Ms.Trimble should be aware of the emails concerning Jones’ use of state computers and state emails, since they were provided by the OSE and a check presented for their printing in 2008.

This behavior directly conflicts with the statement, “Public resources are for public use and not for any personal or private use,” said Carol Carson,executive director for the Office of State Ethics. “The Office of State Ethics will continue to fairly and vigorously enforce the code of ethics regarding any misuses of public resources”

Good to know we have now put in place another hypocritical Ethics Office that makes the rules, but allows its own employees to break them after DAS detailed their policy in 2006 well before OSE Enforcement Officer Thomas K.Jones accepted the position.

Meredith Trimble again misleads when she states there was ever a
reprimand concerning use of emails or computers by the supervisors,
managers, or human resources.

The documents entered into evidence detail this additional advancement of misinformation was blatantly untrue. Trimble was aware as well, that the supervisor Dias AFTER the policy on computer use in May 2006 was in place was found by Office of Public Auditors case # 2008-06 to have violated the policy by using the computer, internet and emails for personal use in excess of one hour per day.

No discipline was taken as evidenced by information obtained through Freedom of Information and as evidenced by Feliciano Dias’ testimony during the probable cause hearing (where he stated he was not aware of a problem with his use) nor during his testimony on day 6 of the trial.

At some point, the OSE must stop misleading and manufacturing evidence.

They are servants of the state, the citizens do not work for the OSE,
the OSE works for the citizens and at some point they too must be
accountable for their actions.

What Trimble failed to address is that they failed to prove their case
and we will expect them to do that, not assume a fine imposed is the
end of the issue. It is merely the beginning, or state employees will
have had all their rights stripped away with no access to a fair trial
with this NEW IMPROVED OFFICE OF STATE ETHICS.

I realized that this effort might meet with achieving less than the desired result. But I am happy with accomplishing 2 out 3 goals. My effort only further serves to invigorate the local Democratic Party.

Mr. Palmer dare not drop his guard - the reality is that he received the support of only 1 out of every 7 registered Democrats - hardly an indication of resounding support. I wish him well in November and hope that he learns how to make himself and his ideas heard within our local government.

Dear Ms. Sullivan:

I was made aware of your paper’s article this day and wanted to make myself available for comment and to try and set the record straight on our organization.

The donation period you reference in your article was 7/1/07-6/30/08 – which was our first full year of operation. For fiscal year 08-09 (and all subsequent years) - we have taken action to ensure that we will greatly improve the performance of our charity. We are on target to meet that objective.

Our 2nd full fiscal year ends in about 5 weeks (6/30/2009) and I think you will find a significantly better organization. We have a new Executive Director (me) and our audit (due by 9/15/09) will show that we are doing excellent work in the community. In the interest of transparency – I will give you some details of what will be disclosed in the audit. I invite you and your readers to hold us accountable and review our annual audit when it comes out in September.

67% of our discretionary income (income after our fundraiser is paid) will go directly to programs (Firefighter equipment – locator devices – assistance to burn victims). Our fundraising costs are still significant (roughly 85% of donations). Those costs are under review and we will continue to seek methods to lower them. It is the goal of the board to improve on last fiscal year’s performance by a multiple of at least 10. In other words – we fully expect that our audit will show that 10% of funds raised went directly to programs. We intend to increase than number incrementally every year going forward.

Tomorrow we will be shipping locator device equipment to 4 fire departments in Connecticut. That equipment was requested by the departments in early April and ordered then. The donations total about $10,500 or approximately $2,625 per department. During this current fiscal year, we have made similar donations to departments in the following states:

Washington:
Bald Hill FD
Sedro-Wooley FD
Rosalia FD
Woodland FD

Massachusetts:
Worcester FD
Leicester FD
Marlborough FD

California:
Felton FD
Grover Beach FD
Kenwood FD
Pacific Grove FD

Maryland:
Germantown FD
Glen Burnie FD
Landover FD
Hagerstown FD

Florida:
Seminole County FD
Polk County FD

Virginia:
Radford FD
Saltville FD
Spotsylvania FD
Warrenton FD

By the end of this fiscal year, we should also have completed donations of similar scope in Texas, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. We are also assisting burn victims in California – with plans to do the same thing in Ohio and Texas.

For the record, I am (by far) the highest paid person in our organization and I will be paid less than $25,000 for the fiscal year (with zero benefits). No other current employee makes more than $6,000 per year. The few paid employees also donate a great deal of time to the organization.

If you would like to discuss this further, please email me at rnmedik@aol.com to arrange a telephone call. I will be out of the office Friday picking up and shipping equipment.

As I said – our organization will only continue to improve. We appreciate the support of the community and look forward to a great future. Please let me know if I can answer any questions for you.

Sincerely,

Matthew Cahillane, EMT-P
Executive Director, Firefighters Support Services
2011 Oak Street
Wyandotte, MI 48192