Or: 'The state is entirely for sale.'
A DNR official managing environmental issues at a Madison corporation with groundwater and soil contamination problems says in a court record that the company asked the Governor's office to help limit neighbors' potential damage settlements from the company.
According to The Capital Times:
Madison-Kipp Corp. asked Gov. Scott Walker’s office to intervene in an ongoing investigation at the company’s plant on the East Side of Madison — and to interfere with a lawsuit filed by its neighbors — according to testimony from a state official in a federal lawsuit.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources official charged with overseeing testing and cleanup at the Madison-Kipp site said that in 30 years of working at the DNR he “could recall no instance where a company went to the governor’s office complaining” about his decisions, according to court documents filed last week in a lawsuit filed by neighbors of the site...
Lawyers for the neighbors also cited an email from one of the company’s attorneys in which he told the governor’s top attorney the company would prefer to defend a lawsuit filed by the state rather than the neighbors to limit a potential payout.
First of all, this should remind you of Scott Gunderson working to let Herr Environmental off the hook for spilling human sh*t all around Oconomowoc. "Give the GOP supporters a slap on the wrist and allow them to go away" seems to be SOP for this Administration's DNR.
ReplyDeleteBut the real story lurking is that the Michael Best lawyer who made the request for the state to cover this up is Ray Taffora.
Who's Ray Taffora? He's a former DOJ official that gave thousands of dollars to J-B Van Hollen's re-election campaign, and then quit the DOJ after Van Hollen's and Walker's election to work at Michael Best. Taffora then took a main role on Michael Best's no-bid, $500,000 state contract to work on Act 10.
It all goes back to Michael Best and GOP campaign dollars. This is why this case, and Michael Best's "work" in the redistricting case, have major legs. Stay on this story.