Many of you may have heard or seen the recent presentation from Commissioner Bauer at the Dewey Town Council Meeting of January 13, 2018. In that presentation he stated clearly and repeatedly that “Dewey was not among the top users of the program” Here are the cold facts we found relating to that statement:
In both the 2015 & 2017 inventories from the LESO office, Dewey Beach's use of the Military Surplus Program was far and away the largest user: #1 per capita in use of the program in Delaware. In 2015, Dewey Beach's use amounted to $5049 per resident in equipment versus nearby Laurel’s (another high user Bauer pointed to) which was $191 per resident. In 2017, Dewey Beach's use amounted to $1538 per resident in equipment versus nearby Laurel’s which was $370 per resident.
(The Obama Administration cancelled the program in 2016, but it was reinstated in 2017 by Pres. Trump).
This misleading and actually false presentation made to the Dewey Town Council by Commissioner Bauer is obviously of great concern, especially in the middle of a so called "Agreed Upon Procedure Review” done by the CPA for the town. Be clear, it's not an audit, the police have not produced any responsive documents as to the bank account(s) that the CPA had previously missed entirely.
These numbers were figured out in connection with a rebuttal we are doing to the entire Bauer presentation (it was a highly biased and incorrect presentation that needs comprehensive analysis) The entire Truth Rebuttal presentation is being released by Monday, including a chart showing Dewey’s outrageous use of this program. It will be released widely to the media, given that town council did not provide a counterpoint or balanced presentation (other than some good questioning by Commissioner Gary Persinger who identified the presentation as not objective).
Dewey officials wont be allowed to mislead their residents and voters. Stay tuned for more details in bringing our Town toward accountability. It will happen with your continued help and pressure.