April Burbank , Free Press Staff Writer

Vermont State Auditor Doug Hoffer was reading the news in May when he found a number that prompted some digging.

The federal EB-5 program, Commerce Secretary Pat Moulton said in a Burlington Free Press article, had created 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in Vermont — a positive sign for a program that had also been tangled in allegations of fraud at projects in the Northeast Kingdom.

“I would be grateful if you could provide documentation to support that claim, which I assume is based on modeling done for the various projects,” Hoffer wrote in an email to Moulton. He wondered if Vermont regulators had tried to verify the number of jobs created through EB-5 projects.

Moulton responded, including a note that the job figures were based on models.

“And curious, is this a personal inquiry?” Moulton wrote.

Hoffer replied testily.

“I don’t send personal inquiries on my official e-mail,” Hoffer said. “You are running a state-supported program and made claims about it’s impact. I’m not sure why you would question my interest in economic development and performance data. That’s part of my job.”

“The question was answered. I did not find what I was looking for,” Hoffer said of the exchange in a recent interview at his office in Montpelier. He decided not to pursue a formal investigation into jobs created by the EB-5 program in Vermont because, he said, he wanted to focus on big-ticket state programs. EB-5, for all its complexity, uses few state taxpayer dollars.

Hoffer, a hybrid Democrat/Progressive first elected in 2012, is used to ruffling feathers as he tries to find government waste and inefficiency.

“That’s what this office does — we never take people at their word,” Hoffer said.

Hoffer argues his work as auditor of accounts has little to do with partisan politics, but he is facing two opponents this year in his quest for re-election.

The Republican candidate, Dan Feliciano of Essex, has run a minimal campaign. He ran for governor in 2014 as a Libertarian Party candidate and won 4.4 percent of the vote.

Feliciano has not filed campaign finance disclosures with the Vermont Secretary of State, which are required for candidates who raise or spend at least $500. He was traveling for business in Mexico last week and could not be reached for an interview this week.

Hoffer says state officials often thank him after an auditor’s office inquiry has wrapped up. Agency heads may not always implement the recommendations from Hoffer and his staff, but they often write letters thanking him for the work.

“I think he’s a professional,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, who has vowed to make state government more efficient in his campaign for governor, “and he’s done an adequate job.”

Hoffer moved to Burlington in 1988 to work in Mayor Bernie Sanders’ Community and Economic Development Office under Peter Clavelle, who later became mayor. Hoffer had a law degree and worked to start a recycling program in Burlington and to support the Intervale.

“He was innovative, he always had new ideas,” said Bruce Seifer, who was assistant director for economic development at CEDO and hired Hoffer.

Hoffer left city government when Clavelle lost a re-election bid in 1993 and launched into nearly two decades of private consulting work, which included research on livable wages for the Peace and Justice Center. He still lives in Burlington.

“I didn’t come here to give people a hard time or expose problems just to smirk,” Hoffer said. “I did it because I care and believe state government has an important role to play in society.”

In the last year, Hoffer has discovered that state employees have taken shortcuts by issuing no-bid state contracts in situations that “don’t pass the straight face test.” He found that the state’s systems were inadequate to recover fraudulent payments in benefit programs for food, emergency housing, home heating and assistance for low-income families. He also looked into whether state employees were receiving performance evaluations and measured the state’s oversight of payments to Vermont Information Technology Leaders for health care data.

Hoffer has a long wish list for future projects. He said his office has started looking into major capital projects overseen by the state Department of Buildings and General Services, testing whether projects have come in on time and within budget.

Hoffer also wants to take another look at Vermont Health Connect’s operational costs, which could provide more fodder for politicians like gubernatorial candidates Phil Scott and Sue Minter feuding over the future of the exchange. If re-elected, he anticipates taking a close look at money spent on Lake Champlain once Vermont’s costly cleanup efforts get underway.

Regardless of who becomes Vermont’s next governor, Hoffer said, “the only way to get broad public support is to demonstrate that you can manage taxpayer money wisely.”

This article was first published online Oct. 13, 2016. 

Contact April Burbank at 802-660-1863 or [email protected] Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank