If you must lie, lie about something good

Niki Kelly reports on the Daniels administration, specifically IDEM, getting caught in a little PR fib.

“The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has unclogged a bottleneck of enforcement cases that have been unresolved for two or more years. Many of the previously unresolved cases inherited by the new Daniels Administration were settled with an amicable agreement between IDEM and the responsible parties.” Later in the statement, 90 resolved cases were mentioned.

This quote was rehashed in press statements a couple of times in July as well. So, the Sierra Club says tell us which cases. IDEM wasn’t telling. So, the Sierra Club had to take their complaint to the Indiana Office of the Public Access Counselor. When the Public Access Counselor found that IDEM hadn’t complied with the public access laws, IDEM finally produced a list.

The list shows 80 cases settled, 18 dismissed and 10 in which orders were issued because no resolution could be found.

Of the 98 resolved either through settlement or dismissal, 50 are from 2005 and 2004. Forty-eight were from 2003 or before – and even some of those could technically fall within the two years depending on what month they were filed.

90 cases became less than 50. Not a matter of huge importance. Just a dumb lie. If they’re willing to mislead the public about something trivial, matters of more consequence become suspect. Maybe it was an honest mistake, but I’ll bet most of these sorts of mistakes tend to err on the side of puffing up the accomplishments of the administration.