Put the whistle back in your pocket, Alex, youre too late.
The First District Court of Appeals Taj Mahal of a building went up on your watch.
Yours, girlfriend.
The time to have blown that thing was anytime in the last four years when you were signing one of the fat checks that paid more than $40 million in construction bills.
Did you do your check-signing in a half-light? Before your morning coffee? When you were late for a meeting, maybe?
There had to be a reason you didnt see the state was paying for miles and miles of fancy mahogany-like hardwood from Nigeria. Because, youre pretty incensed about it now. And Ill bet if you did know at the time, you wouldve blown your whistle then, right?
This is a little embarrassing, Al.
At your Tuesday morning press conference, didnt you accuse the Department of Management Services of an abdication of responsibility"?
Arent you a little afraid people will ask you, what about your responsibility?
After all, youre one of four Cabinet members. Sure, the other three have whistles in their pockets, too. They couldve blown them at any time and didnt. But they arent chief financial officer.You are. Youre the Big Chief. They dont see the money in black and white (and red) quite the same as you do.
Wouldnt you say the buck stops with you?
I know, I know, you had no choice. Ive heard you tell folks you only signed those offensive construction-expense checks because, well, "existing Florida case law prevents me from refusing to pay."
I dont know, Allie. Sounds a little lame to me.
Im thinking, what's wrong with yanking a project that sends up a Tiananmen Square of red flags? Would you be defying state statutes if you asked somebody in your office to vet it? You could have gone to your own auditors then and asked, Could you give this another look, something doesnt seem right. Before I put one more signature on a check, I want to make sure this project is in the best interest of Florida taxpayers.
The way I see it is this: Its no different from how you run your finances at home. You sit down to pay the bills, something doesnt look right, you ask questions. You get the problem sorted out. You still have to pay the bill, but you dont part with your money until youre satisfied the bottom line is correct.
You didnt do that, Alex.
Are you sure you ever spotted one of those red flags flapping in the pile on your desk?
The reason I ask is, at your press conference, you told reporter Kevin Derby you didnt know anything about the projects costs until after the St. Petersburg Times wrote about it.
Lets see. You were elected in 2006, you found out about this multi-year fiscal abomination when? In August 2010?
Maybe the St. Petersburg Times should be in the Cabinet.
Maybe the St. Petersburg Times is in the Cabinet.
Just seems strange, is all.
Heres a project that raises your righteous indignation four years after it began. And only after you were prompted by a newspaper reporter. Is this what we might call the "Alex Sink Fire, Aim, Ready Approach to CFOing"?
Or, might another possibility be that here at election time, with all the cameras rolling, in the middle of a neck-and-neck race to become this states chief executive, you and your campaign team decided to ride that trusty steed of a First District Court of Appeal building all the way to the governors mansion? Champion of taxpayers' money to the rescue!
It might have been a good plan except for that one little wrong-way-around thing, Alex.
You cant cover up a lackluster performance for 3 1/2 years by jumping up and down and conjuring up after-the-fact outrage in the last half-year. It's too doggone late. And you cant raise the St. Petersburg Times red flags at the end of your Cabinet term, they're not your flags.
Voters are going to know.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 727-0859
