September 17, 2006
Editorial
Where Chutzpah’s No Handicap

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Incredibly, Kenneth Tomlinson, the patronage hack who blithely operated a horse-racing business from high federal office, is surviving as the chairman in charge of foreign broadcasts to more than 100 million listeners. A proposal to strip him of his post failed when the Broadcasting Board of Governors split 3 to 3 along party lines. Thus does Mr. Tomlinson, a Republican ideologue with powerful friends in the White House, remain in office overseeing the Voice of America and Radio Martí. But he remains a gross embarrassment who trafficked in more than 400 phone calls and 1,200 e-mail messages from his government office in pursuit of his side business running a stable of thoroughbreds.

“I’m a hard worker,” Mr. Tomlinson brazenly insisted in dismissing his moonlighting predicament as the fault of partisan enemies. He was stripped of a separate job on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in an ethics scandal last year after violating fairness regulations by packing the corporation with patronage Republicans and conservative polemicists.

“This is part of American life,” Mr. Tomlinson told National Public Radio in defending his hoofed pursuits while on the taxpayers’ clock. “How many people have fantasy baseball leagues?” And how many have the presence of mind to bill the boss for 50 extra paydays a year beyond the federal limit, as Mr. Tomlinson did? (He claims the war on terror required his patriot’s overtime.) Or to hire a friend without authority or documentation and sign off on $244,000 in paychecks? (Experienced experts are worth it, Mr. Tomlinson advises.)

As proprietor of Sandy Bayou Stables, Mr. Tomlinson shows a staying power more worthy of Dracula than Seabiscuit. The Senate already is racing from a Tomlinson renomination, but the Bush administration continues to tout his value.

Calling All Deep Throats: We Need to Stop Fake Government News

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, is in Trouble Again

Former CPB Chairman Kenneth Y Tomlinson is Accused of Breaking Federal Law and CPB Regulations

Published on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 by the New York Times
Broadcast Chief Misused Office, Inquiry Reports
by Stephen Labaton

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WASHINGTON - State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.

The report said that the official, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, had repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit.

The summary of the report, prepared by the State Department inspector general, said the United States attorney’s office here had been given the report and decided not to conduct a criminal inquiry.

The summary said the Justice Department was pursuing a civil inquiry focusing on the contract for Mr. Tomlinson’s friend.

Through his lawyer, James Hamilton, Mr. Tomlinson issued a statement denying that he had done anything improper.

The office of the State Department inspector general presented the findings from its yearlong inquiry last week to the White House and on Monday to some members of Congress.

Three Democratic lawmakers, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Representatives Howard L. Berman and Tom Lantos of California, requested the inquiry after a whistle-blower from the agency had approached them about the possible misuse of federal money by Mr. Tomlinson and the possible hiring of phantom or unqualified employees.

Mr. Tomlinson, a Republican with close ties to the White House, was ousted last year from another post, at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, after another inquiry found evidence that he had violated rules meant to insulate public television and radio from political influence.

His renomination to a new term as chairman of the State Department office that oversees foreign broadcasts, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, is pending before the Senate.

Mr. Tomlinson’s position at the broadcasting board makes him one of the administration’s top officials overseeing public diplomacy and puts him in charge of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

The State Department report noted his use of his office to oversee a stable of thoroughbreds but did not mention one specific way in which his professional responsibilities and personal interests appear to have intersected. The horses, according to track records, include Karzai, as in Hamid Karzai, and Massoud, from the late Ahmed Shah Massoud) references to Afghan leaders who have fought against the Taliban and the Russians, as well as Panjshair, the valley that was the base used by forces to overthrow the Taliban.

In providing the report to the members of Congress, the State Department warned that making it public could violate federal law, people who have seen the report said. On Tuesday, Mr. Berman released the summary.

The lawmakers who requested the inquiry sent a letter to the president on Tuesday urging him to remove Mr. Tomlinson from his position immediately “and take all necessary steps to restore the integrity of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.”

A spokeswoman for the White House, Emily Lawrimore, said President Bush continued to support Mr. Tomlinson’s renomination. Ms. Lawrimore declined to comment on the State Department report.

In the statement issued through his lawyer, Mr. Tomlinson said that he was “proud of what I have accomplished for U.S. international broadcasting’’ and that the investigation “was inspired by partisan divisions inside the Broadcasting Board of Governors.’’

He implied that it was more efficient for him to work for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting at his office at the broadcasting board. About his horse racing work, he said the inspector general had concluded that it amounted to “an average of one e-mail and two and a half minutes a day’’ at the office.

He also said he spent more time on broadcasting responsibilities at his farm and residences than he spent on his horses at the office.

“In retrospect, I should have been more careful in this regard,’’ he said.

Mr. Tomlinson, 62, is a former editor of Reader’s Digest who has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s political strategist and senior adviser. Mr. Rove and Mr. Tomlinson were on the board of the predecessor to the broadcasting board in the 90’s. Mr. Tomlinson has been chairman of the broadcasting board since 2002.

The board, whose members include the secretary of state, has a central role in public diplomacy. It supervises the government’s foreign broadcasting operations, including Radio Martí, Radio Sawa and Al Hurra; transmits programs in 61 languages; and says it has more than 100 million listeners a week.

Mr. Tomlinson’s ouster in November from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was prompted by a separate investigation by that inspector general at the corporation. That inquiry found evidence that Mr. Tomlinson had violated rules as he sought more conservative programs and that he had improperly intervened to help the staff of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal win a $4.1 million contract, one of the corporation’s largest programming contracts, to finance a weekly public television program.

The heavily edited State Department report on Mr. Tomlinson’s activities at the Broadcasting Board of Governors did not identify the friend who received the improper employment contract. The report said that there was no competitive bidding to hire him, that he was retired and on a government pension when Mr. Tomlinson hired him and that he never filed the required paperwork with the board.

In his statement, Mr. Tomlinson identified the man as Les Daniels and said he had worked for 35 years at the Voice of America.

Mr. Tomlinson said, Mr. Daniels did important work as a liaison aide with the public and working on significant projects. Mr. Daniels was paid nearly $250,000 over two and a half years, ending last year.

Mr. Tomlinson was rebuked in the earlier report at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for improperly hiring an acquaintance from a journalism center founded by the American Conservative Union. The corporation paid the person more than $20,000 to monitor public radio and television programs for bias, including “Now,” with Bill Moyers as host.

The State Department report said that from 2003 through 2005 Mr. Tomlinson had requested compensation in excess of the 130 days permitted by law for his post. The report said that he had requested and received pay from the broadcasting board and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the same days worked on 14 occasions but that investigators were unable to substantiate whether they were for the same hours worked on the same days.

Investigators who seized Mr. Tomlinson’s e-mail, telephone and office records found that he had improperly and extensively used his office at the broadcasting board for nongovernmental work, including work for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the horse racing and breeding ventures. The material seized included racing forms and evidence that he used the office to buy and sell thoroughbreds.

Mr. Tomlinson owns Sandy Bayou Stables near Middleburg, Va., Records show that most of the horses have not been in the money, although Massoud appears to have been quite successful, earning purses of more than $140,000 over the last two years.

People who have seen the report said it noted that Mr. Tomlinson, on his lawyer’s advice, ended an interview with investigators early. One person familiar with the inquiry said Mr. Hamilton ended the interview as the investigators began to ask about using the office for horse racing business. Mr. Hamilton would not comment about the interview.

© 2006 The New York Times Company

Bureaucracy in Charge
by Donald Devine

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The official government investigation of the public official seemed damning—running a private business from his government office, improperly placing a friend on the government payroll, and billing the government twice for services performed. Although making the report public violated federal law, the investigation was performed by the State Department inspector general and reported to Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and Representatives Howard L. Berman and Tom Lantos, one of whom leaked it to the media as Berman made a summary of the report public.

The media went wild but, somehow, the fact that the Department of Justice had reviewed the evidence previously and refused to pursue criminal charges was lost in the frenzy. The official was smeared by the release of the report but was unable to answer it fully because he had not been advised whether further charges could be filed.

Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who was earlier head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was selected by the president to shake up the government broadcasting agencies to make them more open to diverse views. Studies have shown that public broadcasting was overwhelmingly liberal rather than balanced and Tomlinson’s supposed sin, according to the report, was to push for a Wall Street Journal weekly public television program to give the other side one lonely voice on the public airways.

Government bureaucrats do not like to be told what to do by their bosses, especially something new, even though their political leaders clearly have the legal authority and responsibility to direct them. The IG investigation was triggered by a bureaucrat who approached the Democrats with a suspicion there was something fishy going on, meaning he did not like it. For the uninitiated, leaks are the weapon of choice in Washington’s lethal and perverse bureaucracy gotcha game.

Start with the charge of putting a friend on the payroll. As a former head of government personnel can attest, over 90 percent of mid and upper level promotions in the government are by a name request for a specific individual. A Merit Systems Protection Board study found 40 percent of managers admitted seeing examples of manipulating the system to hire favorites. So it is ok for the bureaucracy even if it is against the law but political appointees are supposed to hire enemies or strangers? The report charged there was no competition to fill the position but ignored that political executives have legal means to appoint assistants outside the competitive service. At the end, the only charge that stuck was that the appointee did not file paperwork. After all the legal bluster, he simply forgot to intone, “Simon says.”

How about the supposed double-billing? Tomlinson was charged with billing 14 days for work at both the Board and the Corporation. But he was a part-time employee of both and it is not unreasonable to assume he worked for both many days. At most, this looks like a clerical mix-up and should simply be addressed by accountants for possible adjustments between the two rather than calling in the inspectors.

The charge of running a business was even sillier. Tomlinson lives in Middleburg Virginia outside Washington with an adjoining horse farm called Sandy Bayou Stables. His most successful racehorse won $140,000 over a few years. Most of his horses run out of the money and it looks like a hobby at a big net loss. How was he supposedly running a “horse-racing operation” from his office? The IG concluded he devoted “an average of one e-mail and two-and-a-half minutes a day” to his horses from his government office. Under this standard, every federal employee would be in jail. Dodd, Berman and Lantos certainly devote more time than that on politics and personal business from their office. In any event, Tomlinson spent more time on government broadcasting business from his farm and residences that he did on horse business from the office.

Tomlinson’s case is by no means unique, although extreme. Bureaucratic self-protection rules and overwhelms efficient management. The Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, with half of the government employees, are working with antiquated procedures because their unions successfully sued to block congressionally mandated efficiencies. Federal judges have now ruled that no reforms can be made without major changes in the proposed procedures including getting the approval of the same unions who sued to stop all reform!

While the system remains mired in inefficiency, a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis study found the average federal civilian worker receives $106,379 a year in total compensation—twice the $53,289 wages and benefits earned in the private sector. Unions retort the federal jobs are more skilled, referencing a government counter study. Yet, that study does not include the full cost of the enormous civil service pension, which would have even that flawed study finding higher federal pay for the same type of work. Since 2000, government pay has increased 38 percent, more than double the private rate of 14 percent.

Citizens pay dearly for their bureaucracy but they get games and politics instead of efficient work. The bad news is the Bush Administration recently lost the official whom GOVEXEC.com called the government’s “pay-for-performance warrior.” George Nesterczuk, senior Office of Personnel Management official responsible for the DOD reform proposal and past top OPM and House expert for two decades, retired to union charges he was the “federal workers’ own Dark Lord” for his determination to make government work efficiently by pushing performance management on a recalcitrant bureaucracy.

The forces resisting change in the Federal government are enormous and even the legendary Nesterczuk departs with less than complete success. One cannot imagine how it will work at all without him.

Donald Devine, the editor of Conservative Battleline Online, was the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 1981 to 1985 and is the director of the Federalist Leadership Center at Bellevue University.