‘Judge Me By My Enemies’: David Pascoe Takes Aim At Columbia Corruption

Whoever gets the AG job, they are going to have to lobby hard to change the state’s whistleblower law, because the most anyone can get for blowing the whistle on fraud waste and abuse in state government is about $2,000. It’s a pittance, and not worth losing one’s job over – despite the fact that the law says you should be able to get your job back. Why? Because the recovery of legal fees to enforce the provision to get you job back is also capped at 10k for attorneys fees at trial and 5k on appeal. A pathetic pittance. The legal battle against the State to enforce that would basically bankrupt them. The average state employee is never going to blow the whistle unless it involves federal money, where the reward structure and protections are far, far greater. And the fact that the Legislature has not changed these laws since 1988 tells you all you need to know- they really don’t want to enable anyone to call out the fraud, waste, and abuse.