From: Jeffrey C.Smith 
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2018 5:18 PM
To: Town Council
Subject: Fact Summary versus Commissioner Bauer's Presentation

Dear Mr. Mayor and Members of the Dewey Town Council,

As you may have heard, we have found and documented substantive errors in Commissioner Bauer’s presentation made before Town council last Saturday January 13, 2018. The purpose of this email on this Friday afternoon, is to give you a heads up that we have prepared a full report which will be released on Monday, and wanted to give you advance notice of these facts in the spirit of truth and cooperation, but mostly accountability.

It should be noted that the material misstatements of fact by Mr. Bauer even led you, as Mayor, to state on the town broadcast of the Council Meeting of January 13, 2017: “The federal government is monitoring the things that matter” and continued “now that I know the program, I can clearly state that our Motion was inappropriate.” Those comments were made at 106 Minutes into the video. Actually, you were not the only one mislead, some of our members called to say that they were swayed by the Bauer presentation. Until they learned the facts that we in cooperation with residents volunteering their time, have assembled in our goal for accountability.

In fact, related to audits neither the Federal or State program officials audited or viewed or “put hands on” any of that which Mr. Bauer claimed, such as the laptops, never audited any money flows or bank accounts, only audited 25% of the non-controlled (DEMIL-A) equipment every two years (not “biannually” [SIC] as Mr. Bauer stated). More on this in our longer report.

As to Mr. Bauer’s statement (recorded on the Town Council Video) that “Dewey was not one of the top users of the program” well, that does not square up against the facts, Actually, it led some of our researchers to find a significant fact. Dewey has been the largest (#1) per capita user in Delaware for all the years of the 1033 program since 2014!

In 2014 use of the Federal Military Surplus program by Dewey Beach amounted to $3,617 of equipment per person versus nearby Laurel (another high user Bauer pointed to) which was $228. Dewey was the #1 per capita user of the program in the entire state of Delaware that year. Then in 2015, Dewey Beach's use amounted to $5,049 per resident in equipment versus Laurel’s $191 per resident. Again, in 2015 Dewey was the #1 per capita in the entire state of Delaware. In 2016 no inventories have been made available as the program was curtailed by the Obama Administration In 2017, after Pres. Trump restarted the program, Dewey Beach’s use of the Military Surplus program was once again #1 per capita in the State, with its amounting to $1,538 per resident in equipment versus nearby Laurel’s which was $370 per resident.

The question is, do you plan to offer the Commissioners and the residents an more precise and fact based viewpoint at some time in the future? Our residents and members are greatly concerned about this matter, as there has been no responsive documents provided by the Police Department on how this equipment was actually used, and as or more important where the monies from the sales of the property went or what bank accounts they are held in, and where is all the equipment including 36 Military vehicles?

We will forward you the extensive analysis of Mr. Bauer’s claims made before Council, and urge you to please keep an open mind, on the presentation from Mr. Bauer, its proven not objective nor fact based. This group intends to bring accountability to the Town and would appreciate your support of that in principle and action. The Bauer presentation was not only one sided but also provably misleading to Commissioners and the residents. The residents and the Town Council deserve truth and accuracy.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey C. Smith
Organizer,
Dewey Citizens for Accountability
DeweyCitizens.org