Leonardo"s Notebook by Mattheus Mei

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

You have been weighed and are found wanting.


Earl Capps is leveling some righteous anger towards the hypocrisy of the current Governor and his Administration.

And while it's easy for folks to pin my motives to Partisanship because I choose to affiliate with the party opposing the Governor, Mr. Capps is a Republican - yes a REPUBLICAN - and in standing up and uttering against Sanford and his ilk, Mr. Capps has drawn the ire of his own co-politicists throughout the Palmetto State. A prophet indeed.

How exactly does Mr. Capps issue such divine utterances, calling his party - calling our state back from the wilderness, the madness and slavery of political entitlement and civic apathy? In civil discourse, by asking prescient questions and covering the stories that the mainstream media - driven by the whispers and misdirection of various factions and consulting firms - are want to cover. And by goading us, not only other bloggers, but state officials and ordinary citizens.

Like the Prophet Daniel, Earl has seen the writing on the wall, he has deciphered the words and has found the actions (or rather inaction and misactions) of this Administration wanting on the scales of competent governance.

So take the time to read the following two posts by Mr. Capps and don't sit idly by - but do something. Call your representative, or call the Governor and voice your displeasure with the way he's managing our Government and our state.

DSS problems challenge the credibility of Sanford's restructuring agenda

For the six years, Governor Sanford has engaged in considerable political posturing over the issue of restructuring. However, in looking at the part of state government which is already under his control, one has to wonder if Sanford can be trusted with control over any part of state government.

One example is the state’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, which
some jokingly refer to as “PRT – Prosser’s Rarely There”, referring to Chad Prosser, he agency’s director. Another is the Department of Corrections, an agency which has long been ignored, underfunded and understaffed, especially during Sanford’s tenure, creating unmanageable conditions which have become the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits.

The worst example of Sanford’s “do as I say, not what I do” approach to governance has been DSS, where the failures are counted in the lives (and sometimes deaths) of children who have been let down by this poorly-run agency. When twenty-nine month old Samuri Hayes died in DSS custody,
some asked why Sanford was silent about the problems in the agency.

During the trial of the former DSS Finance Director, along with seven co-conspirators, questions have been raised about the financial accountability of that agency. Strangely, Sanford, who is usually all about "accountability" has rebuffed calls for investigations into the agency.

But there's even more hypocrisy in how DSS is being mismanaged under this administration. Reports indicate that the state lags far behind the rest of the nation in child support collections. According to the ACES website, South Carolina's collection rate was only 44% of child support due, lagging far behind the national average of 53% - roughly 25% worse than the national average.

This is due in part to the failure of DSS to modernize its child support system. California and South Carolina were the only two states to not meet new federal standards, for which the feds were providing funding. As a result, the
South Carolina agency was penalized $47 million
about one-tenth of last year's budget shortfall which Sanford complained about. We've been told by legislators that another $30 million in penalties may be levied before South Carolina's system can be made compliant.

Instead of trying better manage his part of state government and avoiding these fines by demanding DSS meet higher standards, Sanford, who loves to rant about frivolous lawsuits, responded by filing a frivilous lawsuit of his own to avoid being held accountable by the feds.

When children are dying, millions of dollars are being stolen and tens of millions are being lost in unnecessary penalties, the Governor's silence is puzzling indeed. If this was taking place in some part of state government that was not under the Governor, every resident of the Riverbanks Zoo would be likely be under imminent threat of abduction for use in press conferences to lambaste the guilty parties.

The ongoing problems at SC DSS serve as yet another example of the difference between the often-empty rhetoric and craven political thuggery that has defined much of the Sanford administration and the real reform-oriented leadership that this state desperately needs.


and the follow up for this post is Earl's post on State House freshmen demand answers from SC DSS.

For this particular one you'll just have to go to Earl's site to read it, and I can't encourage you enough to do so!

For more of my own writing about Sanford, which is usually about his abysmal record on 'economic development,' click here.

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3 comments:

earlcapps said...

I'm flattered ... but wow, I'm not sure if I'm THAT noble, but I am sick and tired of the way things are going.

Sanford wanted to talk about more accountability in state government. That's what I'm doing.

Anonymous said...

Note: Sanford is a Libertarian, not a Republican.

If he is a Republican, then it's in name only.

Mattheus Mei said...

Sanford, despite his subscription to a certain libertarian philosophies and ideologies (though not all of them) is a Republican as the particular philosophies and ideologies are accepted within the party's umbrella. It's not about being a RINO or not. If he were a true Libertarian then he'd subscribe to a kind of pragmatism and specific set of ideals that he fines repugnat, many of those are related to social issues such as Abortion, Gay Rights, and Drug policies. As such he is and will always be a Republican, much to your anonymous chagrin.

So if you believe him to be a "RINO" then take a page from Earl's playbook and get involved. Help the people of South Carolina see just how much damage his ideological blinders have done to our state.