by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Day five of the “Sarah Stretch” and Sarah Steelman still refuses to provide any explanation for what happened to all her emails, schedules, and other public records from her time in the state treasurer’s office. Today new revelations show that this is not the first time Steelman, the choice of the D.C. establishment, tried to hide public records.
Back in 2008, Steelman’s office refused to provide public records required under Missouri’s Sunshine Law that showed her employees were working on her campaign on their own time. Steelman eventually produced documents that suggested her employees were taking vacation time to work on her campaign, but news reports suggested that the documents were either created after the fact to cover up for her employees, or were purposefully withheld under the initial Sunshine Law request. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/29/08]
“Sarah Steelman is doing her best impression of Rose Mary Woods. Years of emails and schedules are missing and Sarah Steelman refuses to explain what happened. At least Rose Mary Woods admitted what she did,” said Matt Canter, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman. “Steelman hails herself as a champion of the Sunshine Law, but acts as though it does not apply to her. It is entirely possible that the missing emails include more evidence that Steelman was using her state offices for political purposes. Missourians deserve an explanation – what happened to these public records?”
Steelman’s Missing Public Records Include Emails During This Time Period:
In 2008, news reports indicated that Steelman’s employees were working for her campaign on taxpayer time. At the time, the Post-Dispatch reported that “Deputy Treasurer Doug Gaston was working full time for Steelman's campaign. Steelman said her deputy was taking vacation time to do the campaign work. Although the newspaper found pay stub records showing Gaston had taken only three hours of vacation time during the six weeks of campaign work, he produced time sheets that show the additional vacation time.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/29/08]
Reports suggest Steelman withheld time sheets that should have been disclosed under Sunshine Law requests. The Post-Dispatch raised questions about a Steelman Deputy, Doug Gaston. Steelman claimed Gaston was getting paid automatically, without submitting time sheets, yet three hours of vacation time showed up during a February 2008 pay period on his pay stubs which were obtained under public records requests. This revelation suggests that a time sheet should’ve been produced to reflect the leave time, yet one was never provided under a Sunshine Law request. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/29/08]
Steelman finally produced the timesheets months later, but the state Auditor noted that two different sets existed - one with the vacation time that Steelman's office was showing news outlets and another set that didn't include vacation time.The State Auditor at the time said two sets of time sheets existed, those that her employee showed news outlets and “an earlier set without the vacation time.” The documents were produced months after the vacation dates in question. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/29/08]
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