{"id":699,"date":"2007-11-02T21:56:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-02T21:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=699"},"modified":"2007-11-02T21:56:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-02T21:56:00","slug":"huckabee-crushes-hard-drives-including-his-use-of-state-plane-guts-emergency-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=699","title":{"rendered":"Huckabee crushes hard drives (including his use of State plane) & Guts emergency fund"},"content":{"rendered":"


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 (NOTE: INCLUDED IN THE CRUSHED HARD
\nDRIVES WERE ALL THE RECORDS OF HUCKABEE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S USE\/ABUSE OF THE STATE POLICE KING
\nAIRPLANE)<\/strong><\/span> <\/o:p><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Huckabee
\nleft computers, fund gutted<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY SETH BLOMELEY AND MICHAEL R.
\nWICKLINE<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

URL:
\n<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“>www.nwanews.com\/adg\/News\/179261\/<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee depleted
\nthe governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office emergency fund in the final weeks of his administration
\nin part to pay for the destruction of computer hard drives in his office. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

That left Gov. Mike Beebe, who
\nreplaced Huckabee on Jan. 9, with no emergency funds for the last half of
\nfiscal 2007. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Documents that the Arkansas
\nDemocrat-Gazette obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, describe the destruction
\nof the computer drives, as ordered by Huckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office, and Huckabee
\ncomplaining strongly about his cell phone and Blackberry not working. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

A memo dated Jan. 9 from a state
\nDepartment of Information Systems official to Huckabee told of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disposition
\nof data maintained\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by the department \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for the office of the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d during
\nHuckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tenure. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All drives have been subsequently
\ncrushed under the supervision of a designee of your office,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wrote Gary
\nUnderwood, the agency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief technology officer and a former Huckabee staff
\nmember. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe has asked the Legislature to
\nreplenish the $ 500, 000 emergency fund, but a legislative committee has so far
\nrejected his request. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

On Jan. 3, the Department of
\nInformation Systems requested $ 25, 000 from the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for the
\ncloseout of information systems for the office of the governor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Huckabee on Jan. 5 sent the
\ndepartment the last $ 13, 000 in the emergency fund, leaving an outstanding
\nbalance of $ 12, 000. The $ 13, 000 would be used to help pay for crushing the
\nhard drives. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Department of Information Systems
\nDirector Claire Bailey said hard drives for 83 computers and four servers were
\ndestroyed, or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crushed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d after information was downloaded onto backup tapes.
\nUnderwood supervised it and delivered the backup tapes to Huckabee Chief of
\nStaff Brenda Turner, who had ordered the hard drives crushed, Bailey said. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

She said the computers were located
\nin the state Capitol; the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Washington, D. C., office; the state police
\nairport hangar; the Governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mansion; and the Arkansas State Police drug
\noffice. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2003, Huckabee announced that
\nafter he left office, his official gubernatorial papers would be stored at his
\nalma mater, Ouachita Baptist University, a private institution in Arkadelphia.
\nHe said at the time that the college would decide which documents would be
\nreleased to the public. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

A Nov. 20, 2006, e-mail from
\nHuckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s director of media operations, Kerry Rodnick, to Turner asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is
\nthere someone at OBU that could tell me how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to receive our digital
\nfiles ?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

With the emergency fund empty just
\nbefore he took office, Beebe asked the Joint Budget Committee to put another $
\n500, 000 in it. On Thursday, the committee rejected Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

An alternate resolution for $ 250,
\n000 to meet Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request halfway also failed. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Lawmakers said they wanted to know
\nwhy Huckabee had spent it all and where it went. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not sure what to
\nmake of the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rejection of his request. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Beebe
\nsaid. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an inside political issue at the expense of taking
\ncare of emergencies and taking care of our people. The emergency fund is there
\nfor a reason. We just had seven counties declared disaster areas. We may have
\nmore. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re coming into tornado season. That fund they usually try to keep, if
\nat all possible, at $ 500, 000 at all times so that money is there for counties
\nand cities and people if there is a disaster. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing,
\nbut I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to have a visit with a few legislators and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe said he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know whether it
\nwas normal for the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office computer hard drives to be destroyed. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It certainly removes any
\nopportunity to have any information,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe has just finished a four-year
\nterm as attorney general. He said he knows of no hard drives being destroyed
\nthere in advance of his successor, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, taking
\noffice. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Certainly [there were ] no orders
\nfor that by me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Beebe said. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

He said he did tell his attorney
\ngeneral staff to delete e-mails and other files from office computers in
\npreparation for the new staff in McDaniel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Asked whether \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crushing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d hard drives
\nshould be considered a criminal offense of destroying state property, Beebe
\nsaid he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Bailey said the Department of
\nInformation Systems arranged to handle computers during the transition in
\nadministration in the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and lieutenant governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offices, but not the
\nattorney general\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s or treasurer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offices, which are the other constitutional
\noffices that changed hands in January as a result of the November election. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

She said the Department of
\nInformation Systems didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t crush hard drives in the lieutenant governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\noffice. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some of our customers do crush and
\n\/ or overwrite their hard drives themselves, and some of our customers ask for
\nour assistance,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We, as an agency, always overwrite or physically
\ncrush our internal hard drives depending on the sensitivity of the data.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

A Huckabee spokesman didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t return a
\nmessage Thursday, and Huckabee didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t respond to an e-mail seeking his response
\nto questions about the computers and his use of the emergency fund. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe said he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t aware until
\nrecently that Huckabee had used the last of the emergency fund to pay costs
\nassociated with the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office file purge. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe spokesman Matt De-Cample said
\nBeebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office now has 22 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153updated\u00e2\u20ac\u009d computers with new hard drives, 27 new
\ndesk-top computers, and 22 new laptops. He said the computers and other
\nequipment were purchased with money from the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office operational
\nfund. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are operational,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We
\nare not lacking in computers right now. We couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t run the office without
\ncomputers, and we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make the request [to the Legislature for the
\ncomputers ] until we were in office.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

He said that forced Beebe to dip
\ninto the operational fund for $ 335, 000 to buy the computers. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Bailey said the computers would
\nlikely have been replaced even if the hard drives weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t crushed. She said that
\nher department had replaced the computers at the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office the day
\nbefore Beebe took office and Beebe had to reimburse the department. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

HUCKABEE EXPENSES According to the
\nBureau of Legislative Research, Huckabee spent the $ 500, 000 on 22 things, the
\nmost being $ 100, 000 for a group called Play It Again Arkansas \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to purchase
\n[musical ] instruments and provide operational funding.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huckabee has been
\nsupportive of that group, which distributes used musical instruments to
\nchildren. Among other things, he gave $ 10, 000 to the Hot Springs Documentary
\nFilm Institute to buy a car; $ 97, 000 to the Game and Fish Commission\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hooked on Fishing, Not Drugs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d program; $ 10, 000 to the city of Little Rock to
\nhelp in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the development of the Mexican Consulate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d office; $ 15, 000 for the
\nArkansas chapter of the American Red Cross to help \u00e2\u20ac\u0153prepare young people to
\ndeal with disaster situations.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife, Janet, works for the Red
\nCross. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Percy Malone, D-Arkadelphia,
\nmade the request at the Joint Budget Committee for a list of everything
\nHuckabee has used the emergency fund for. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to make sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a fund
\nthe governor has to use however they want,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Malone said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re
\ngoing to do, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to call it an emergency fund.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Kim Arnall, assistant director of
\nthe Bureau of Legislative Research, said the fund has traditionally been used
\nby governors for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153emergency type situations or maybe not emergency type
\nsituations.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Arnall said the governor has another
\nfund at his disposal, the Governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Disaster Fund, which amounts to $ 9. 5
\nmillion each year for things such aid during natural catastrophes. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request to replace the $
\n500, 000 failed with 22 votes in favor, seven votes short of the 29 needed to
\npass. The alternate motion for $ 250, 000 failed with 25 votes. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, said
\nhe voted against the $ 250, 000 in hopes that his colleagues later would
\napprove the $ 500, 000. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia,
\noffered the motion to give Beebe half of what he requested. He said later that
\nit was not legislators\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 attempt to send a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153message\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to Beebe as some at the
\nCapitol thought. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

He said he and other legislators
\nthought that the emergency fund being depleted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153really isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t our problem.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But
\nhe said he also thought that it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Gov. Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fault either.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He said he
\nwanted to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153be fair\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to Beebe, but he and other legislators want more
\ninformation about the fund. He said Beebe may end up getting the entire $ 500,
\n000. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Weiss, director of the state
\nDepartment of Finance and Administration, said the emergency fund is typically
\nreplenished during changes of administrations. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Rick Saunders, D-Hot Springs,
\nwondered in the committee whether Beebe wanted more emergency money to buy
\nlighting for news conferences in the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conference room. He noted that
\nhe had read in the Democrat-Gazette that Huckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s staff removed lighting
\nwhich wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t state property. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

A Dec. 28 e-mail from Rodnick,
\nHuckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s director of media operations, to Huckabee chief of staff Turner
\ndetailed some last-minute sorting out of state property and private property. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Gary Underwood and I met this
\nmorning and went through all equipment and communications related material to
\ndetermine what belongs to the state and what did not,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rodnick wrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were
\nable to define what was his, mine and the Republican Party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rodnick noted that the
\nconference-room podium was bought with party funds but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153retrofitted with state
\nmoney.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He wrote that one option would be deconstructing the podium to give the
\nproper parts to the state and the party. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The concern comes when the new
\nadministration comes in and notices the podium gone and the guts on the floor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nhe wrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel it would be better to avoid potentially negative press by
\nleaving the podium asis.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Clint Reed, executive director of
\nthe state GOP, said he had no knowledge of the party buying items for the
\ngovernor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

As for the Department of Information
\nSystems billing, Beebe said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What I do know is apparently DIS never charged
\nthe governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office what they were supposed to over the last several years
\nfor the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office proportional share of [information technology ]
\nservices.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

He noted that the state continues to
\nhave \u00e2\u20ac\u0153big problems\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the way the Department of Information Systems has
\nbilled state agencies for computer services. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Last fall, Huckabee recommended that
\nthe state set aside $ 37 million of the expected $ 843 million state surplus to
\npay the federal government in case the state loses a lawsuit related to
\nDepartment of Information Systems\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 billing. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The federal government has
\nmaintained that federal dollars sent to the state wrongly went toward computer
\nbilling at the Department of Information Systems. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Beebe said the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office
\nowes a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bunch\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of money to the Department of Information Systems for services
\nprovided in the past few years, but he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure of the exact amount. He said
\nBailey would know. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Bailey said the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office
\nowes $ 33, 302 for services rendered during the Huckabee administration. She
\nblamed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153internal DIS billing process failures\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for bills not previously being
\nsent to the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office. BLACKBERRY AND CELL PHONE <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Huckabee also was dealing with other
\ntechnological issues in the weeks before he left office. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153WHO THE HECK TURNED OFF MY
\nBLACKBERRY ?????\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huckabee wrote in a Dec. 23 e-mail. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The Dec. 23 e-mail from Huckabee to
\nBailey concerned a disruption in the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s communication services during
\nthe transition to Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s administration. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Blackberry has been disconnected
\nby some genius who must have thought I quit being governor Dec. 23,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huckabee
\nwrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u01531. Who did this and why ? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like an answer now. 2. Get it turned back
\non. NOW ! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve called Cingular to try to get this fixed. We need to make sure
\nour computer lines aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t down. This is beyond excusable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Huckabee was one of the first people
\nat the Capitol to have a Blackberry, a portable email and cell phone device the
\nhe has had since at least 2002. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Bailey quickly responded to
\nHuckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concern, writing that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I will take care of this now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Huckabee then wrote Bailey, saying
\nthat his cell phone wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working either. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to know why this happened
\nand who was responsible. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t very smart.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00c2\u00a9 2001-2007 Arkansas
\nDemocrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved. Contact: webmaster@nwanews.com<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n