ID Theft Okay??

The Utah Rattler is angry that HB127 was held up in committee. This bill would State government and its agents to check the Social Security numbers of employees and contractors prior to hiring them.

What seems to be at stake that would prevent legislatures from passing this bill? Is this bill failing because we think ID theft is for the greater good?

Lege: Progress Of Various Bills

HB0320S01 will likely make it through the House. The Senate is unknown. It seems to be uncontroversial.

Recovery of Federal Reimbursement:Third Reading, House

HB131 has made it through the House and was heard in the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee this morning.

Document Fraud:House to Senate

HB437 received a favorable vote in a house committee today.

Limitation on Benefits to Illegals:Favorable Recommendation in Committee

Zero Based Budgeting is one area that Wayne Niederhauser and I agree. He proposed the ghastly Restaurant spending bill that I've been fighting.

Zero Based Budgeting has gone through the Senate, and passed its first reading in the House.

State Zero Based Budgeting: Senate to House and Read First time

My Foray Into The Illegal Immigration Fray

I haven't talked about illegal immigration, on this blog, for a couple of good reasons. Here's why.

• Those who do enter this country illegally, do so from locations other than Utah. I'm dedicated to keeping this blog local. (Some would say 'extremely' dedicated.)
• The federal government should be primarily tasked with framing immigration laws, although they do provide funds to local governments to help enforce those laws. I don't address the federal government much here.

Discussions, on this blog, that might result from raising the subject of illegal immigration would quickly descend into realms that I do not wish to traverse. Namely, how to solve it. Let me express my view on this in brief. Just know that I don't want to discuss borders in comments, for reasons listed above, so if you ask my opinion I'm going to want to email you my response. Here it is. I believe a solution ultimately rests on the shoulders of the federal government. I don't think states should "carve out" exceptions to federal law, but are allowed to append to the federal laws where it applies on a local level.

One area which the states carry most of the burden is in solving identity theft.

I will discuss identity theft here, because it is directly a local issue. Identity theft has not been associated with the subject of illegal immigration in the media, but then again, identity theft has not been fully addressed by this state. The link between foreign nationals and identity theft is real, however. A recent raid across several states, of Swift facilities, was done to alleviate rampant identity theft that had taken place. ICE reported 1,282 arrests of foreign nationals. Were each of these arrests to represent one stolen identity, then the problem of identity theft would be bad enough, however, many of these arrests represent multiple identities stolen. This is not simply a problem of stolen bread, but of stolen livelihoods. Families that have been victimized by identity theft are not just lacking in their food stores, but often much more.

ICE has been criticized as "sinister" for framing this as an identity theft issue when the workers should have been deported as illegals only. I can't say that I blame the Feds, though. If they crack down on illegals for immigration offenses only, they would be seen as profilers, and racist. At least with the identity theft charge, they have an indisputable reason to proceed. Indisputable because the stealing of social security numbers, either by plain invention, or more advanced methods is a serious offense!

Or, has the government got a reason to prosecute illegal immigrants for identity theft? These days the government can't enforce the law on identity theft, without public outrage, unless a pedophile, or a drug cartel, is the culprit. Which brings me full circle to the borders which, topically, I'm dancing around. Are drug mules and pedophiles the only people crossing our borders? Absolutely not! This means of course that we shouldn't paint with too broad a stroke and label all foreign nationals as such. It also means that we ought to identify all victims, and all criminals as they are. It seems to me that the wave of illegal immigration is bringing something else on the tide. This "red tide" pollutes everything that it touches including those who work here without permission.

With that background I support Karen Morgan's bill (HB0320) which would go after the federal government for costs incurred to the state by illegal immigration. Also, Morgan's bill (HB0131) that gives stiff penalties to those who commit document fraud to establish a legal status. I support Christopher Herrod's bill (HB0437) to restrict how government benefits are given.

One more thing. Some supporters of these bills may indeed be bigots, zealots, or both. I can't let other peoples weaknesses get in the way of a good idea. I can't judge on that basis, and neither should you.

Hat tip: Deseret News (Focus on Victims of Illegal Immigration)

Weber County School District: Embezzelment

What was it that I said earlier about criminal activity being rare in government? Well, as a point of comparison, Weber County is preparing a case against one of the district employees.

The D.A. says this is nothing like the Ross case in Davis County.

Hat tip: KSL

Quote of the Day: State School Board

"This (allegedly had) been going on a number of years, and the system did not detect this. So what we need to do is ensure we design a system that will detect these type of things. If not, I predict this could happen again, and the state is going to be embarrassed."

Randall Mackey, at a meeting of the State School Board

I love how the Deseret News was so kind as to insert parentheses with an 'allegedly' to protect Mr. Mackeys credibility. They should have done one better and had Mackey say "...this could happen again, and the state is (allegedly) going to be embarrassed."

Can districts avoid financial misdeeds?

Lessons learned from the School District

I visited with Superintendent Bryan Bowles of the Davis County School District on Tuesday, and I walked away with a couple of impressions.

First the facts.

The School board said that the Davis Parents Association lawsuit would have a chilling effect on transparency. (Note: we did not discuss the boundary dispute on Tuesday, but spent our time on the indictment of the Rosses and subsequent auditing measures)

Bowles told me that the two Davis employee's were indicted the same day that he, and the press, heard about the indictment. He did not, at the press conference, offer any hint to the press that the district had taken steps to prevent future fraud two years earlier.

I was assured on Tuesday that a list of security measures taken would be prepared on Wednesday morning.

Now onto the principle.

Transparency isn't just about having press conferences, open meetings, and involving parents in decisions. Transparency is about pro actively addressing obvious concerns to the public.

Obvious concerns like the citizens trusting the School District with the next 4 million.

Concerns about whether this consultant, who is part of the 'old boys network', will provide a better solution than the solution prompting a lawsuit.

Bowles should be commended for visiting with the Legislature, and others who are interested in the Districts well-being( i.e. myself and others). However, the Superintendent should have handed the press a timely notice of changes that had been implemented since they discovered a problem.

That has yet to happen.

[Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste] Desnews: Is Davis District liable for funds?

Davis School District may need to repay some, or all, of the 4 million dollars that were misused by the Rosses.

The Federal government is known to have recouped amounts of thousands from other Districts in Utah, but we've never seen the refund amount to millions.

This could be a first.

This is so unprecedented that we shouldn't jump into oncoming traffic yet.

Let's wait and see if the District is able to recover money from frozen accounts. Let's wait for the final price tag.


Is Davis District liable for funds?

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste at 12/04/2006 10:56:00 AM

[Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste] Legislature to audit schools

I don't have a category for criminal activity. That is because we don't generally see criminal activity in local government.

(insert laughter here)

No, I'm serious. I think that most problems in government come from incompetence, or ignorance. Not intent to do wrong.

I also don't consider myself to be someone who accuses others. We're all passengers on this ship, and as such should consider it our responsibility to point out the iceberg when we see one.

So, I'm relieved to hear that the legislature wants to work with school boards to audit school districts accounting, and budgeting, practices. Not because they will find more fraud, but that they will find more waste.

Legislators may home in on Davis funds scandal

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste at 11/29/2006 09:34:00 AM

[Davis County Watch: Citizenship] Thanksgiving: A week in review

We've had quite a bit going on this week, so I'd like to take a moment and review what has past.

Davis Lawsuit

The Davis County School District floated the idea earlier this week that the continuing lawsuit could lead to even less transparency than before.

Of course, it did.

By paying a consultant to evaluate the situation, it's anyones guess what this single individual will decide. When is the District going to involve parents?

I'm worried this lawsuit won't go away.

Charter Schools -Yea, or Nay

The Deseret News has suggested that lawmakers show restraint in the creation of new Charter Schools. A 200 page report put out by the Utah Education Policy Center suggests that this is the consensus of most parents.

Land Dispute

SL County has backed SL City in the ongoing lawsuit with North Salt Lake.

No Surprise.

Fraud in Davis County-Not a good month for the School District

Two former Davis County Employees (actually, there is another minor player) are indicted for allegedly defrauding the School District out of $4 Million dollars in five years. They likely have been doing this for 21 years, but won't be prosecuted for it. Who knows how much has been stolen in two decades?

A poorly worded post of mine prompted the suggestion that I would support continued felonious activities to be enacted upon the school district, and that I am a public school critic. This may suggest that I am anti-public school.

I, merely, intended to point out that the School District were given shoddy books at grossly inflated prices, not that we should continue to purchase "crummy" books and have someone pocket the money. I would recommend that the District take special care to implement better auditing and that it should be possible to spend much less and get much more.

As to the label, 'public school critic'. I prefer to be called a school critic. If my not being anti-private school equates me with being anti-public school, then I could be labeled as such. However, I think you can appreciate the benefits of both systems.

I do.

Is it too soon for a blogger, such as myself, to talk about reforms that could be enacted to prevent future criminal acts?

Frankly, no, but am I capitalizing on this news to make my point?

Yes. When I make 4 million dollars from 'proving my points', then talk to me about my ethics. I intend to continue drawing lessons out of situations that I encounter--good and bad.

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Citizenship at 11/25/2006 10:07:00 PM

[Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste] Lessons learned from 4 Million stolen

The embezzlement of 4 Million dollars from Davis County School District can teach us a valuable lesson. When the feelings of betrayal have past, and the District is forced to contend with its books for next year, then we may learn that we can do more with less.

Yes, you read that correctly. The Rosses allegedly kept up this fraud for Twenty-one years! And, what were they doing in that time? They were trumpeting to the District the need for more money to supply the schools with what they needed. They were, in essence, inflating the existing budget to pay for their own exorbitant lifestyle.

True, the Rosses cut many more corners than is prudent for thieves. For example, they dealt out xerox copies of many textbooks. The materials were described as "crummy" by Superintendent Bowles. Yet, the fact that must not be overlooked when we address the new problem of replacing all these books is that the budget must be revised to meet the realistic needs of the District. For, many of the books, under the Rosses stewardship, were sold to the District for as much as seven times the amount charged by the publishers!

The Rosses are, of course, saying that they are innocent. They may be innocent, but if they are, they were incompetent fools with the Districts money.

When criminals, or alleged criminals, get to be in charge of budgets, then budgets grow. Now that these budgets will be returned to responsible hands, those in charge must remember in what ways they were duped. It wasn't just with "crummy" materials, but it was also in high prices.

Couple accused of $4M school scam

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Posted by Tyler Farrer to Davis County Watch: Spending and Waste at 11/24/2006 11:22:00 AM