Woodruff Skirts One-Year Revolving Door Law By Working For INDOT Contractor As Independent Contractor

The ethically-challenged former high-ranking INDOT official and ex-state lawmaker, Troy Woodruff, has lived up to his reputation again. Last year, Woodruff initially sought a waiver from the Indiana Ethics Commission to accept employment with an INDOT contractor, RQAW, after he left the state agency under an ethical cloud over charges he had engaged in self-dealing activities to benefit family members while working at the agency. Woodruff later withdraw his waiver request, saying he had decided to start up his own business. An Indianapolis Star report today claims Woodruff has been working as an independent contractor the the engineering firm, which a loophole in Indiana's weak ethics law permits him to do.

As the Star reports, Woodruff had recently approved contracts with RQAW in excess of $500,000 before he requested a waiver last year from the one-year cooling off period. It's actually must worse than that. RQAW had actually been suspended by INDOT from doing work for the state because of faulty work it performed on bridges in Gary. In his position as INDOT chief of staff, Woodruff participated in a decision to lift RQAW's suspension so it could resume doing business with the state. RQAW, like many engineering firms in this state, has a penchant for hiring political hacks who are not engineers and making big campaign contributions to help the firm get its share of no-bid contracts. Pay to play is the Indiana way.