wexwimpy
August 17th 04, 06:53 PM
DCF under fire; why won’t Jeb Bush fire this man?
16 Aug 2004
Carl Hiaasen Miami Herald
Jerry Regier has obviously got Polaroids of Gov. Jeb Bush in drag, or
an equally kinky secret.
Nothing else could explain why Bush hasn’t fired this knucklehead from
the Department of Children and Families, where Regier has served two
damaging years as secretary.
Arguably the most important appointment of the governor’s tenure —
choosing the person to lead Florida’s scandalized child-welfare agency
— has proved to be one of the worst decisions Bush has ever made.
A scalding report by the governor’s chief inspector general has
revealed that high-ranking DCF officials handed out fat and dubious
contracts to pals and political cronies, and accepted gifts, favors
and lodging from outside contractors.
As a result, three of Regier’s top administrators have quit, and
Regier himself has been reduced to defending his own outrageous
socializing with a DCF contractor.
It’s much more than the mere “appearance of impropriety.” It is the
greedy, rotten essence of impropriety — profiteering at the expense of
Florida’s neediest and most vulnerable children.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been spent hiring
more caseworkers and investigators were instead doled out to
well-connected firms as part of Regier’s rush to “privatize”
child-welfare services.
In recent weeks, the Miami Herald’s Carol Marbin Miller has documented
the DCF gravy train in infuriating detail. A few of the lowlights:
—A $21 million contract to fix DCF’s computer system was awarded to
American Management Services, although another company had been ranked
first after the initial screening process.
The lobbyist for American Management happened to be Greg Coler, a
former chief of the state child-welfare agency and a close friend of
Regier. Sitting on American Management’s board of directors was former
Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating — the man who recommended Regier for the
DCF job in Florida.
—DCF Deputy Secretary Ben Harris gave out a $500,000 no-bid contract,
split between two of his friends, for computer ‘‘kiosks’’ that
dispense food stamps.
Harris brushed off warnings that the kiosks were a dumb idea because
food-stamp recipients couldn’t master the technology and wouldn’t use
them, and because the equipment was often unreliable.
After being singled out by the inspector general, Harris and another
Regier lackey resigned from DCF.
—Regier attended a birthday party thrown for him by a buddy named Jim
Bax, who was director of Florida State University’s Institute for
Health and Human Services. During another visit, Regier and his wife
spent the night at Bax’s luxury home on Longboat Key.
At the time, Bax’s firm had been awarded more than $4 million in
contract work from DCF.
Regier also accepted tickets for concerts and sports events from
lobbyists for private vendors dealing with DCF. He says he repaid them
out of his pocket.
Naturally, the secretary insists he did nothing wrong and admits only
to a lapse in judgment. Whether he made that statement in blind
stupidity or common arrogance doesn’t really matter — the man is
patently unfit to be running any state agency, much less the one in
charge of protecting Florida’s kids. Who, by the way, are still being
abused, abandoned and killed in appalling numbers.
When aides warned Regier of ethical problems with the way DCF was
dishing out contracts, he ignored them. His chief of staff, Samara
Kramer, persisted — and was canned for disloyalty.
Regier quickly hired her back, then denied ever firing her — a blatant
lie that is hardly out of character.
Back in early 2003, he ordered the dismissal of six DCF employees in
Hialeah for allegedly rudely treating the grandmother of an
influential state senator.
Regier denied firing the workers and cowardly blamed a local
supervisor. E-mails later confirmed that the supervisor had supported
the workers, and that it was Regier who personally ordered them fired.
How could Bush not have seen this mess coming? Regier was a GOP party
hack in Oklahoma with an undistinguished track record in the family
services bureaucracy. An ultraconservative Christian, his byline had
turned up on two published papers that espoused spanking kids, even if
it caused “welts and bruises.”
Typically, Regier tried to weasel out of his own words by claiming he
didn’t agree with those controversial sections of the articles, even
though he’d plastered his name on them.
Then, last summer, while supposedly devoting full time to saving our
endangered kids, Regier signed up as co-campaign chairman for a
Republican Senate candidate — back in Oklahoma.
Bush was miffed, but he still didn’t ax the guy. And here we are a
year later, swamped with scandal at an agency that can ill-afford more
demoralizing, an agency that Bush has repeatedly promised to clean up
and fix.
I don’t care if Regier has snapshots of Jeb dolled up like Liza
Minelli, the governor had better get rid of this goober before a grand
jury forces him to do it.
“I plan to stay and lead this agency,” Regier insisted the other day.
If that happens, God help the suffering children of
Florida.http://www.oscnewsgazette.com/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=8966
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.
16 Aug 2004
Carl Hiaasen Miami Herald
Jerry Regier has obviously got Polaroids of Gov. Jeb Bush in drag, or
an equally kinky secret.
Nothing else could explain why Bush hasn’t fired this knucklehead from
the Department of Children and Families, where Regier has served two
damaging years as secretary.
Arguably the most important appointment of the governor’s tenure —
choosing the person to lead Florida’s scandalized child-welfare agency
— has proved to be one of the worst decisions Bush has ever made.
A scalding report by the governor’s chief inspector general has
revealed that high-ranking DCF officials handed out fat and dubious
contracts to pals and political cronies, and accepted gifts, favors
and lodging from outside contractors.
As a result, three of Regier’s top administrators have quit, and
Regier himself has been reduced to defending his own outrageous
socializing with a DCF contractor.
It’s much more than the mere “appearance of impropriety.” It is the
greedy, rotten essence of impropriety — profiteering at the expense of
Florida’s neediest and most vulnerable children.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been spent hiring
more caseworkers and investigators were instead doled out to
well-connected firms as part of Regier’s rush to “privatize”
child-welfare services.
In recent weeks, the Miami Herald’s Carol Marbin Miller has documented
the DCF gravy train in infuriating detail. A few of the lowlights:
—A $21 million contract to fix DCF’s computer system was awarded to
American Management Services, although another company had been ranked
first after the initial screening process.
The lobbyist for American Management happened to be Greg Coler, a
former chief of the state child-welfare agency and a close friend of
Regier. Sitting on American Management’s board of directors was former
Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating — the man who recommended Regier for the
DCF job in Florida.
—DCF Deputy Secretary Ben Harris gave out a $500,000 no-bid contract,
split between two of his friends, for computer ‘‘kiosks’’ that
dispense food stamps.
Harris brushed off warnings that the kiosks were a dumb idea because
food-stamp recipients couldn’t master the technology and wouldn’t use
them, and because the equipment was often unreliable.
After being singled out by the inspector general, Harris and another
Regier lackey resigned from DCF.
—Regier attended a birthday party thrown for him by a buddy named Jim
Bax, who was director of Florida State University’s Institute for
Health and Human Services. During another visit, Regier and his wife
spent the night at Bax’s luxury home on Longboat Key.
At the time, Bax’s firm had been awarded more than $4 million in
contract work from DCF.
Regier also accepted tickets for concerts and sports events from
lobbyists for private vendors dealing with DCF. He says he repaid them
out of his pocket.
Naturally, the secretary insists he did nothing wrong and admits only
to a lapse in judgment. Whether he made that statement in blind
stupidity or common arrogance doesn’t really matter — the man is
patently unfit to be running any state agency, much less the one in
charge of protecting Florida’s kids. Who, by the way, are still being
abused, abandoned and killed in appalling numbers.
When aides warned Regier of ethical problems with the way DCF was
dishing out contracts, he ignored them. His chief of staff, Samara
Kramer, persisted — and was canned for disloyalty.
Regier quickly hired her back, then denied ever firing her — a blatant
lie that is hardly out of character.
Back in early 2003, he ordered the dismissal of six DCF employees in
Hialeah for allegedly rudely treating the grandmother of an
influential state senator.
Regier denied firing the workers and cowardly blamed a local
supervisor. E-mails later confirmed that the supervisor had supported
the workers, and that it was Regier who personally ordered them fired.
How could Bush not have seen this mess coming? Regier was a GOP party
hack in Oklahoma with an undistinguished track record in the family
services bureaucracy. An ultraconservative Christian, his byline had
turned up on two published papers that espoused spanking kids, even if
it caused “welts and bruises.”
Typically, Regier tried to weasel out of his own words by claiming he
didn’t agree with those controversial sections of the articles, even
though he’d plastered his name on them.
Then, last summer, while supposedly devoting full time to saving our
endangered kids, Regier signed up as co-campaign chairman for a
Republican Senate candidate — back in Oklahoma.
Bush was miffed, but he still didn’t ax the guy. And here we are a
year later, swamped with scandal at an agency that can ill-afford more
demoralizing, an agency that Bush has repeatedly promised to clean up
and fix.
I don’t care if Regier has snapshots of Jeb dolled up like Liza
Minelli, the governor had better get rid of this goober before a grand
jury forces him to do it.
“I plan to stay and lead this agency,” Regier insisted the other day.
If that happens, God help the suffering children of
Florida.http://www.oscnewsgazette.com/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=8966
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.