The follies

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, August 12, 2016.

The falling credibility of the McCrory Administration in drinking water scandal

The McCrory Administration has a big problem on its hands—and so do people living near leaking coal ash ponds who are counting on the administration to protect the safety of their drinking water.

There’s no sign that the coal ash and drinking water scandal that erupted in Raleigh a few weeks ago is going away. Instead, it is getting worse every day.

This week State Epidemiologist Megan Davies resigned with a scathing letter in which she wrote that she “cannot work for a Department and an Administration that deliberately misleads the public.”

Her resignation from her $188,000 a year job comes after top McCrory officials repeatedly attacked the credibility of state toxicologist Ken Rudo who said under oath in a deposition in a court case that administration officials assured people living near coal ash ponds that their drinking water was safe when he had evidence that it was not.

Rudo also said in the deposition that Gov. McCrory himself called into a meeting that Rudo attended at the governor’s office with Communications Director Josh Ellis and other administration officials about the safety of the drinking water.

First McCrory’s Chief of Staff Thomas Stith accused Rudo of lying under oath in a bizarre evening news conference. Then officials with the administration and McCrory’s campaign began attacking Rudo on social media and in the mainstream press.

Tuesday, an editorial signed by Department of Environmental Quality Assistant Secretary Tom Reeder and DHHS Deputy Secretary for Health Services Randall Williams criticized Rudo and said he created unnecessary fear among the public and acted as a lone wolf by setting his own standard for water safety.

That was apparently too much for Davies who also said in her letter that four scientists agreed with Rudo and they briefed administration officials.  He wasn’t a lone wolf at all.

And it’s worth remembering that Rudo did not go public with his comments about the administration’s questionable decisions about water safety, he was called to testify under oath in a lawsuit.

And for that he was attacked by political officials desperate to keep the story from exploding and further damaging the administration’s already shaky credibility on coal ash issues and its relationship with Duke Energy, Gov. McCrory’s former employer.

McCrory at first refused to comment on the growing scandal but Thursday said it was basically a “disagreement between scientists.”

That’s not how Davies put it.  She and four toxicologists agreed with Rudo. It was primarily political officials and folks with Duke Energy who disagreed.

And McCrory has still not said if he called into the meeting with Rudo in his office or not.  That ought to be easy to answer and there should be state phone records to back it up.

Meanwhile coal ash ponds across North Carolina continue to leak into the groundwater, threatening the safety of people in communities who understandably no longer trust the folks in state government who are supposed to be protecting them.

The scandal has now become a major political problem for Gov. McCrory. It has been public health problem for thousands of families for a long time.

Ignoring science now commonplace in Raleigh

The coal ash scandal and the attacks on state scientists doing their jobs comes on the heels of the resignation of widely-respected geologist Stan Riggs from the science panel he founded that advises the Coastal Resources Commission.

Riggs said he was stepping down because politicians in Raleigh have been ignoring science in the last few years when they make decisions that affect the coast.

Ignoring science has become a common refrain, if not the informal motto of the McCrory Administration and the General Assembly.

Yet another court says the General Assembly acted unconstitutionally   

And this week also brought yet another rejection of legislative decisions by the courts. This time it was the gerrymandered legislative districts drawn by the Republican majority in 2011.

A special three-judge federal panel unanimously agreed that 28 of the districts were unconstitutional because of the way legislative leaders used race as a factor when drawing them. The panel decided to allow the November elections to proceed under the current districts because the decision comes so close to the election.

That means that the next General Assembly will draw the maps that will be used in the 2018 elections.

It’s almost not news anymore when a courts rules something done by the current General Assembly violates the constitution.  State and federal courts have thrown out several laws passed in the last few years, usually promoting a bitter partisan reaction from legislative leaders about “unelected Democratic federal judges.”

That was their response to the recent decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out much of the voter suppression law passed by the General Assembly in 2013 and signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory.  They also raised the possibility that the decision was a part of some grand conspiracy to seal the election in November.

That’s absurd on its face of course, and also ignores the fact that one of the members of the panel in the voting rights case was first appointed to bench by former President George W. Bush.

One of the members of the three-judge panel that this week ruled that legislative districts were unconstitutional was also a Republican appointee who legislative leaders have praised for many of his earlier decisions.

The problem is not partisan judges or an imagined conspiracy. The problem is the extreme and unconstitutional laws passed by the General Assembly.

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2016/08/12/the-follies-257/

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2016/08/12/the-follies-257/