George Santayana said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is certainly true in Missouri where the governor is embroiled in a burgeoning scandal dubbed ‘Ecoligate.’ His top staff apparently decided to keep secret a health report about a lake infected with higher-than-safe levels of E. coli. As every political junkie knows, it’s rarely the infraction that brings down a politician, it’ the coverup that ensues. Not only is Missouri’s governor a former 16-year attorney general, his name is Nixon.
These are the facts: On May 28, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) learned that regular tests of the Lake of the Ozarks found dangerous levels of E. coli. In two areas, tests indicates levels 19 times greater than state standards, and half the swimming areas tested higher than federal standards. In fact, some of the tests hit the ‘maximum sample limit.’ Department procedure dictates that this report should be released to the public.
But the results were not released. Instead, the DNR deputy director and general counsel, Joe
Bindbeutel, claims he believed recent rainfall might have only temporarily elevated the levels and that an announcement could scare away tourists. The results were kept secret.
When the results hadn’t been released, as had become the custom in previous years, people began wondering about the results. Requests for the results, which were public records, were ignored. A subsequent investigation by Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster absolved the DNR of wrongdoing because the requests did not specifically cite the Sunshine Law (Missouri’s version of FOIA).
The Governor’s office claims it hadn’t learned of the test results until June 23. The media reported on the matter on July 15, and in that report, the spokesman for the Nixon administration criticized the DNR for not releasing the test results. Nevertheless, Nixon appointed Bindbeutel to a $100,000 job with the Administrative Hearing Commission on June 24–the day after they claim they learned of the test results.
Springfield News-Leader reporter Chad Livengood learned from emails released to him that Bindbeutel had asked for copies of the tests on June 3 in preparation for a meeting he was to have with a Nixon aide at the Governor’s. Earl Pabst, a 35-year veteran of DNR and deputy director of environmental quality, also told staff that Bindbeutel was planning to meet with the Governor’s office to discuss the E. coli problem on June 4. But the administration still says that E. coli was not discussed. Pabst has since announced his retirement. According to notes taken during a meeting of the Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Alliance, Binbeutel, said that, “the recent water testing has drawn the attention of the Director of DNR as well as Governor Nixon.”
When Livengood filed his Sunshine request for videotape to see which DNR officials visited Nixon’s office, his request was dismissed based on laws meant to protect security concerns from terrorists! But, writes Livengood, “Missouri Capitol Police provided a Nixon political appointee a copy of video surveillance tapes of the governor’s office, apparently ignoring its own policy barring such disclosures.”
Fast forward a few weeks and we have learned more. DNR director of communications Susanne Medley has resigned without explanation and has not responded to media requests for interviews. Transcripts of interviews she gave state Senate investigators indicate that she learned of the test results on May 29 and immediately passed on the information to the Governor’s staff. This fits with the widely held view of the administration. According the The Kansas City Star, “Nixon is said to run a top-down shop, meaning that his office is the focal point of all executive-level activity. Almost anything that goes on in state government seems to run through Nixon’s office.”
According to Livengood, Medley, “told Senate committee staffers investigating the department’s handling of the report that she told Nixon communications aide Jeff Mazur about the report on May 29.” She reported telling him the “results appear high” and that DNR staff would meet the following Monday to learn more. Medley said she called Mazur because all major news releases were to be run through him. This contradicts Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti’s assertions that no one in the Governor’s office knew until June 23.
The Source, a Kansas City blog, has written extensively on the topic and suggests that Nixon may have been trying to protect a benefactor developer, Lynn Griswold. Griswold is a significant Democratic donor in Missouri, having given tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic state committees and candidates.
Griswold is accused in civil court Missouri in a lawsuit “of developing condos by the Lake of the Ozarks without proper sewage treatment facilities.” Untreated sewage can contaminate lakes with E. coli. The Source reports that, “Missouri is trying to impose a civil penalty of $10,000 per violation per day. A notice of violation was served on 10/15/2004, and as of 11/3/2008, they claimed the violations are ongoing.”
Before being appointed elsewhere, Bindbeutel claims to have had a few meetings with Governor Nixon in June. In one of those meetings attorney Chuck Hatfield was present. (This fact “inadvertently” was not reported to Senate investigators.) Hatfield is a former Nixon chief of staff, close confidante, and lobbyist. Although not registered as a lobbyist for Griswold, Hatfield is Griswold’s defense attorney in the civil suit mentioned above.
The Source suggests that the most plausible explanation is that in one of the meetings where Hatfield was present, Bindbeutel mentioned the high E. coli levels to Governor Nixon. The Source believes Hatfield may have asked Nixon to suppress the results and he did. Ken Midkiff, chairman of the Missouri Clean Water Campaign agrees, according to the Columbia Tribune. He told the paper, that testimony to Senate investigators, “confirms to me that the governor’s office directed and ordered DNR to withhold the data.”
Senate investigations into the matter are still underway. But in order to believe the administration’s changing, and at time contradictory line, one has to discount Medley’s assertion that she was in immediate and repeated communication with Nixon aide Mazur; one has to discount Bindbeutel’s and Pabst’s contemporaneous claims that the matter was to be discussed with Nixon on June 4; and one has to accept that Nixon would have appointed Bindbeutel on the day after learning that he had been risking public health by sitting on a DNR report.
The Source’s conclusion seems much more plausible, and would explain the delayed release of the report and Bindbeutel’s appointment elsewhere, the refusal to release security videotapes, and the mini-massacre of resignation and retirement that has followed.
On Saturday, The Kansas City Star editorialized that Nixon has abused the “public’s trust and put people’s safety in jeopardy.” That’s the best case scenario. At worst, Nixon has put the interests of a political contributor ahead of public safety and then orchestrated an effort to cover his tracks.