Even when you give them more cash the Granholm administration can't produce results!
By RightMichigan.com Posted in Breaking News | Corruption | DHS | foster care | Granholm | Michigan — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.
And just when it looked like they had an excuse to hang their hats on. This has been a rough week for Governor Jennifer Granholm's bureaucracy as it pertains to at-risk children in foster homes and under State supervision. The legislature heard testimony yesterday that a desperately needed (and pricey) computer system update that could save lives, already bought and paid for by the taxpayers, is way behind schedule.
This follows several reports that have dropped in recent days explaining the problem at the Department of Human Services and drawing attention to the fact that the deaths of several children were actually preventable had DHS simply obeyed the law.
Predictably, the left cries for bigger government. They're not willing to hold their favorite Democrats accountable for even the slightest problem in Lansing, let alone child fatalities. Heck, they've even started flogging this particular messenger (yours truly) on their own blogs, calling names and casting aspersions. (Glad you folks are visiting the site!)
Nope. There isn't a leadership problem. Not an accountability problem. Not a safety problem. Not a system or methodological problem. Government, and DHS in particular, just plain isn't big enough. To which I reply, for the second time in two days, "OK." Let's not argue about that. Let's just assume that the problems at DHS are all based on staffing shortages, overworked employees and cash short falls. If kids are literally dying then isn't it the responsibility of the Department head and the Governor of the State of Michigan to do something about it? To demand increased appropriations? To make this the central issue of the remaining executive term?
I, for one, would stand up and applaud anyone who had the guts to say "no more" and then start making the tough decisions to fix this broken system. Yes. I'd support increased DHS appropriations. In a heartbeat. Just show me where they're coming from. Dan Mulhern Granholm talks about leadership a lot. Maybe he could help. The Office of the First Gentleman has a six figure operating budget and a full staff. How many more case workers could we hire to protect kids if we did without an office that existed for years for the sole purpose of providing the Governor's husband, an aspiring radio star, with a full-time radio coach at taxpayer expense?
After all, his show's been all but cancelled and radio pro / chief of staff Nancy Skinner is off to pursue Congress again. This'd be perfect timing!
And while we're discussing more appropriate uses of taxpayer dollars, what on earth is going on with this new computer system? The Associated Press reports that a massive upgrade to DHS systems expected to vastly improve performance is months behind schedule. At least. We don't really know just how far behind schedule they are. Granholm's Department of Information and Technology doesn't know themselves... or they just refuse to say. It was supposed to be up and running last month...
"We're a lot closer than we were," said Scieszka, who was asked to help lead the project just five weeks ago.
Bridges has been billed as a way to improve efficiency and help reduce Department of Human Services employees' high caseloads because they currently can get bogged down navigating three old systems and filing paperwork. High caseloads have been blamed for problems with licensing foster care homes and protecting abused and neglected children.
But the system likely will not be running until this summer, and only in a few counties on a pilot basis, said Mike Scieszka, an information officer with the Department of Information Technology. When pressed by legislators, he declined to estimate when the system could be operational statewide.
Oh, well at least they're a lot closer than they were. That's all I needed to hear. I'm sure they're handling things just fine. After all, this is only a $140 million project funded by sundry big fancy state contracts. $140 million that have produced zilch. Actually, that's not true. State auditors found last November that there were some contractual head scratchers, consultants written in to the plans before their contracts were ever bid out, contracts signed for far too short a project time despite pre-signing knowledge of the mistakes and my personal favorite...
The state awarded a $70 million contract to Deloitte Consulting LLP to develop and implement the project, but 69 of 96 expected results were not required to be finished before getting paid.
Nope. No problems. Everything is peaches and cream. The Governor and her leadership team is infallible. Nothing to see here folks. Move along. Move along.
Oh, and if you are moving, take a look at metro Detroit. We knew there were a lot of great deals on foreclosed properties but it turns out that Wayne County, the bluest County in the State of Michigan, doesn't just lead the State in foreclosures. They lead the nation. And their only competition is only in "the game" because they are growing too fast! The Ivory Tower reports:
"Most of the metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates were either cities like Stockton and Las Vegas, which experienced meteoric growth and unsustainable price appreciation over the past few years, or cities like Detroit, which are undergoing a more widespread economic downturn along with higher unemployment rates," Saccacio said.
Apparently electing Democrats isn't a panacea. Not that the mayor of Detroit can personally make wise investment decisions for each and every one of his constituents.
Quick note on a little good news in the Detroit area, though. The Attorney General's office just completed a big sting that rounded up several dozen folks ripping off the State's foodstamp program. According to the Detroit News:
The Office of Inspector General, a criminal justice agency within the Michigan Department of Human Services, estimates about 4 percent of food stamp transactions are fraudulent -- totaling about $4.6 million monthly or $55.2 million annually. The office estimates food stamp fraud in Wayne County totals about $16 million each year.
"It's wasting taxpayers' money," Bugbee said.
Detective 1st Lt. Marty Bugbee, commander of the Michigan State Police criminal investigations section, explained that in some cases, a portion of funds on state-issued Bridge/Electronic Benefit Transfer debit cards were transferred from recipient to store accounts.
Got that right. And the State might be taking in substantially less of it too as news drops that General Motors is extending buy-out offers to 74,000 workers. Yeah, that's not a typo. 74,000 UAW workers being offered buyouts. The company is hoping to clear their books of some nasty contracts and then bring in younger workers at more market driven wages. Just look out, though. The fringe left will have kittens over this one. You can't replace workers with giant salaries with workers making less money. It just isn't nice. And posting a record $38.7 billion loss is no excuse either.