Critics tie Haley to scathing agency review
Gov. Nikki Haley’s challengers went into attack mode Friday — a month before the Nov. 4 election — after the release of a long-awaited, scathing review of the state’s child welfare agency.
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Vincent Sheheen said the Legislative Audit Council report, released Friday, “confirms all the worst things we have heard” about the state Department of Social Services. “Nikki Haley’s DSS is in crisis, even more children have died, and instead of addressing the problem, Haley and her administration have been lying about the numbers to cover their backs.”
In its review of Social Services, the Audit Council did not weigh in on the politics ensnaring the agency. But the council’s report dovetails with the final weeks of the race for the governor’s office.
In response to criticisms, Haley’s office focused on plans Social Services has developed since the agency’s former director Lillian Koller, a Haley appointee, resigned in June, saying her presence in the agency had become a “distraction.”
Petition candidate Tom Ervin, a former Greenville lawmaker and judge, said the audit shows Social Services is “unable to protect our vulnerable children” and “forces some children to remain in harm’s way.”
Ervin laid the blame for 152 child fatalities not being reported to the State Law Enforcement Division on the Republican governor.
But county coroners were required by law to report two-thirds of those deaths. They failed to do so. In the case of the remaining deaths, coroners appeared to have tried to report the cases, but they were not recorded in the state’s database, auditors found.
Ervin said the state has had “multiple warnings” from the Audit Council — in 1985 and 2006 — that caseloads at Social Services were too high.
That is the same point that Haley chief of staff Ted Pitts also made Friday, as he testified under oath about Haley’s commitment to hire more Social Services caseworkers.
Following a line of questions from state Sen. Joel Lourie, D-Richland – one of the agency’s fiercest critics – Pitts emphatically assured Lourie that Haley would back Social Services’ request for more staffers and consider anything else the agency says it needs.
Then, Pitts accused Lourie of playing politics with the agency, saying similar reviews of Social Services have reached similar conclusions, including one in 2006 when Lourie and Pitts were both legislators.
Amid a battle for air time, Lourie turned to the panel’s chairman and said he did not ask for a political speech.
To which Pitts quipped, “We've been getting political speeches up here.”
State Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, the panel’s even-keeled chairman, said Friday the Audit Council has been warning about trouble at Social Services since 1985.
“We cannot be talking about these issues 5, 10, 15 or 29 years later, as apparently was the case with the 1985 audit report,” Young said.
Political scientists say Haley likely will not be hurt politically by the report.
Trouble at the agency, which reports directly to the governor, is not “advantageous for her,” said University of South Carolina political scientist Bob Oldendick. “But the reality of it’s far enough removed from her control that the impact on her campaign is not going to be that great.”
In part, that is because most people understand the complexity of dealing with child welfare problems, which start with troubled families, he said.
It is unlikely the audit will sway supporters away from Haley, said Citadel political scientist Scott Buchanan. Her Republicans backers care most about the economy.
Voters who care about the struggling child welfare agency likely already back Democrat Sheheen, Buchanan added. But the audit report does give Haley’s critics more ammunition to use until Nov. 4.
“No other issue has worked, so one month out, it may be the only horse they have to ride," Buchanan said. “I suspect they’ll ride it hard.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2014 at 11:36 PM with the headline "Critics tie Haley to scathing agency review."