Slush Fund

If there is a place in this country where honor is still taken seriously, it is at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. The importance of the Honor Concept is drilled into incoming plebes from day one. Behavior that may be merely disapproved on other campuses is grounds for expulsion. Given that standard, the recently disclosed Office of the Naval Inspector General's report issued last fall that uncovered a hidden "contingency" fund involving millions of dollars fueled by various private sources, including the Naval Academy Foundation, and used for such indulgencies as tailgate parties for senior staff, entertainment and gifts for coaches is downright shocking.

The Naval Academy superintendent, recently under fire over an off-the-books "slush fund," will be forced out of his position a month earlier than expected, officials said Tuesday, as the military also overturned his recommendations that two students be expelled. Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler had planned to retire in September after three years at the academy's helm, but the chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, directed an exit by the first week in August, saying it would "better position the Naval Academy for success in the upcoming year," according to a Navy spokesman.

It started in April 2007 when $95,000 in corporate sponsorship money raised for Navy's appearance in the 2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl football game was placed into a newly created contingency fund. Over the next two years, Naval Academy administrators deposited an additional $200,000 in bowl game sponsorship money into the account, tapping it to pay for "invitation-only" tailgate parties, several catered receptions and $863 in necktie gifts for football coaches. But this off-the-books "slush fund" never should have been created, according to a newly released report from the Office of the Naval Inspector General.

If there is a place in this country where honor is still taken seriously, it is at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. The importance of the Honor Concept is drilled into incoming plebes from day one. Behavior that may be merely disapproved on other campuses is grounds for expulsion. Given that standard, the recently disclosed Office of the Naval Inspector General's report issued last fall that uncovered a hidden "contingency" fund involving millions of dollars fueled by various private sources, including the Naval Academy Foundation, and used for such indulgencies as tailgate parties for senior staff, entertainment and gifts for coaches is downright shocking.

LET'S BE CLEAR about Edward T. Norris: Baltimoreans largely have him to thank for the city's dramatic reduction in homicides two years ago and for the overall drop in violent crime that continues today. He's the one who put more cops on the streets, beefed up enforcement against so-called "quality-of-life" crimes and brought accountability to a department that previously indulged dereliction. That just makes it doubly disappointing, though, to learn that the police commissioner used an unsupervised slush fund to spend $178,000 on questionable out-of-town trips, gifts and meals.

The Naval Academy Athletic Association ought to be ashamed to look Brodie Prieto in the face.Last year, Midshipman Prieto won a gold medal at the Eastern Intercollegiate Fencing Championships. He couldn't defend his title because the NAAA, the tax-exempt private organization that is supposed to promote and help pay for academy sports programs, got rid of the fencing team. Expense was one of the reasons.Yet the NAAA didn't have any trouble forking over thousands of dollars so 96 academy bigwigs and their guests could enjoy an all-expense paid trip to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game.

WASHINGTON -- As the House banking controversy fades, a new scandal may be about to erupt on Capitol Hill over $45 million in unspent operating monies that congressional leaders are allegedly using as a slush fund.Reps. John Doolittle and Frank Riggs of California, two of the seven freshman Republican House members who helped blast open the House bank scandal, planned to introduce a bill today to require outside audits of Congress' internal finances.Details of how the money is spent are still unclear.

A GOP leader charged yesterday that a bill offering state grants for after-school programs was an attempt to set up a political "slush fund" for Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.Del. Robert L. Flanagan, the House Republican whip from Howard County, said the legislation would give the power to award the grants to a five-member executive committee controlled by Gov. Parris N. Glendening and his appointees. The amendments provide that the governor could designate the lieutenant governor to serve in his place.

WASHINGTON -- The two top officials at the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office, which controls the nation's spy satellites, were ousted yesterday in the wake of allegations of financial mismanagement.The agency, which was founded in 1960 but not officially acknowledged as existing until 1992, built up what members of Congress called "a slush fund" of more than $1 billion before the unspent money was traced last year. The agency also built a lavish new headquarters in Virginia at the cost of $310 million, provoking an earlier round of criticism for giving Congress only the briefest outline of its plans.

WASHINGTON -- Trying to clean out its desk before adjournment, the House ethics committee dismissed three charges yesterday against House Speaker Newt Gingrich and one against Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the Democratic minority leader.But four more charges against Gingrich, about an alleged "slush fund" raised for him by GOPAC, a political action committee he headed, were left in limbo.Republicans failed to get Democrats to agree to dismiss them. Democrats failed to get the committee to open a formal inquiry into them.

It started in April 2007 when $95,000 in corporate sponsorship money raised for Navy's appearance in the 2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl football game was placed into a newly created contingency fund. Over the next two years, Naval Academy administrators deposited an additional $200,000 in bowl game sponsorship money into the account, tapping it to pay for "invitation-only" tailgate parties, several catered receptions and $863 in necktie gifts for football coaches. But this off-the-books "slush fund" never should have been created, according to a newly released report from the Office of the Naval Inspector General.

It's heartening that City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake has already called for an audit of the Baltimore City Foundation in the wake of Sunday's report by The Sun's James Drew about the wildly lax financial controls that have made it a slush fund for City Hall. But it's going to take a lot more than an audit to clean up this mess. The fund needs new leadership, new accountability practices and new rules on what its funds can be used for. Former Mayor William Donald Schaefer created the fund in the 1980s as a conduit for donations to support the city's efforts to help the needy, something that was becoming more necessary because of Reagan administration cuts to social safety net funding.

WASHINGTON - After a showdown over whether to include lawmakers' pet projects, Congress approved a $79 billion emergency wartime spending measure yesterday to pay for military action in Iraq, postwar rebuilding and fighting terrorism at home. The unanimous votes - Congress' last action before adjourning for a two-week recess - cleared the supplemental spending measure for President Bush's signature. He is expected to sign it soon. "I am pleased that Congress moved quickly and with strong bipartisan support to pass my request for our military and to bolster our homeland defenses during Operation Iraqi Freedom," Bush said.

BALTIMORE HAS already recorded more than one shooting for every day this year. And this summer has been wickedly violent -- with an upsurge in homicides and a disturbing spate of child killings. So it's not hyperbole to suggest that the city still needs a police chief whose full attention is on police matters, perhaps even 24 hours a day. But is Edward T. Norris that leader? Two weeks ago, there was no doubt. Mr. Norris was the tough New York cop who had brought order to Baltimore's chaotic crime-fighting efforts and made big dents in violent crime.

JUDGING FROM the reaction, you'd think Baltimore police Commissioner Ed Norris had taken his wife on a three-week vacation in Paris, spent bundles on an elaborate shopping spree and paid for it all with the money from that "slush fund" that has residents of Payback City in such high dudgeon. But that's not what he did. Using a fund of donated money other commissioners had used, Norris spent $178,000 for gifts - sweat shirts and jackets for police commanders attending an Orioles game on a chilly night - trips to other cities, lodging and meals.

LET'S BE CLEAR about Edward T. Norris: Baltimoreans largely have him to thank for the city's dramatic reduction in homicides two years ago and for the overall drop in violent crime that continues today. He's the one who put more cops on the streets, beefed up enforcement against so-called "quality-of-life" crimes and brought accountability to a department that previously indulged dereliction. That just makes it doubly disappointing, though, to learn that the police commissioner used an unsupervised slush fund to spend $178,000 on questionable out-of-town trips, gifts and meals.

AT THIS stage in his career, you'd think the last thing on Gov. Parris N. Glendening's mind would be soliciting folks for a $1,000-a-ticket fund-raiser. Think again.The governor is actively involved in trying to raise $200,000 or more at his June 3 fund-raiser. Tickets for the separate VIP reception cost an eye-popping $4,000 each.Does this imply only businesses and lobbyists who contribute to the VIP affair get in the governor's good graces? Indeed, many ticket-buyers could make donations simply to protect themselves.

What Baltimore needs now is a slush fund.Nothing in the Dayton accord authorizes NATO to seize the mine where Bosnian Serb troops are destroying evidence of genocide. Therefore, it did not occur.When the state takes over city schools, even more money can be spent on administration without ever reaching the kids.Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 40 billion more galaxies, as if we didn't have enough already.

Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend called it a "tiny little office" being picked on by an aggressive U.S. attorney. But the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, which finds itself tangled in a federal investigation over at least one grant awarded last year, is larger and more influential than it might appear, with a rising budget and swelling staff. The federal grant money it collects and distributes has nearly quadrupled in 10 years, from $10.5 million in 1992 to $39 million this year.

VIRGINIA Gov. James Gilmore tried this spring to sell 20 years' worth of his state's tobacco settlement payments at a discount so he could repeal a car tax. Tennessee's legislature reaffirmed last week its intention to use four years' worth of tobacco payments to wipe out this year's $560 million budget deficit. These two states aren't the only ones misusing funds from the national tobacco settlement. Connecticut and Illinois cut their property taxes with the money. New Hampshire used its proceeds to comply with a court decision on education.