State officials have suspended funding to a safety program overseen by a close confidante of Gov. Phil Scott, pending an investigation into whether money was improperly spent.
An Agency of Transportation audit team is combing through the books of Project Roadsafe, a driver safety program funded by a $95,000 federal grant and run by the Associated General Contractors of Vermont. The project is overseen by the trade association’s executive vice president, Richard “Dick” Wobby Jr.
Wobby and the governor have been close friends since junior high. Wobby has played a lead role in Scott’s campaigns since he ran for the Vermont Senate in 2000 and was part of Scott’s first racing car pit crew more than 35 years ago. Scott has described their relationship as more like brothers than friends.
AGC and Scott also had close ties — Dubois Construction, which Scott half-owned until he became governor, is just a few doors down from AGC in Middlesex.
State officials froze funding to Project Roadsafe on Nov. 22 and notified Wobby in an email. The freeze came after several days of internal financial review by transportation agency officials that was triggered by a whistleblower who worked on the project and described expenditures she believed were not allowed under the grant.
The whistleblower, Aimee Ziter, was the director of Project Roadsafe until October. Whether she was fired by Wobby or quit is in dispute.
“I wasn’t doing business his way so he figured out a way to get me out of the way,” Ziter told VTDigger on Thursday.
Among the allegations Ziter told state officials was that Wobby billed Project Roadsafe for air travel and dining expenses for an unauthorized trip he took to California in August for a national highway safety conference. In addition, she told state officials that Wobby had repeatedly billed Project Roadsafe for AGC-related work.
Vermont Agency of Transportation Chief Engineer Wayne Symonds said Wednesday the funds were frozen because of concerns that grant money had been improperly spent. He would not describe the allegations under investigation, but said the initial review raised some questionable expenses.
“Based on some conversations with [AGC] and some other information that we received, we were concerned about some of the expenditures. And for that reason, we suspended the grant for the time being until we could do a more in-depth monitoring” of expenses, Symonds said.
“I think it’s fair to characterize — from what we saw — is we do have some concern with some of the information that we’ve looked at so far,” Symonds said.
“Some of the information led us to say we needed to do a timeout here to make sure that this doesn’t get off track any more than what it is. And we can get this rolling back on track” and lift the suspension, he said.
Symonds said the additional review being done by a transportation agency auditing team would be “primarily concerned” with expenditures during the last year. Wobby, who has worked at AGC for more than 20 years, took over the top day-to-day position at AGC in August 2018 after former executive vice president Cathleen Lamberton stepped down.
Wobby said Thursday he had not spent any grant money inappropriately. He sought to narrow the suspension to a dispute over the California trip and whether one or two AGC members were authorized by state officials to attend. Wobby acknowledged putting in an expense for a dinner for two costing up to $200 from Ruth’s Chris Steak House.
The reimbursement rate for state employees on out-of-state travel is $18.50 for dinner
He said he visited his son in California but went out two days early to see him, got a cheaper air fare by going midweek, paid his own expenses those days and attended all of the conference sessions. He put the total cost of the California trip for himself and Ziter at $3,500.
Wobby said he went on the trip because “if I’m running this thing, if I’m, if I’m responsible, I want to know what I can bring back” from what other states are doing. He added it was not uncommon for expenses put in for reimbursement to be denied by VTrans officials and absorbed by AGC. He maintained the program likely cost AGC more than it took in from the grant.
In an interview, Wobby claimed the program was put on hold partially at his request after he told state officials the program needed to be reorganized following the departure of a key staff member in October.
Transportation officials disputed Wobby’s claim that he had asked for the program to be put on hold. Symonds said Friday the only request from Wobby came three days after the suspension when he told agency officials: “no one use ‘Project Roadsafe’ until further notice as AGC is the registered owner.”
Wobby acknowledged he told Keith Flynn, the governor’s highway safety program chief, who had sent the email announcing the suspension, that they needed to have an “uncomfortable conversation” about the agency’s decision. Wobby denied his intent was to be threatening. Flynn wouldn’t comment about the call.
“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Wobby told VTDigger.
Symonds said the review of the expenditures could take several weeks and would be reviewed by federal authorities before Agency of Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn decides whether the suspension of funds could be lifted. If funds were improperly spent, Symonds said, they would have to be repaid by AGC, the subcontractor. Failure to correct any problems, he said, could put other federal transportation grants in jeopardy.
The assistant attorney general who is assigned to the Transportation Agency was notified, but Symonds said their investigation thus far is administrative and not legal.
“Right now, it’s mostly an audit function and not a legal function because what we’re really just trying to do is: let’s look at what the expenditures are. I can’t speculate as to whether this could eventually end up in the Attorney General’s Office. For right now it is being handled sort of administratively,” Symonds said.
Symonds said he notified the governor’s office and spoke with Brittany Wilson, a top aide to the governor, when the funding was frozen on Nov. 22. He said Scott’s office was alerted because of the importance of the program and because allegations of financial wrongdoing could draw press scrutiny. He said the governor’s relationship with Wobby was not a factor in giving the heads-up.
The governor said Thursday he had only become aware of the situation in the last 24 hours and didn’t know enough to gauge how concerned to be about the allegations. He said the integrity of the program was paramount.
“We’ll just have to see how it plays out,” he said of the ongoing investigation. Scott said he was “obviously concerned” because the allegations involved a close friend. He said he had not spoken with him since the suspension and would not intervene on Wobby’s behalf.
Wobby said he hadn’t spoken to Scott or anyone in his inner circle about the suspension.
“I don’t need to ask people for help. And I don’t believe in that process. That would be terrible. That would be wrong. And against everything I do,” Wobby said.
Symonds stressed transportation officials continue to strongly support the long-standing project and its goals and said the suspension of funding does not reflect on the quality of work already done.
Project Roadsafe has been in place since 2002 and its programs include driver safety trainings for workers, particularly targeting distracted driving, as well as programs for teen drivers through the Alive @ 25 program.
Project Roadsafe has won several awards since the program began under longtime director Norman James and his successor, Ziter, who replaced James when he retired in 2017. Last October, Scott gave AGC and Project Roadsafe the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Workplace Safety, an honor the program also won in 2015.
James said Thursday he was disappointed to hear of the suspension: “What strikes me is it’s a hell of a good program and I hate to hear of its demise.”
