Dayton (OH) Daily News on the Right Track

Republished with authority of Lt. Col. John Mitchel, USAF (Ret.), Beavercreek, Ohio -- A National Security Issue Worthy of National Attention.

Regarding: "Hobson's earmarks invite spotlight," Dayton Daily News, June 9, 2008:

For more than a year I have been calling for an investigation into Congressman Dave Hobson's and State Senator Steve Austria's questionable relationship with the Greentree Group regarding earmarks for work at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Until this past week, a citizen's call for justice has fallen on deaf ears.

We should now applaud the Dayton Daily News (DDN) for finally stepping forward to connect the dots between Greentree associates' generous contributions ($43,350) to "Hobson for Congress" and Hobson's multi-million dollar earmarks to the Beavercreek support contractor. Those are federal tax dollars that would be better placed with our troops, or at least not added to the $9 trillion national debt. Unfortunately DDN's editorial came up short in that it didn’t address the local earmark steered toward Greentree in 2003 by the Dayton Development Coalition and Greene County Commissioners with Dave Hobson and Steve Austria cheering them along.

In 2003, the $1.9 million Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Initiative Agreement was noncompetitively awarded to Greentree on the pretense that Greentree and Greentree alone had the wherewithal to "save" jobs at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, or even prevent total shutdown.

We do not need Greentree, Washington lobbyists or overpaid consultants at the Dayton Development Coalition to remind Air Force leaders that Wright Patt is vital to our national defense. They should be smart enough to figure that out for themselves. So now that the Dayton Daily News has helped identify the sweetheart deal between Hobson, Greentree, the Dayton Development Coalition and Greene County Commissioners, it’s time for the next step, and that would be full, open disclosure of the Coalition’s spending since September, 2003.

It's also important that the Dayton Development Coalition fully disclose sources of funds. I have no quarrel with individuals or private companies that choose to throw their money away on six-figure salaries ($285,000 in 2005) to the Coalition President and CEO, or secretive junkets to Rome, Italy (May 2008) for Coalition insiders, however federal, state and local tax dollars should be off limits.

For almost two decades the Dayton Daily News has endorsed Rep. Dave Hobson without fail. They also endorsed Hobson's pre-anointed successor, Steve Austria, before the March 2008 primary. We should respect the media's right to make those judgments, but along with that should come accountability. Subscribers (and voters) deserve nothing less as I'm sure many rely on opinions expressed in such a well-respected newspaper as the Dayton Daily News.

In any case, it's time the Dayton Daily News finish the job by demanding that before the November election, the Dayton Development Coalition fully and openly disclose both spending and sources of revenue since September 30, 2003, the day Greene County Commissioners entered the BRAC Initiative Agreement that sent $1.9 million from Greene County taxpayers to the Dayton Development Coalition.

John Mitchel left the active duty Air Force in 1991 after 22 years of service. He continues to serve America's warfighters as a systems analyst at Wright Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio. Lt. Col. Mitchel wrote and self-published in 2006, "America at the Abyss, A View from the Heartland".