If he didn’t have a decade-plus track record of ignoring the political implications of his work, I’d think Auditor Doug Hoffer pulled a nice little election-year fast one on Gov. Phil Scott. Yesterday, just in time for the beginning of campaign season, Hoffer issued a devastating report (downloadable here) on the state’s failure to implement its 2018 State Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Which can now be added to my extensive list of Stuff Phil Scott Hasn’t Done. Too bad the Democrats aren’t putting up an effective challenge to the governor’s bid for a fifth term. The Hoffer audit would make an effective cudgel.

The Mitigation Plan included 96 discrete actions to reduce the impacts of natural disasters. Hoffer found that only about one-third had been implemented. Even high-priority items were “frequently” unfinished. And this was a five-year plan that expired in 2023, so it’s not like the administration didn’t have all the time it should have needed. Meanwhile, we’ve been beset by disaster after disaster including major flooding in each of the last two summers. Hoffer told VTDigger that full implementation of the Plan “would have made a difference in the last two years.”

The audit was released a few hours after Scott’s weekly press conference, so reporters didn’t get the chance to quiz him about it. But it did lend a touch of retrospective irony to the presser, which began with Scott bragging about once again relaunching his tired old “Capital for a Day’ concept. Nice way to stage high-profile, media-friendly events in all 14 counties while On Official Business, eh?

This year’s CFaD began with visits to communities hard hit by flooding that are “struggling with capacity,” Scott said. “The small number of municipal officials and volunteers [have] been dealing with flooding, paperwork and budget constraints for over a year now, and they’re tired.”

Well hey, maybe if the state had followed through on its Mitigation Plan, those poor locals wouldn’t have been hit so hard.

Eric Forand, director of Vermont Emergency Management, offered a sort-of explanation to VTDigger, calling the Mitigation Plan an “aspirational” document. I suppose that’s technically true; the feds require a mitigation plan but don’t require its implementation. But it sounds more like ass-covering than problem-solving.

Well, they’ve got a second chance. When the 2018 plan reached the end of its lifespan, responsible officials got together and wrote a brand-new one. I guess we’ll find out in the year 2029 whether they did any better this time around.

If the audit hasn’t faded into our collective memory hole by the next Scott presser, maybe someone will ask him about it. I expect he’ll furrow his brow, maybe shrug a bit, and claim earnestly that the state is doing all it can. It’s his usual excuse for failing to meet a moment or address a crisis. It ought to be wearing thin by now.