If the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave a wit about its own credibility, or took the investigation and findings of the federal Inspector General's office seriously, NOAA enforcement officials would at least suspend so-called "criminal investigator" Susan Williams until allegations against her are cleared.
Anyone who would craft a misleading affidavit in an attempt coax a bogus search warrant out of an administrative law judge, after all, has no place working in any kind of law enforcement. And that, according to a sworn deposition as part of the IG's probe, is what Williams and other NOAA higher-ups did in their obsessive push to find something wrong at the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.
But NOAA enforcement, as we've seen all too often, has no interest whatsoever in justice, no interest in reforming the obvious wrongs cited throughout the report of Commerce Inspector General Todd Zinser.
NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco and her enforcement henchmen are concerned only with maintaining the status quo, and somehow just making these true cases of wrongdoing just go away.
There is frankly no other way to interpret NOAA's move to transfer Williams from her position in the agency's Boston/Chelsea office to one in New Bedford. And New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang has every right to be hopping mad over the move — which he is.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times.