Incumbent Auditor Rebecca Otto Attempts to Take Credit for Pat Anderson’s Accomplishments

The next installment in a long history of Rebecca Otto playing fast and loose with the truth has arrived.  Incumbent Auditor Rebecca Otto’s latest deception in a disturbing pattern of behavior is taken to a new extreme – she is trying to take credit for something she had nothing to do with.

Saint Paul - In an interview with the Brainerd Dispatch published Tuesday, July 27, 2010, Otto claimed to chair a group bringing people from across the state to work on firefighter statutes which had not been updated since the 1970s.

http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/072710/ele_20100727019.shtml

After contacting the reporter who filed this story to confirm that Rebecca Otto made these claims, Pat Anderson said, “It’s almost laughable if it wasn’t so dishonest.  So far the biggest accomplishment she’s laying claim to is actually something I envisioned, started and accomplished back in 2004-2006.”

After realizing the statutes governing volunteer fire relief associations were sorely out-of-date, Pat Anderson created the Volunteer Fire Relief Association Working Group in the fall of 2004 to bring together all interested parties including legislative pension staff, fire relief members and city finance officials to completely re-write the statutes governing fire relief funds.  This group finished the first comprehensive review since the 1970s of rules and regulations for volunteer fire associations and culminated in the passage of legislation implementing those recommendations in both the 2005 and 2006 sessions which essentially rewrote the fire relief code.

“Under her tenure, Otto has simply continued the group, working on any new issues which have arisen since that time,” said Anderson.    “I’m glad she has continued the group I started, but the heavy lifting and re-write were done years ago under my tenure,” Anderson continued.

“This is just the latest in a long string of mistruths, lies and deception,” said Anderson.  “The auditor should be unimpeachable, the elected official with the highest moral standing and integrity.  The auditor should be the last person spending time misleading the public or trying to steal credit for the accomplishments of others,” said Pat Anderson.

Last week, Otto erroneously claimed she was required by state law to travel extensively to expensive conferences with her Deputy, billing the costs of $400/night hotel rooms and lobster dinners to state taxpayers.

“Unfortunately, the public is convinced that politicians lie, and Otto’s words and actions feed right into this perception,” said Anderson.   “If the public can’t trust the State Auditor who is charged with keeping government honest and accountable, who can they trust?”

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