080908 Media Monday – Putting Lipstick on That Pig

If you picked up Sunday’s Daily Times and looked at the front page article on the misadventures of Wicomico County’s Liquor Control Board you would think that all of the hoorah is much ado about nothing:

The government monopoly that sells liquor in Wicomico County is under fire again, this time for records that show it donates to local charities, buys holiday hams and once rewarded a retiring employee with an $875 watch.

The actions wouldn’t normally get a private business into hot water, but to Councilman Joe Holloway and Council Vice President Stevie Prettyman, they amount to the latest example of the Wicomico County Liquor Control Board overstepping its powers. (emphasis is mine)

Daily Times reporter Greg Latshaw makes it sound as if those crazy council members – Joe Holloway and Stevie Prettyman are complaining about not much of anything. Nothing could be be further from the truth.

The truth is that three non-elected individuals have stolen ten, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of taxpayer dollars and doled the cash out to themselves, favorite charities, even social clubs. Money rightfully belonging to the taxpayer is being used to buy advertising – for a monopoly that doesn’t need to advertise – and to finance political propaganda. Our money is even being used to allow dispensary employees to drive stock cars at Dover International Speedway (for purposes of disclosure, my sister sits on the board of the local charity which sponsors the annual NASCAR fiesta).

After months of stonewalling, Wicomico County council members Stevie Prettyman, Gail Bartkovich, and Joe Holloway were able to unearth the documentation of example after example of how taxpayer dollars are not being used to run the dispensary system but are being used to line the pockets of board members or enhance their social stature. It should be made clear that no one is accusing the local charities of wrongdoing. It is WCLCB members Stewart Haemel, Ron Alessi and Cecelia Dennis who are using the county dispensary system like their own personal piggy bank.

While Latshaw does list some of the more egregious examples of the WCLCB’s waste of taxpayer dollars, they are couched in a way that makes them sound almost benign.  Who is against the Boy Scouts, or the Luekemia Society?  Latshaw has deliberately failed to mention taxpayer monies being funneled to African-American social clubs – including organizations outside of Wicomico County.

The bottom line is that these unelected individuals are spending our money as if it were their own.  If they were the owners of the dispensary who would argue with their desire to hand over cash to various groups?  Unfortunately, the money that they are spending is not theirs.  These people are, in effect, stealing from the Wicomico taxpayer.

Their usual response?  We give $400,000 back to the Wicomico taxpayer.  So what!  Their excuse, and that’s all it is, amounts to the following analogy:

A man walks up to you on the street and sticks a gun in your face.  “Hand over your watch, jewelry, wallet and ALL of your cash.”  You hand over your valuables and the robber hands you back a $10 bill.  “Here’s money for a bus ride back home.”

It seems that the members of the dispensary board, along with Mr. Latshaw, feel we should be grateful that the Wicomico taxpayer is getting any return on the dispensary at all.

Tomorrow we will explore why Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt doesn’t seem to think that the Dispensary Board’s behavior is “unethical”.

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