wexwimpy
July 29th 04, 09:53 PM
DCF's ethics lapse
Climate of cronyism at troubled agency
With the hiring two years ago of Jerry Regier to head the Department
of Children and Families, it was hoped that this troubled agency was
at last going to be whipped into shape as a reliable advocate for and
defender of Florida's abused and foster children. As a staunch
conservative not timid about espousing his born-again Christian
values, the Oklahoma Juvenile Affairs director was seen as just the
kind of strait-laced child welfare professional who could bring needed
reforms to DCF, which had a long, sad history of overlooking abuse of
its young clients.
There was a shake-up. Regier got rid of incompetent supervisors and
employees, consolidated some operations and lobbied strongly for more
state funding to lower overworked social workers' caseloads and
provide better training. There were improvements. Headlines about
children under DCF supervision being beaten to death became scarcer.
Yet there were lapses. Only last month the agency came under fire
after a 10-year-old Hernando County girl under DCF supervision was
found starving in a foster home. When removed from the home facing
"imminent death," the girl weighed just 29 pounds.
But now DCF is reeling from reports of another kind of abuse: cronyism
at the very top. Regier and two of his key officials were named in a
critical report by the state's chief inspector general as having
accepted favors and gifts from vendors and lobbyists doing business
with DCF. The favors included tickets to rock concerts, the Daytona
500 and football games, lodging in a vendor's posh beachfront home, a
trip to Australia, even a birthday party for Regier and massages for
his aides.
The investigation, prompted by a whistle-blower, led to the
resignation of the two DCF aides and an apology by Regier, who said,
"I made some mistakes I regret."
Regier's explanation for this ethical lapse suggests more than mere
"mistakes." Rather, it depicts the deliberate creation of a climate of
cronyism which makes conflicts of interest almost inevitable. Because
a central policy of reforming DCF is to contract out most of its
foster care and adoption services to outside contractors, Regier said
he thought it would be good "to socialize with each other" in order to
"build trust" with them.
That is the very definition of a good-old-boy system that should ring
alarms for even the most ethics-challenged bureaucrat or politician.
As a public servant you don't build trust by accepting favors from
people who are looking to you for multi-million-dollar contracts; you
build a dependency that undermines the public trust in whose interest
you are supposed to be acting. Trust of vendors is earned by
professional conduct at all levels: adherence to bid specifications,
price and performance. Accepting freebies from them compromises your
objectivity at all levels - and puts in jeopardy the goals you need to
accomplish, which in this case is protecting vulnerable children.
With DCF spending $1 billion a year in almost 900 outside contracts,
it isn't hard to see how serious this ethical breakdown could be. Yet
Gov. Jeb Bush declined to discipline or fire Regier. He said he was
"deeply disappointed" in the ethics lapse but added that the secretary
"has my confidence."
He doesn't have ours. A judgment as basic as this shouldn't need
whistle-blowers or Inspector General investigations to unearth.
Conscience and common sense both say it isn't right.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/opinion/9267692.htm
Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action.
Climate of cronyism at troubled agency
With the hiring two years ago of Jerry Regier to head the Department
of Children and Families, it was hoped that this troubled agency was
at last going to be whipped into shape as a reliable advocate for and
defender of Florida's abused and foster children. As a staunch
conservative not timid about espousing his born-again Christian
values, the Oklahoma Juvenile Affairs director was seen as just the
kind of strait-laced child welfare professional who could bring needed
reforms to DCF, which had a long, sad history of overlooking abuse of
its young clients.
There was a shake-up. Regier got rid of incompetent supervisors and
employees, consolidated some operations and lobbied strongly for more
state funding to lower overworked social workers' caseloads and
provide better training. There were improvements. Headlines about
children under DCF supervision being beaten to death became scarcer.
Yet there were lapses. Only last month the agency came under fire
after a 10-year-old Hernando County girl under DCF supervision was
found starving in a foster home. When removed from the home facing
"imminent death," the girl weighed just 29 pounds.
But now DCF is reeling from reports of another kind of abuse: cronyism
at the very top. Regier and two of his key officials were named in a
critical report by the state's chief inspector general as having
accepted favors and gifts from vendors and lobbyists doing business
with DCF. The favors included tickets to rock concerts, the Daytona
500 and football games, lodging in a vendor's posh beachfront home, a
trip to Australia, even a birthday party for Regier and massages for
his aides.
The investigation, prompted by a whistle-blower, led to the
resignation of the two DCF aides and an apology by Regier, who said,
"I made some mistakes I regret."
Regier's explanation for this ethical lapse suggests more than mere
"mistakes." Rather, it depicts the deliberate creation of a climate of
cronyism which makes conflicts of interest almost inevitable. Because
a central policy of reforming DCF is to contract out most of its
foster care and adoption services to outside contractors, Regier said
he thought it would be good "to socialize with each other" in order to
"build trust" with them.
That is the very definition of a good-old-boy system that should ring
alarms for even the most ethics-challenged bureaucrat or politician.
As a public servant you don't build trust by accepting favors from
people who are looking to you for multi-million-dollar contracts; you
build a dependency that undermines the public trust in whose interest
you are supposed to be acting. Trust of vendors is earned by
professional conduct at all levels: adherence to bid specifications,
price and performance. Accepting freebies from them compromises your
objectivity at all levels - and puts in jeopardy the goals you need to
accomplish, which in this case is protecting vulnerable children.
With DCF spending $1 billion a year in almost 900 outside contracts,
it isn't hard to see how serious this ethical breakdown could be. Yet
Gov. Jeb Bush declined to discipline or fire Regier. He said he was
"deeply disappointed" in the ethics lapse but added that the secretary
"has my confidence."
He doesn't have ours. A judgment as basic as this shouldn't need
whistle-blowers or Inspector General investigations to unearth.
Conscience and common sense both say it isn't right.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/opinion/9267692.htm
Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action.