Chip Flowers Does Not Know the Difference Between Epic Spin and Transparency
There’s more on Chip Flowers and his inability to manage the travel budget of his organization today in the NJ. And at this point, this is more about his inability to live up to the transparency he keeps promising and the failure of his epic spin to get him out of this thing.
I just want to look at the numbers:
These numbers are from the article, and a total (that we know of) of $5014.55. Flowers’ hotel, room service and valet parking charges were just reported as one number, I think. And I assumed that Flowers’ airfare was probably the same as Benner’s.
Now for the transparency FAIL:
- Chip claims that his expenses were covered by the $3000.00 stipend that the NAST provides to State Treasurer members, yet he can’t provide any documentation of this. If I read the article correctly, the state credit card information available shows that taxpayers were charged for this, but there is no documentation that other moneys covered his expenses. This info was FOIA’ed with no response.
- Chip claims that he stayed in Anchorage beyond the conference to be able to meet with other financial officials. He won’t provide any meeting schedule or other information about who he met with.
- There are room service charges for two on his bill — Chip says those were for a breakfast meeting, but won’t say who he met with.
- The claim is that Ericka Benner went to Talkeetna to meet with bankers and other financial types (apparently on the spur of the moment, staying longer than the conference), yet no one at the Treasury can say who she met with.
- Chip also stayed longer than the run of the conference (September 8 – 12)– returning on Monday with Ericka Benner. He says that:
“spent the days following the conference including the Monday prior to his departure meeting with other state treasurers, investment banks and other financial experts. The Treasurer’s travel records have been thoroughly vetted and are available to the public at any time.”
Even though requests by Jonathan Starkey for meeting details or other travel detail have not been forthcoming:
Flowers said no taxpayer money was used to pay any expenses. He did not charge other expenses on his state credit card or provide records of those as requested, including his airfare, conference registration, lunch and dinner, and some nights in the hotel after the conference ended.
And that’s probably not all of it, but I for one, am really tired of hearing about transparency and records available to the public when both are demonstrably non-existent. And if the NAST provides a $3000.00 per year stipend for State Treasurer travel costs, and Chip claims no taxpayer money was spent here, then someone paid for the $2014.55 difference(5014.55 – 3000.00), who?
This whole business gets curiouser and curiouser. He is approving , then disapproving, then approving Benner’s expenses (although we seem to be back at the disapproving phase, with Benner now paying more than $6K in reimbursements), and now can’t entirely account for the expenses *or* the business done on this trip to Alaska.
Now, the thing about business travel is that when you get sent to someplace awesome (like Alaska) , you try to figure out how to stay some extra days to see the sights. How many of us get to Alaska on someone else’s dime? The usual thing, though, is to pony up for your expenses the days you aren’t working. In places like Alaska, sometimes good clients (or clients who would be a big capture) get treated to hunting or fishing trips, floatplane excursions, helicopter glacier tours or any of the other fun stuff available up there. This doesn’t seem like what was going on, but you get the idea that hanging out after your business is done could be an adventure. It’s possible that other traveling Treasurers and attendees decided that they’d collude on some meetings in order to stay longer — which would be unusual if the conference was in Omaha, say. But the usual thing is to get your business done during the run of the conference (that is it’s point, after all) and then get back to your job.
Chip has posted in the NJ comments his response to this article (sorry, this came out tiny):
Even though the NJ does report that the breakfast room service order was for two people, and Chip’s claim that he paid for many meals personally (interesting conference setup that you have to pay for all of your own meals) and that he was proud of saving taxpayer money. Which I can’t figure out what, exactly, got saved. Good luck with that meeting with the NJ Publisher and hope that Chip Flowers will be bringing all of the records of this trip that Jonathan Starkey asked for and has yet to get. Otherwise, I think that Sunday Morning Financial Incompetence by Chip Flowers may indeed be a regular feature.
Tags: Bamboozled!, Chip Flowers, Featured
One more thing — I’ve been traveling on my own for business (including to Alaska!) all my professional life. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of making a reservation for 2 in a room as a security measure. Anyone else hard of this? I wonder how useful that would be since once Housekeeping got into your room, they’d know there was just one of you there.
And how come Erika Benner needed the “security” of a reservation for 2 at the Talkeetna hotel, but not at the Anchorage one?
Were the breakfasts Canadian bacon? Then it’s an international incident.
He makes me sick with his hypocrisy.
Could Sarah Palin see them from her house?
Is this guy kidding? I am starting to believe he has a mental issue which symptoms include thinking he is smarter than everyone else. Does he really think the BS responses he has been giving about what clearly was some type of relationship with his deputy are going to fly, especially when we are talking about the use of tax payer funds? We all know he wasn’t working on behalf of the treasury for four days after the conclusion of the conference. And then your deputy needs security in a town of 900 where she is meeting banks by herself, without you the State Treasurer (which happens to be foot of a mountain)? Is he serious?
Oh and Cassandra, you are absolutely right. A trip to Alaska would be one of those that count as a trip of lifetime. You cannot tell me that he and his deputy were not off frolicking and sight seeing. He is such an egomaniac I wouldn’t be surprised if there were pictures capturing such.
The mental issue is called narcissism.
You could ask him, but he deletes unfavorable comments and questions from his Facebook page.
I guess no one wants to mention it, but the first thing that popped into my mind was hanky panky between Benner and Flowers. I could be totally off base.
Why? Because the breakfast room service orders were all for two people? His statement made clear that was all for breakfast meetings.
Yeah ql I think that is implicit. I think that’s why we are here right now – the good ole’ dipping the pen in company ink. Never a good idea. Something tells me this isn’t his first time either.
Will someone please announce their primary run already?
Kelly Callahan, the spokeswoman for Flowers, says there should be no question that Benner’s trip to the Alaskan resort town of Talkeetna was strictly for state business, despite the fact that Flowers asked Benner to pay the state back for those and other charges “out of precaution.”
Why precaution if there is no question the trip was state business?
This, unfortunately, has become par for the course for The People’s Treasurer. He is, without a doubt, ALWAYS the VICTIM. It has become laughable.
Does he really expect us to believe any of the happy horseshit that he keeps slinging? NAST charges membership dues for Treasurer’s around the country, and then reimburses back up to $3k for travel. So, unless he truly expects us to believe he paid out of pocket to be a member of NAST, then he is absolutely full of shit when he says no taxpayer money was used. I mean, come on…
It’s high time that the Dem’s find someone credible to primary this clown and let’s move on already. It feels like we are all spectators as he drowns in a sea of his own wrongdoings.
As a businessperson that has traveled the globe and accumulated literally millions of airline miles during my professional career and held countless meetings at hotels, I can recall exactly many times I’ve ever held a “breakfast meeting” in my hotel room with room service “for 2” and it’s precisely zero (0) times! It just isn’t something you would EVER do, simply based on appearances. The only way I’ve ever had meetings or hosted a breakfast, etc. in a hotel room would have been in a (higher priced) suite that either is just for such gatherings or has separate sleeping quarters that were able to be closed off from the rest of the suite. Those suites typically have a large living room type of area, (chairs, couches, etc.) along with an office (desk) area and, in some instances, a full bar area, when said suite was being used as the hospitality room for the company to entertain guests, most often during trade shows, or similar conference events. I’m sure that the State of Delaware didn’t spring for a suite for Chip and his female Deputy, but maybe that’s the Delaware way!
Oh, and to the comment about doing some site seeing and the like, while on a business trip – Yep, I did it all the time, but I footed the bills for my personal segues to see the local sites and such. The room expense would typically be picked up by my employer since I was there at their request and usually my trips were planned out and I would head off to my next “port of call” (saving airfare costs since most offer lower fares for Saturday stays, etc.). Otherwise, I’d use vacation days for my “extended stay” day(s) and pay for my room/meals/rental car, etc. expenses for my personal time.
Isn’t the site seeing part (or should I say faux “meeting” part) what is being questioned? It was legit, then it wasn’t legit, and now it’s legit but don’t ask for reimbursement in case the Finance Department finds out it was not legit? Really…WTF?
Another thing, NAST meets more than once a year. It is likely Mr. Flowers exhausted that stipend/reimbursement at some point during the year so I really don’t believe that one. And what other conferences did he attend with the deputy that were “extended”???
I wish he would just come out and admit he was sleeping with his deputy and they were playing around on the state’s dime thinking they wouldn’t get caught, because that’s the truth. Now sir, reporters are digging, the Finance Department is up your ass. What’s the next excuse going to be?
Yes, Mark Blake, I thought that was odd too — having breakfast meetings in your room. *Before* Housekeeping shows up, even. That’s definitely not normal in my business circles. But I never host meetings in my hotel room, anyway. That *is* a security precaution. Like you, I’d rent a small meeting room to host a breakfast or if it is a small number of people, just grab a private corner of the restaurant.
And it is plenty strange to me to insist a) that the trip was proper state business; b) that no taxpayer money was spent and c) that Benner pay back her previously approved expenses for this. None of that hangs together and Ms. Benner isn’t talking.
Wish I could *Like* NC’s comment above!
Why were all the food charges so high? Benner spent $346 on food in two days.
Because she was paying for two CB.
Sounds like it. If he was with her the whole time why did he change his story on the Alaska expenses’ legitimacy?
While Flowers is just the latest of a long line, it boggles the mind that with a six figure salary and, presumably, higher ambitions, a person would nickel and dime their way into a scandal. If he wants to have an affair, that’s his choice, but why would he risk everything for what is (relatively) chump change?
So his primary opponent will be…
In the comments on the NJ article, there is this response from NJ Editor Brett Blackledge:
Thanks to anon tipster who sent this.
First, in 25 years of business travel I have never heard of a breakfast meeting in someone’s hotel room. It is 100% inappropriate. Period. End of story.
With any meeting over food/drinks there should be an accounting of who exactly was in attendance. This is a requirement in the private sector, I can’t imagine it’s not a requirement in the public sector.
If Mr. Flowers office isn’t forthcoming on FOIA requests, the Attorney General should step in immediately.
Did anyone catch this quote from Flowers:
“The Delaware State Treasury is a separate constitutional office and does not report to the Division of Accounting or the Department of Finance,” the statement said. “Any implication by Mr. Knight to the contrary is false.”
Has our State Treasurer decided that his powers come from God and the Magna Carta, too? I wonder if the tea partying zombies in Sussex clamoring for a “Constitutional Sheriff” will get behind Mr. Flower’s cause?
A Constitutional Treasurer! Yikes!
Funny that the Treasury is exempt from any oversight from the Department of Finance, yet his Big Fix for the state credit card system was for the Department of Finance to communicate its issues with credit cards to the Treasury better.
Stick by stick, the wall is coming down. This is like Chinese water torture. Chipman – just come clean and move on. Your silly explanations are not only insulting to the electorate…you are digging a very deep hole for yourself. Damage Control 101: Don’t make it so easy for The News Journal.
I’m getting the feeling that there are some R’s here who smell a pickup opportunity.
The only “pick up opportunity” Republicans should “smell” is with Erica Benner. By pandering to the right wing fringe the DEGOP has ensured many, many years without a statewide office pick up.
@Jason – No, just a former State employee who is getting really tired of being lumped into the same lot with self-serving jokers like this by his sarcastic relatives. But, I guess I really shouldn’t be subjecting you folks to my chagrin. Sorry.
It is all good. Even Republicans with designs on the office are welcome (provided they aren’t teabags) .
This whole ordeal is just petty, what the man had for breakfast and who he is sleeping with is none of our business. Plain and simple!!
“I’m getting the feeling that there are some R’s here who smell a pickup opportunity.”
First they need a candidate; one with clean hands. Then they will have to be willing to push this story hard, because voters who don’t read DL will have no idea or concern what they are talking about without a stream of relentless negative ads. Of course, never underestimate the power of the governor to make stories appear in the News Journal.
It is our business. He used OUR money to finance his vacation with his girlfriend.
Calvin Sparks??? You must be Chips cousin. It amazes me how ridiculously retarded some people like yourself can actually be. Next time you get the urge to say or write something….pause for a second…then don’t waste your time…idiot….wow….I can’t believe God makes people like you!!!!