It's bad enough we've been paying this ocean police commandant to treat fishermen like criminals and drive small businesses and businessmen right out of the industry. Now, NOAA leaders won't tell us if we're still paying him or not.
Nothing screams "corruption" and "coverup" like a good ol' governmental document-shredding party.
So when the Department of Commerce's Inspector General last month added accusations of shredding to the already-documented mismanagement of an $8.4 million penalty fund and the grossly inequitable fines thrust upon Gloucester, New England and Northeast fishermen, it was obvious that Dale Jones, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's law enforcement chief, had to go.
But when Jones' long-overdue ouster came last Thursday at the hands of NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco and her National Marine Fisheries caddy, Eric Schwaab, there was barely a sigh of relief from a fishing industry abused far too long by Jones and his rogue agency's thugs, especially out of NOAA enforcement's Northeast regional offices in Gloucester.
That's because Lubchenco's and NMFS chief Schwaab's handling of all this has raised even more questions rather than providing answers. The fact that NOAA "leadership" spent Friday stonewalling any release of information on Jones' exit — or any other disciplinary actions against NOAA policing agents — is an insult to Congressmen John Tierney and Barney Frank and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, let alone to every American taxpayer.
Claiming protections under federal privacy statutes, NOAA's chiefs declined to immediately give Kerry and other lawmakers the latest report from Inspector General Todd Zinser outlining his findings regarding the Jones document-shredding allegations. Plus, Lubchenco and Schwaab have refused to make public whether Jones is suspended, fired, placed on paid or unpaid leave, or even facing criminal charges, as he no doubt should.
Read the complete editorial at The Gloucester Times.