Golden Sleaze Awards - The Don’t Fuck With Toys for Tots Award

Kudos to Bearden for finding a way to legally get paid by lobbyists. According to public documents obtained last July by Carrollton blogger Tim Clark, the former cop-turned-politico had been paid an estimated $100,000 since 2005 by the city of Carrollton in “consulting fees.” No contract was signed, no work product could be cited and, perhaps the best part, Carrollton Mayor Wayne Garner is himself a former legislator well-connected Gold Dome lobbyist. But Garner and his city manager did attempt to defuse public outrage. First, they told CL that Bearden assisted on some projects “you can’t talk about.” Then they placed a taxpayer-funded ad in the local newspaper to elaborate on what their contract-less consultant did. But that backfired. One of Bearden’s alleged “top secret” projects – helping with Toys for Tots – was deemed bullshit by, you guessed it, Toys for Tots.