Letter to the editor: What’s Lillie cleaning up?

As a taxpayer I was troubled to read the Aug. 7 letter, "Why are Lillie, Senate Republicans handing scandal's bill to the public?" It’s hard to believe that Sen. Lillie – who moved to Woodbury to run for an open Senate seat – as assistant Senate Republican Leader has remained stubbornly silent about forcing Woodbury taxpayers to pick up the legal bill associated with his caucus' Amy Koch-Michael Brodkorb sex scandal.

In a May 25, 2011 press release touting himself as part of the Senate "Clean-Up Crew," Lillie said he was "sent here to clean up decades of runaway spending." Yet within one year Lillie and his "crew" agreed to spend $85,000 as just the first installment on a legal bill triggered by a sex scandal involving the former Republican Senate Majority Leader and her aide.

Lillie's Senate Republican Caucus hired a law firm at $330 an hour to defend itself in this legal mess. The attorney billed the state – meaning you and me – about 260 hours for work from January to May. At a June 20, 2012, meeting of the Senate Rules Committee, all of Lillie's Republican colleagues on that panel approved payment of this bill, even when DFL senators strongly suggested that a private legal defense fund be established.

And where does Lillie stand on this matter? Apparently squarely with his Republican colleagues, as he has yet to come out in favor of a private legal defense fund. Does Lillie have so little regard for our tax dollars that he thinks a proper use for them is to pay the defense bill for a Senate sex scandal within the caucus he leads?

Yes, Ted Lillie is part of the "Clean-Up Crew." He is cleaning out taxpayer pockets to pay for a Senate Republican sex scandal. Mr. Clean he is not.

Leslie Thompson - Woodbury

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