Crusader to watch over DCF

Crusader to watch over DCF

BY MARC CAPUTO



TALLAHASSEE - When it comes to child and family welfare, almost no
other Florida state senator is quite the back-bench bomb
thrower, all-purpose fly-in-the-ointment and quote-quipping crusader
as Tamarac's Walter ''Skip'' Campbell.

On Wednesday, to the dread of some lobbyists and bureaucrats, Campbell
assumed a new title: chairman of the Senate Committee
on Children and Families. He started the meeting with a list of
problems he saw in the state's child welfare agency, and said he might
place lobbyists under oath to testify about questionable contracts.

The appointment of Campbell -- one of only two Democrats to head
committees in the majority GOP Senate -- underscores
Republican Senate President Tom Lee's reputation as a maverick who
likes to make waves, sometimes at Gov. Jeb Bush's
expense. The position also elevates Campbell's public profile as he
considers a run for governor in 2006.

Lee said someone needs to help improve the Department of Children &
Families, which recently saw the departure of its chief, Jerry
Regier, and four other administrators in connection with contracting
scandals. Campbell had led the Democrats' failed effort to block
Regier's appointment in 2003 after Bush quickly selected the Oklahoma
politician.

''Nothing I've done here is overtly an effort to stir anything up. But
I do believe that there is room in this process to shake some things
up,'' Lee said of his choice of Campbell.

``I think we need someone who isn't afraid to speak out, and tell it
like he sees it. And Skip Campbell is one of those kinds of
members, for sure. He'll go wherever the evidence leads him . . . and
I'm not afraid to do that in any of these areas.''

Though the committee has no budget authority, it is responsible for
sponsoring legislation that can define -- or curtail -- the child
welfare agency's authority.

The appointment mystified Capitol observers as well as Campbell, who
was unable to explain why he was chosen. But Campbell
didn't miss a chance to put his long-standing crusades front and
center.

Tops on the list: reviewing whether children in state care are made
''zombies'' by mood-altering drugs; fixing the department's
problem-plagued computer system; reviewing the way the department
handed out contracts under Regier; providing money to
counties that can't afford the drugs for mental patients detained
because they're a threat to themselves and others and reviewing the
department's use of an India-based call center to handle the queries
of food-stamp recipients.

PRAISE FOR HADI

Campbell raised the ''offshoring'' issue of the call center last year,
prompting a sharp letter from Bush defending the contract. On
Wednesday, though, he wasn't all fire and venom. He commended Regier's
replacement, Lucy Hadi, because she agreed with
many of the fixes needed at the department and ''was very upfront''
about DCF's problems in the past.

''If you admit failure, you can find a solution,'' Campbell said.
Regier ``did not do that. That's what his problem was. He had his head
in the sand. Or if he didn't have his head in the sand, he knew what
was going on and didn't do anything to fix it.''

A state inspector general's report in July suggested that Regier was
part of the problem. It said Regier spent a night at the home of a
contractor who was getting DCF business, and it accused two Regier
deputies of developing unethical relationships with lobbyists
and vendors while also using their influence to steer business to
friends.

Campbell said he might want to revisit the case.

SWORN TESTIMONY?

''I intend that this committee gets the whole story, and not just part
of the story,'' he said. ``If we get into a messy issue into whether
money is being contracted or spent properly, we might ask people to
testify under oath.''

Some of the lobbyists mentioned in the report said they would appear
before the committee if required, but were uneasy with the
idea.

Regier's replacement, Hadi, said the governor was also ''very
concerned'' with what happened under her predecessor. But though
she agrees with most of Campbell's concerns, she said that she
disagreed with the idea of turning the committee room into a court.

''The remedies have already taken place,'' she said. ``I don't know
that rehashing the specifics of an individual procurement action
gets us down the line anywhere.''

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