. Pick publicly lied, yes lied, to Mrs. Campbell about the availability of certain information. Mrs. Campbell has repeatedly asked for disbursement information (what the city has written checks for). Mr. Pick, and DIS head Pam Oland have given multiple excuses as to its availability. Of course no one in their right mind would believe that even Mr. Pick and Ms. Oland are SO incompetent that they don’t have records as to what the city has written checks for and their amounts. But that isn’t the lie I’m talking about.
Mr. Pick has stated, publicly, multiple times that he had to review the information. Why? It is what it is. The only possible reasons for him to need to review it are because:
- Pam Oland is so incompetent that she can’t be trusted to reproduce copies of
the city’s disbursements journal.
Or… - John might need to remove certain information from the report that may prove
embarrassing to the Mayor. Or… - John might need to alter certain information for the same reasons.
Needless to say, Mrs. Campbell has yet to receive the requested information. Now here comes th lie. When asked about the information in a meeting Mr. Pick stated that the information that Mrs. Campbell requested just wasn’t available at the time.
Mrs. Campbell later found out that the information is not only available, but is still being prepared and delivered to certain city officials. It just isn’t in the exact same format as before and is no longer delivered to Council members.
Why would Mr. Pick allow what had been an excellent reputation to be so degraded? Perhaps he is a true gutless wonder and the Mayor bullied him as she has done to so many
others. Or … perhaps there are some things occurring in city government that are so egregious that Mr. Pick cannot afford to allow them to come to light.
In the meantime, I can only ask City Council President Louise Smith, “What happened to government in the sunshine?â€. Perhaps she will finally step up to the plate and demand, along with Councilwomen Campbell and Cohen that the Tilghman administration cease hiding public information from its citizens and its own council members.
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Now here’s the surprise. The disbursement information that I spoke of mysteriously wound up in council members’ mailboxes later Friday afternoon. Now it would be arrogant of me to suggest that my little speech was the cause. Of course John Pick and Barrie Tilghman would never admit that I had anything to do with it anyway. At best I might have been the straw that finally broke Barrie’s back on this one. But I do know this much; the reports (there were two months worth of disbursement information) were dated Thursday, but were on the top of the pile, above some items dated Friday. We should all be thrilled that this information has finally been released. What’s sad is the lengths that people like Debbie Campbell have had to go to finally receive it.
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Comments
Your point one is only partially correct. Yes, I am one of many who believes that the Salisbury taxpayer has been a victim of gross mismanagement. However, in this case the Mayor and Mr. Pick have deliberately hidden this information (up to Friday). That information was prepared and distributed to council month in, month out for years. Only last September did the information flow cease and that was after it became public knowledge that Barrie was wasting taxpayer funds on NECESSITIES like T-shirts and really expensive coffee mugs.
As to saying “know of”, you are correct. In the second case (regarding John Pick lying to Mrs. Campbell) I should have said “I witnessed”. However, in the first case I’m not sure how I should have handled it. I have documentary evidence of Mr. Pick altering a department head’s memo, but I don’t want to see the poor soul get fired.
As you may have noticed in the past, I usually post the documentary evidence of something like this. I just don’t want to see some bureaucrat fired (or their life made miserable) because of me unless it’s REALLY IMPORTANT.
There is a certain tone to the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by Ms. Tilghman and friends. I believe that when the froth finally bubbles to the top of the pot it will not be easy to skim off…the corruption will be found, noted and exposed. The time is getting closer and closer more and more people are aware of what is going on, more and more people in positions to do something about the continued malfeasance are becoming informed thanks to the only sources of information, you G.A. and Joe…thanks guys it will happen, slower than we hoped, but I can see the bubbles……
I have no sympathy for Pick. If he doesn’t have the cajones to stand up for what is right he should resign. Crap the Mare has bigger balls than he does~!
Spineless cowards can get you killed if you are ever in harms way. Hope he was never in the military.
I have two comments here:
1) If you read the management letter from the audit, you see that the city doesn’t reconcile their books except after the end of the year. I think it is entirely possible– with such an irresponsible and heinous process in place (any business that did such a thing would find itself seized by US Marshals under a court order from the IRS) — that they don’t know what the actual disbursements are. That doesn’t excuse them– any government agency should be able to report Receivables and Payables at least every seven days, I am only saying the real culpability here is the mismanagement.
2) Please don’t say “know of”. Give exact details. Its the only way that corruption gets confronted. If you can’t, you should be careful in mentioning them. Barrie is known to a little ape-crazy with the FBI, even when she is the butt of a joke.