Broadway's Past Ethics Problem/Not Good Choice for AR Director of Higher Ed.

Broadway's Past Ethics Problems
Why Broadway Is Not a Good Choice for Arkansas Director of Higher Education

There has been a great deal of discussion over Governor Mike Beebe's choosing Shane Broadway to head the state's Department of Higher Education because he lacks the qualifications set out in the law. Arkansas Code Annotated 6-61-203 says the director “shall be an experienced educator in the field of higher education” who “must have relevant experience on a campus of higher education.” Broadway is one of the leading Democratic politicians but in no way fits those qualifications.

It is a shame that Governor Beebe doesn't abide by his own words quoted in the papers concerning another incident: "The law is the law. If you don't like the law, you try to change it in the way this country was set up and designed to change the law." (Quote from AP story by DeMillo)

But in this controversy I have seen no mention of Broadway's past ethics problems. Broadway was the architect behind the socialist State take-over of all school facilities in Arkansas in 2004 (only one of 10 states to do so). Schools can no longer build or remodel without permission of the state and according to state regulations.

Broadway sponsored the bill (SB7) that provided the $10 million dollar study to determine the amount of money needed to provide adequate school facilities. The study came back recommending from $2.3 billion to $4.5 billion for school buildings, and that study became one of the biggest boondoggles ever experienced in Arkansas.

Broadway knowingly hired Randall Fischer, a criminal from Ohio, to oversee the $10 million dollar study. An Arkansas Democrat Gazette editorial gave details about this incident April 7, 2004 with the title, " Hey, it's just ethics." Another Dem Gazette article April 1, 2004 ("A-OK in Arkansas") describes the events as follows:

As I wrote last week, Fischer resigned his Ohio position in 2002 shortly after a judge there ruled that he had no authority to approve school construction contracts. Last July, he was convicted on two misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charges stemming from his awarding, without bids, of at least 1,800 contracts. Apparently, some grateful recipients gave him and his staff gifts. Fischer was assessed court costs and a $1,250 fine.

Because of his August 2002 resignation and a revolving-door statute, Fischer was banned from performing work related to school facilities in Ohio.

State Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Educational Facilities, last week told our reporter Seth Blomeley that he’s known all along about Fischer’s history. Yet he didn’t find the charges serious enough to bother informing most legislators.

"I think it was a kind of blown-out-of proportion issue," Broadway was quoted saying. "People are found guilty of ethics violations all the time. I don’t know how long you hold it against a guy."

Say what? Fischer was convicted just nine months ago in an Ohio court and could have served seven months in jail instead of just paying a fine and getting a judge’s stern lecture about violating the public trust.

Excerpts from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette editorial entitled on April 7, 2004 "Hey, it’s just ethics"

TO HEAR Shane Broadway tell it, an ethics violation is pert near as common as ducks in Stuttgart. I think it was a kind of blown-out-of proportion issue. People are found guilty of ethics violations all the time. I don’t know how long you hold it against a guy.—The Hon. Shane Broadway, Arkansas state senator.

Wow. You’d think Shane Broadway was a Louisiana legislator. Or maybe a Chicago councilman.

What do the folks up in Ohio think? Well, there’s David E. Freel, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, who said this after Mr. Fischer’s no contest plea: "This isn’t a question about an individual meal or golf at a public golf course. This is an aggregate total of a lot of golf and events from people who got millions of dollars in public work."

It’s the kind of ethical standard we have encountered too often in Arkansas legislators from the time of Mutt Jones and Nick Wilson and entirely too many others. And always the excuse is the same: Hey, it’s only an ethics/legal/moral violation. Happens all the time. Forget it. Attitudes like Shane Broadway’s are largely responsible for the kind of permissive atmosphere that lets this rot take hold.

Even though there were several newspaper articles on Broadway's actions, Arkansas did not hold it against Shane Broadway either. And Broadway did not even ask Fischer to resign. Fischer continued to oversee the $10 million dollar facilities study in Arkansas, which became one of the biggest boondoggles in Arkansas with hundreds of errors and crazy mistakes. But you can't keep a good BIG-SPENDING Democrat down in Arkansas. Broadway advanced to the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor last year.

For rest of article click on Monday below or go to this link: http://www.wpaag.org/Broadway's%20Past%20Ethics%20Problems.htm