Health Department 'Reform' Just Hypocritical Politics, Legislator Asserts

Health Department 'Reform' Just Hypocritical Politics, Legislator
Asserts

OKLAHOMA CITY (Oct. 10) -- Most of the nearly three dozen employees
forced out at the State Health Department by Interim Director Jerry
Regier, including several Democrat "ghosts," have been replaced,
records show.

In addition, Regier has hired a Republican former state legislator to
provide the agency with legal advice, retained a Republican politician
to serve as an administrative consultant, and has contracted with a
pair of Republican investigators.

Those disclosures were made Tuesday by Rep. Mike Mass, a veteran
legislator who also is chairman of the state Democratic Party. "If
those folks really weren't doing anything at the Health Department,
why were they replaced?" the Higgins Democrat wondered.

Regier was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services
by Gov. Frank Keating, in 1997. On May 3 Keating gave Regier the
additional responsibility of temporarily guiding the Health Department
after Deputy Commissioner Brent VanMeter was arrested on federal
bribery charges arising from nursing home oversight.

In the intervening five months, 32 Health Department employees and
consultants were fired or forced to resign. That number included three
Democrat former legislators, people who received employment references
from Democrat legislators, relatives of Democrat lawmakers, and
associates of VanMeter. The employees who were terminated were
unclassified employees exempt from the provisions of the state Merit
System.

Ledgers in the Office of State Finance indicate the annual payroll for
those 32 workers, excluding benefits, was $1.42 million.

During the same five-month period the State Health Department added 26
new employees, all unclassified and exempt from the Merit System.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the annual payroll
for those employees, at least six of whom worked for Regier at the
Office of Juvenile Affairs when he was executive director of that
agency, is $1.175 million.

In addition, Mass related, a couple of administrative contracts cost
another $145,000, which boosted the total replacement cost for
personal services to $1.32 million.

After the Health Department probe erupted in scandal, Keating
described the agency as a "wholly owned subsidiary" of the
Legislature.

Mass countered Tuesday, pointing to various inconsistencies in the
Keating administration's vow to liberate the Health Department from
the clutches of partisan politics, legislators and the nursing home
industry.

Regier hired Republican former state Senator Gary Gardenhire of Norman
in September to be the Health Department's new general counsel, at a
salary of $75,000.

Regier is a registered Republican who was a delegate to the Republican
National Convention this year. Regier and Keating, a Republican former
state Senator, served together in the Reagan and Bush administrations.

The Health Department contracted with the Oklahoma Department of Labor
for the services of Deputy Labor Commissioner Jim Marshall. He was a
Republican candidate for State Labor Commissioner in 1994 who bowed
out to clear the way for the election of Republican Brenda Reneau.

Marshall's contract pays him $5,844 per month, or $70,137 per year, to
assist the Health Department in its reorganization efforts.

One of Regier's new hires, at $82,000 per year, is Darren Burgess, who
formerly worked for Beverly Enterprises, a national nursing home chain
headquartered in Fort Smith, Ark.

Regier retained the Fidelis Group to poke around into any areas of the
Health Department the acting director wants investigated.

Company documents provided by the agency indicate the Fidelis Group
provides forensic (criminal) accounting services; investigates and
analyses financial evidence related to crimes such as embezzlement,
employee theft/misappropriations, kickbacks, bribery and insurance
fraud; and performs various financial audit services.

The Attorney General's Office and the State Auditor and Inspector both
perform the same services the Fidelis Group is providing under a
$75,000 open-ended, sole-source contract that was secured without
competitive bids, Mass said.

The principals in the Fidelis Group are Errol Myers of Edmond and
Henry Gibbons of Oklahoma City, Health Department documents reflect.
Both men are registered Republicans, according to records on file at
the Oklahoma County Election Board.

"Just exactly where are the supposedly pure motives of this
administration?" Mass concluded. "After considering all of the
evidence, it looks like plain ol' politics and smells like hypocrisy
to me."
http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/house/news2038.htm

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