He’s Back
Aug 10th, 2009 by thatsElbert
The News Journal reports on Wednesday that Vince Meconi, the social services secretary under former governor Minner, remains on the state payroll as a consultant, pulling down a nice $6093.75 a month for his work. The News Journal states:
Not only is Meconi collecting $6,093.75 every month for his work in the governor’s office, he is also drawing $7,633.56 every month in pension payments as a retiree from the state.
Between his pension and current salary, Meconi’s annual take would be $164,728, compared with the $143,100 he made his last year as the secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services.
Why was he hired? The News Journal explains:
[Governor] Markell hired Meconi in March to work as someone with “extreme expertise in the inner workings of government” to obtain the maximum amount of federal stimulus funds, Joe Rogalsky, the governor’s spokesman, said at the time.
Maybe Markell was right in hiring Meconi. It would seem that with his “extreme expertise in the inner workings of government” he was able to keep his post over at Department of Health and Social Services, despite the problems at the Delaware State Psychiatric Center. Treasurer Markell had concerns with Meconi, but now Governor Markell sees him as an asset for the state’s management of the money from the so-called stimulus package. But really, is anyone surprised at this?
Furthemore, State Rep. Greg Lavelle states in a press release:
“When that hiring was made in March, the governor’s spokesman said it was on ‘a part-time, temporary basis’ that would last three months. We’re well past that and now they’re saying there’s no ‘firm deadline.’”
Some were relieved with Meconi’s departure. Now it looks like we’re stuck with him again, and paying him good money for it too.
Update: The link to the release was added, and this important issue was republished so it could get the attention it deserves.
The DPC scandal also involved a lot of shredding of records that could have provided evidence in any criminal trials. Nurses who had the courage and integrity to report abuse were suffering threats and having their car vandalized.
The union head at DPC had a violent criminal record but had somehow been ‘grandfathered’. No doubt he had a lot of clout.
And what did “Baby Biden” do in his “holding pattern” job as AG to halt the shredding?
Absolutely nothing.
The Bidens are great campaigners but that seems to be the limit of their skill set.
The two are Delaware’s shame.
The Dems are in control and guys like Meconi are here to stay. Nothing has changed since the last few years and the future will be the same with the Dems in charge.
Mike Protack
Isn’t it great to be in a race to collect as much largess from the Treasury as possible? More Atlas Shrugged; another example of the pernicious Socialist-Democrat modus operandi.
73K a year for a part time job. Why would they hide the performance evaluations and contracts from a State Rep. Well they have no perf. evals says my money.
The fact that Rep. Lavelle had to file a FIOA request speaks volumes about this new transparency. The law may have changed but the attitude has not.
[...] Inside Bill Colley’s Warped Mind, by MJ at LSD CR on Greg Lavelle FOIA-ing Vince Meconi. That’s Elbert provides more coverage. LiberalGeek made Hawaii his home for the last 11 days, and, like the Geek he [...]
This would be a good time to mention how much Del Tech President Orlando George is paid, right?
I think the state should raise its debt limit in order to pay for this and all the other double dippers around the state. /sarc.
I must say, it is a crime to now this is occurring, while Gov. Markell is hammering State Employees. I work for the State, and agree that there is a lot of money to be saved, starting with the removal of the cronies. The Minner cronies that Markell has kept is a very expensive tax payer price tag to pay for his personal political favors to kiss up to the Dem Leaders for his personal political gains.
To read the bull from Jack’s new director of OMB that they “inherited” the problem, I can honestly say it made me sick.
Markell needs to get his elitist bunch to stop running from the issues, get beyond political campaigning and payoffs, and start governing.
I supported and helped out with Markell’s campaign, but am now so disappointed I plan to change parties. I’ve been a D for two decades, but living through RuthAnn was tough, Makell is making it even tougher to stomach. If this is what the Dem’s are all about, I don’t want to be part of it.
Markell appears to have been a great campaigner, but even greater fraud.
Seeing how much Markell hates State Employees, it will be interesting to see how motivated they are to work on his agenda.
It is time to start thinking about a strategy to ensure we SEND JACK BACK. He is as dirty as the rest, and unfit to lead our State.