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Editorial: Scott owes taxpayers answers about high bills for debris removal

 
Published Sept. 26, 2018

When a Miami reporter questioned Gov. Rick Scott about his administration's questionable spending decisions in the wake of last year's Hurricane Irma, the governor blamed "special interests that didn't do their job.'' When Democrats in Congress wrote a letter complaining that tens of millions of dollars were squandered, Scott's office dismissed it as scoring "political points.'' Now that the Homeland Security inspector general is looking into an audit according to a letter sent this week to House members, Scott finally should be forced to explain what looks like inexplicably bad, wasteful management.

The main issue is debris removal in the Florida Keys following the September 2017 storm. Officials in Monroe County had a pre-existing contract with an established firm so prices would be set and work could begin immediately in the event of a hurricane. This is a common practice throughout the state.

However, in the first couple of days after Irma, Scott's administration inked new deals with another company at substantially higher prices. In fact, they were the size of bills that usually bring price-gouging charges. The firm MCM was paid $913 per mile to clean up roadways. One of Monroe County's original vendors, AshBritt Environmental, was being paid $32 per mile. The new firm got $969 for every discarded appliance it collected. AshBritt was getting $75.

Florida taxpayers did not just lose about $30 million in unnecessary clean-up bills. The clean-up process was delayed because employees from the original firm were jumping ship to MCM for higher pay. And then AshBritt filed suit against Monroe County and the Florida Department of Transportation for breach of contract.

Scott has argued that he had to act swiftly because those "special interests'' were not doing their job. Presumably, he was talking about AshBritt and other firms with existing contracts. The problem is officials in Monroe County say that is just not true. Both the county administrator and the county mayor say they did not request help from the state. Instead, they told state offiicals in Tallahassee that their meddling was hampering clean-up efforts.

To recap: The state wasted tens of millions of dollars to have another company be a nuisance for a problem that was already being handled. And, as a bonus, the state is now being sued.

If this was a question of overexuberance in the face of a major storm, it might be understandable. Unnecessary, but understandable. Except Scott's office has refused to acknowledge any mistakes were made. Instead, the governor continues to point fingers at imaginary bogeymen. There is no evidence that clean-up crews were not on the job and, 12 months later, the state still has not provided documentation that additional help was necessary.

There was a time when Scott's response to Irma looked like capable, steady leadership at a moment when Floridians needed help and reassurance. That perception has diminished in recent months. Questions about the deaths of 12 residents in a Hollywood nursing home have lingered, because Scott's office deleted messages on his cell phone about deteriorating conditions at the home due to a lack of power and air conditioning. There have also been questions about Scott handing the reins of the Division of Emergency Management over to a 30-year-old former aide who had fewer than two years of experience in the field.

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Now the federal government has seen enough evidence in the handling of debris removal to take a deeper dive into how and why firms were given exorbitant contracts to do work that had already been allocated. Scott owes taxpayers a better answer than what he's offered so far.