StatesmanJournal gets around to the Dalto story
T.A. Barnhart
The Salem StatesmanJournal has an excellent story on Rep Billy Dalto's hiring of his mother as an aide and her subsequent failure to report that pay in her bankruptcy filings.
Steve Law, the SJ reporter, picks up on (one might say echoes, repeats) the excellent work done by Carla at Loaded Orygun who first broke this story. Lots of interviews, Neel Pender attacking Dalto's ethics and Republicans denying anything improper, the usual sort of stuff. But the fact that the SJ has picked up on the story a full month after Loaded Orygun indicates that however much Dalto hoped otherwise, this story ain't going away.
btw, Billy: Salem is full of temp agencies and people with legislative experience. Many of those would have been thrilled to work for a fair wage. And would have done a great job. The argument that your mother was the only viable option you had makes you look, well, stupid. Like a business that deserves to fail.
here are some additional links for this story
here's the link to the original Loaded Orygun story
here's the story at NW Republican that got Carla started in the first place (btw a number of GOPs are actually touting Dalto for Speaker, which will be tough when a) he loses re-election, and, 2) the Dems take back the House).
here's Loaded Orygun covering the attacks on Brian Clem's wife, Carol. following LO's story on Dalto, the Rs tried to pain Clem with the same brush; unfortunately for them, Carol Suzuki, aka Mrs Clem, has been a Senate staffer for years. it appears that slime only trails behind the slimy.
our own Kari was the one revealing not just that Dalto and crew were digging for (non-existant) dirt on Carol, but they began these efforts before Carla's story was published in Loaded Orygun
KGW-tv touched on Dalto, but tangentially, in a story about nepotism in the Oregon Leg after Kelley Wirth's pay raise to her mom. however, my google search reveals nothing from the Oregonian. how odd.
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Aug 25, '06
Congratulations should go to Carla, who did the work that produced the story that the paid journalists couldn't muster the initiative or resources to dig up on their own.
Well done, Carla! There are a lot of things about this story and Dalto's explanations and excuses that just don't add up.
Aug 25, '06
There's something I don't get.
I hadn't followed this story on Loaded Orygun, and only learned of it by reading the SJ article.
From the story: "Dalto said he was in a bind when his aide left before the 2005 session ended. So he hired his mother..."
Okay, fine.
The story said his Mom started working on August 8.
But the Legislature adjourned on August 5.
Really, then, whatever bind he found himself in when his aide left before the session ended couldn't have been untwisted by hiring anybody three days after the session ended.
And if he paid her $3,500 per month after adjournment, where'd the money come from -- as the article notes in a sidebar that legislators get $1,800 a month during the interim for staff?
Aug 25, '06
The 'per month' allotment for staff and supplies is not a monthly "use it or lose it" arrangement. If a legislator underspends the monthly amount allowed, the remainder carrys over. Very few of the legislators actually spend all of their staff budgets.
Aug 25, '06
Very few of the legislators actually spend all of their staff budgets.
and what billy did was essentially spend down the account in a very short period of time. constituent calls haven't been getting returned either, since his mom left. no surprise.
Aug 25, '06
Carla does fine work over at LO, if you haven't given them a read, you oughta. Chuck
Aug 26, '06
The other thing I find amusing is the same day the story broke on LO Billy gave a rather detailed and specific explanation of how is mom got into financial trouble.
"My mother struggled to raise my brother and me...She was left with huge medical bills...Her income was minimal because she was going back to school..."
In the Statesman, he said he had no idea she was having financial trouble until he read it on LO.
Apparently, she just "coincidentally" got hired for the first time in his career at her moment of need and the fact that in her 3rd week on the job, she had to either fly to New York or use time during the work day on his taxpyer funded fax machine never was noticed.
10:18 a.m.
Aug 26, '06