Public Deserves Transparency in County Inventory Issues

Health Department Loses Equipment, Obfuscates, Evades Questions, and Spreads Untruths About Inquiries.  More Questions Still Linger About Plenty of Missing County Equipment.

- Naked Conch - Posted by Matt Gardi -  April 3, 2012 

Overview:  After having learned that the County Inventory Clerk filed a complaint in Sept 2011 with the Office of the State Attorney, citing being pressured to resign over finding $250,000 in missing equipment at the Health Department, I initiated an inquiry to find out more.  I wrote about it here on Naked Conch, and as well in KONK Life newspaper.

Ultimately what transpired was that as a result of my inquiries, I seemed to have alienated Bob Eadie, the Director of the Monroe County Health Department, whereby he eventually suggested that my assertions and line of questioning was "false and without foundation."  I stand by every word I wrote, and support every valid question with documentation contained below.  Mr. Eadie then went on Guy deBoer's show and made comments that were patently false and misleading, to which I respond throughout the five video segments below recorded on my show on the KONK Broadcasting Network which aired on March 30.

Bottom Line:  In this day of countless scandals, any public agency needs to strive to be as transparent as possible and responsive to the public, especially if they have a repetitively problematic track record. 

The facts are this:

The Inventory Clerk for Monroe County did file a complaint with the Office of the State Attorney in Sept 2011 suggesting he was being pressured to resign as a result of  "the Health Department is short of $250K of missing computers."  That complaint can be viewed here. 

I did receive a document from the Clerk's office as a result of a public records request that contained some very questionable items.  (Full document here.)  This document contained a letter (Found here.) from Mr. Eadie to the Clerk's Office in 2009 explaining the improper disposal of over $227,000 of equipment, along with an accompanying list of deletion requests (Found here.) signed by Mr. Eadie to account for the missing inventory and zero the books.  While I have admitted that most of that list looks obsolete, remember that that is at the time of it being administratively accounted for as missing with the deletion requests.  No one knows when it went missing.  In addition, the list does contain some items from 2006.

In his 2009 letter, Mr. Eadie assures the Clerk's Office that "We have adopted procedures that will prevent the disposition on public assets without proper authorization."

The very next year, in an email exchange (Found here.) between the Health Department's Andrew Bulla, and the Inventory Clerk Mitch Hedman, Bulla writes that "the majority of the MC tagged assets have not been found."  Also, at the very top of that page, Mary Vanden Brook seems to have made an odd statement of  "One suggestion: add the present value as zero or close to it."

Other unusual items contained within the Clerk's response were, a 2010 list of $29K of items "missing 2 years," (Found here.) and a very long list over countless pages of valuable inventory under a heading of "Need Destruction Form." (Found here.)  This list is HUGE!

I found all of this to be very unusual, so I made a Public Records Request (Found here.) of the Health Department for the following;

 1 - The Monroe County Health Department's copy of the last three years of Monroe County Inventory Reports for the Monroe County Health Department as prepared by Mitch Hedman, or any record reflecting an accounting of Monroe County Inventory of equipment or assets assigned to the Health Department maintained b or provided to your agency for the last three years.

2 - Any email exchange between Andrew Bulla, Mary Vanden Brook, Brian Blair, Mitch Hedman and/or yourself during the month of July 2010 that contained the words "Missing MCHD Assets" in the subject line.

3 - Any record maintained by the Health Department that reflects or discusses missing County assets or

inventory, and/or a copy of any policy or procedure developed by the Health department to track Monroe County Assets.

Health Department Administrative Director Mary Vanden Brook responded by offering to provide a response to the Public Records request at a cost of over $400 including charges for her time as well as Mr. Eadie's time.  (The entire email exchange can be found here.)  Throughout the email exchange you can read that along with objecting to the cost of providing a response, in an effort to be more concise, I also offer more detailed options such as;

"How much would it cost for a copy of the last three years of County inventory records that your office may have?"

"it would be nice to view the entire email conversation that is only partially copied in the PRR from the Clerk, where Andrew Bulla suggests he can't find the majority of tagged assets"

"It would also be nice to review any policy you implemented as a result of your letter of 2009"

Mr. Eadie did provide me a copy of another deletion request from July of 2010 for approximately $29K worth of equipment filed only after it went missing that seems to correlate with the "missing 2 years" list.  This list did however contain over $10,000 of relatively new equipment that was misplaced and that to my knowledge was never reported to the police, nor covered by insurance.  

After failing to respond to my more simplified requests, calling me irresponsible, suggesting my accusation had no basis in fact, Mr. Eadie then became irate after my article discussing the above topic was published in KONK Life.  Guy deBoer gave Mr. Eadie the opportunity to come on his show.  

On this show, Mr. Eadie states the following untruths;

Untruth #1- He had never heard of any inventory issues until I brought them to his attention. FACT: His signature is on over $227,000 of deletion requests for equipment that was missing and/or improperly disposed.  He also had provided me with an ADDITIONAL list of $29K of missing equipment with Mary Vanden Brooks name on it.

Untruth #2- My public records request was for THREE YEARS of emails. FACT: It was originally for a search of only one month, between specific people, with a VERY defined subject line.  I revised it to be for ONLY ONE particular email exchange.

Untruth #3 - He would be willing to sit down and let me revise my request and make it more specific.  FACT: SEE ABOVE.  I already had, and he has yet to respond.

This coming from a guy who accused me of being without foundation.

Ultimately after all of his obfuscation he did provide me one tidbit of information that was helpful.  Apparently the questionable inventory BEYOND the missing $257,000 with his or Ms. Vanden Brook's signature, found listed in the Clerk's response on pages 14 and 15 as part of his inventory report under the heading "Need Destruction Form" was in fact not his equipment.

That begs the question, then whose equipment is all that?  To that end, I had already submitted a Public Records Request to the Clerk's Office for the inventory reports from the Fire Department, and the IT Department on March 12.  To follow up, I also sent a follow up to the Clerk's Office on March 24 to find out more. (Found here.) As of today, there has been no response whatsoever.  And on it goes....  

In Conclusion:  In light of all the scandals, and the fact the Inventory Clerk was compelled to file a complaint with the State Attorney last September, our public officials should be jumping at the opportunity to be as transparent as possible, not putting up road blocks, and spewing untruths about people making inquiries.  Enjoy the show below including Mr. Eadie's appearance on Guy deBoer's show!

Just the facts, mam, just the facts!

Part 1 - An Overview of the Issues

Part 2 - Let's Charge over $400 to provide you with a response to your public records request...including Bob Eadie's and Mary Vanden Brook's time...seriously?

 

Part 3 - Gardi adjusts his requests, Eadie sites an email that he doesn't provide, and a phone call that no one has a copy of as his "facts," and basis of his defense.

Part 4 - Bob Eadie appears on Guy deBoer's show....now it gets interesting.  Suggests he never heard of any issues, ignoring his signature on over $227,000 of inventory deletion requests for missing equipment he signed years before and an additional $29K list he provided to Gardi.  Let's check facts, shall we Mr. Eadie...

Part 5 - Eadie suggests Gardi asks for "THREE YEARS OF EMAILS!"  Absolutely 100% untrue, coming from a guy who has just accused Gardi of being without foundation!

www.mattgardi.com

Paid for by Matt Gardi, Republican, for Clerk of Courts