Burdette: Won’t release a publicly funded report to a reporter he considers “dangerous.”

A damning report criticizing West Virginia’s use of $126.3 million in federal stimulus tax dollars to expand broadband in the state may never be made public because it might “be embarrassing to some people.”

State taxpayers funded the $118,000 review but they cannot read the results because Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s administration has declared the report confidential.

Once again, the Charleston Gazette’s Eric Eyre was promptly on the case asking Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette why the state wants to keep the findings secret.

“The documents may be embarrassing to some people . . .  . Embarrassing because it was someone’s opinion,” Burdette told Eyre. “It was a specific document, citing specific companies, and making very specific suggestions to me.”

The newspaper did glean some information from its Freedom of Information request to the state — it learned of the existence of the consultant’s document and his criticism of some of the players involved in the broadband expansion effort.

But Burdette won’t name names, other than to say the consultant wasn’t targeting the governor’s office for criticism. Possible companies that could be in the report include various equipment vendors and consultants tied to technology companies including Verizon and Cisco. It could also target Frontier Communications, the largest grant recipient.

Burdette decided on his own he didn’t like the report’s findings and dismissed requests to release copies to the public because he claimed it was an “internal memorandum” not required to be released under state law.

“”There’s some criticism of the players in there that I don’t accept,” Burdette told the newspaper. “I had the memo drafted, but I didn’t use it. It was assumptions and making recommendations. At the end of the day, I didn’t agree with their assessment.”

That decision promptly sparked West Virginia’s House Minority Leader Tim Armstead (R-Kanawha) to demand the release of all documents related to the taxpayer-funded broadband stimulus program, noting the federal government administered program requires grant recipients to be open and transparent about how taxpayer funds are spent.

A secret report about that very subject does not meet that requirement, according to Armstead.

“When you have a project, and you’re talking about millions of dollars in spending, and there are questions about whether those funds were efficiently spent, the public has a right to know about it,” Armstead told the Gazette. “It’s insulting to tell the public they have to pay for something and they can’t see it. The public paid for that report.”

Armstead has introduced a bill that would drop the exemption from the Freedom of Information Act Burdette cited to keep the report secret.

When Eyre asked Burdette why he won’t release the report, Burdette responded, “Because you’re dangerous.”

Last week, Tomblin’s administration abruptly cancelled a statewide “broadband summit,” fearing ongoing scrutiny of the broadband funding project and how the money was spent would be the main topic of discussion.