Billy Dalto's Mom

On the playground and in politics, bringing up someone's mom is usually off limits. But not when you're an Oregon state legislator, and you've put your mom on your payroll as a legislative aide, even though she lives in New York -- and especially not when she declares bankruptcy and fails to declare her brand new state government job you gave her.

Over at Loaded Orygun, they've done some fascinating investigative work -- all kicked off by a blog comment made by former GOP state senator Marylin Shannon.

Billy's made some pretty dumb decisions. Like hiring his mother to be his legislative assistant during the interim........while she is living in New York and doesn't know snot about helping constituents in Oregon get their problems with state agencies solved. It is nice he is sending some Oregon taxpayer money to his elderly Mother, but it is almost fraud

Here's Loaded's rundown...

According to Employee Services down at the Legislative Fiscal Office, Billy Dalto's mother Adela Dalto was hired on 8/8/05. Her salary was $3500 per month and she was termed on 10/31/05. ...

To recap, Adela Dalto filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy without declaring the income she was receiving from Oregon taxpayers via her son,Assistant House Majority Leader Representative Billy Dalto (R-Salem). She also declared under penalty of perjury that all of the information she was giving on the bankruptcy paperwork is "true and correct". ...

Is it appropriate for Billy Dalto to hire his mother to work for him when she's not even from Oregon and doesn't know how to serve the constituents? Is there evidence that Mrs Dalto actually worked in her son's offices? Did Representative Dalto know about the bankruptcy filing? If so, was he aware of the fact that his mother wasn't declaring the income she was getting from the Oregon taxpayers?

Or did Mrs. Dalto tell the truth on her bankruptcy papers and she never received money from working for Billy Dalto? In which case we have to ask--where's that money? Is this "almost fraud" or is it something a little bit more?

Head over to Loaded Orygun to read the rest -- and discuss over there.

July 28, 2006 Posted in elsewhere.