TYC: Shifting Blame From Perry

In a classic example of blame shifting, officials with the Texas Youth Commission have released emails that were sent to staff members for four senators on the Senate Criminal Justuce Committee detailing possible sexual abuse back in March, 2005:

The e-mail, released Tuesday by TYC officials, shows that staff members for four senators on the chamber’s Criminal Justice Committee were sent correspondence flagged “high importance” detailing possible sexual abuse in early March 2005 – less than a month after the investigation at the West Texas State School began.

[...]

On Tuesday, Mr. Whitmire accused agency officials of trying to deflect blame by pointing to e-mails and memos “no one can recall getting.” He said they never attempted to follow up with lawmakers on the results of the investigation.

If the best they can do is dig through their files to lay blame somewhere else, he said, they should all be removed from their jobs.

“They’ve governed an agency that allowed employees to sexually abuse their residents, then be covered up,” Mr. Whitmire said. “Now they have an opportunity to come clean, to put the agency on right footing, and they’re down there wasting everyone’s time talking about an e-mail.”

A TYC staffer released the e-mail at reporters’ request after Don Bethel, the new chairman of the TYC board, indicated Tuesday that several lawmakers likely had known about the allegations before he and other board members.

“I’m not trying to go back and rehash blame,” Mr. Bethel said after Tuesday’s emergency board meeting. “We want to make this transparent. We’re interested in fixing it.”

The March 9, 2005, e-mail was sent to staffers for four senators: Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands; Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen; John Carona, R-Dallas; and Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. The author, Joy Anderson, the youth commission’s chief of staff at the time, included detailed information on allegations against Ray Brookins, assistant superintendent of the West Texas State School in Pyote.

“Dwight Harris, TYC Executive Director, wanted to be sure your senators had information about the status of this investigation at TYC’s West Texas facility,” Ms. Anderson wrote. “We will keep you updated as we have additional details.”

Of course, the TYC folks in question are either appointees of Texas Governor Rick Perry or people hired by his appointees.

And, all of this blame shifting is useless. The man at the top, Perry, is the one responsible for having done something. His office was made aware of the investigation by staffers for Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston), who found out about the investigation without having received one of the four emails in question. I assume TYC would say he found out about it by magic, since they didn’t email him.
One other things about these “warnings:”

But none of the warnings detailed the extent of the alleged abuse. They did not suggest a blooming crisis. And state leaders said Tuesday that they either didn’t see the documents – part of the flood of paper and messages that accompanies a legislative session – or weren’t told how broad the problem was.

Oh, and wait! Now a Perry Spokesman says that his office also got information on the scandal back in March, 2005:

Ted Royer, a spokesman for Mr. Perry, said that while his office got basic information in the March 2005 e-mail, it never received anything as complete as the briefing prepared for the Senate committee. He said the governor was not legally entitled to a copy of a Texas Rangers investigation report because the inquiry was ongoing.

Regardless of the governor’s “legal entitlement” to a report, I find it very difficult to believe that his office didn’t seek more information, or take action.

Once again, the blame lies at the top. Trying to shift the blame from Perry to State Senators is a bad idea. The Governor had the power to act immediately to rectify the problem; the state senators, by the nature of their authority, did not.

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