| The crisis at Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services continues after yesterday's announcement that Gov. Dave Heineman has appointed Kerry Winterer as its new Chief Executive Officer. This is an unfortunate choice because Heineman has again chosen politics over people and cronyism before competence.
Christine Peterson announced her resignation from this position in early December. This was just one week before the release of the scathing report from the special legislative committee investigating the neglect and abuse at the Beatrice State Development Center and the system-wide breakdown at DHHS. That report expressed the commmittee's vote of no confidence in Peterson and other DHHS leaders.
At the time, I wrote:
There's nothing at all to indicate that Heineman is serious about DHHS reform. For him, this is nothing more than a game of damage control for his political career. Heineman's highest priority has nothing to do with abandoned children or the inhumane treatment of the mentally ill - but rather finding a replacement at the top of DHHS who'll be a little more adept at sweeping these problems under the rug until well after his 2010 reelection campaign.
Well, in appointing Kerry Winterer as the new CEO of DHHS, Heineman has definitely found his man for continuing a legacy of band aid solutions and remaining dominated by political motivations.
The Lincoln Journal-Star reports:
The new appointee has held chairmanships in the county and state Republican Party. From 1997 to 2001 he served as chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party, and from 2001 to 2004 he was Second District chairman in the state Republican party. In 2004-05 he was a Republican National Committeeman.
Winterer was also talked about as a potential Republican U.S. Senate nominee in 2006, before running for and losing an open seat in the Nebraska Legislature that same year.
It isn't Winterer's political involvement that calls his true committment into question. Rather, it's the relish he'd shown in those positions playing the Republican Party's political hatchet-man. Probably the best example of this was his leading the partisan attack on Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson in August of 2005 when the state paid $145 million to settle its long-standing dispute with the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission.
Making the ridiculous demand that Nelson should pay back that $145 million to the state and promising a statewide petition campaign to that effect, Winterer was quoted by the Omaha World-Herald stating at a press conference:
"Ben Nelson is guilty of a blatant disregard of a federal contract that has not only cost Nebraska $145 million but has also sullied the good reputation of the State of Nebraska."
Of course, Nelson won in 2006 by a landslide, so only Winterer's reputation was sullied by such a ridiculous statement. Still, after his failure as a legislative candidate, Heineman rewarded Winterer for his work as the GOP's failed political hatchet man by appointing him to fill a vacancy on the state Board of Education in 2007.
Winterer might have some very fine qualities, but it is hard to imagine how he could be the most qualified person Heineman could find in the fields of both education and in Health and Human Services. Especially when the situation at DHHS cries out for reform and is in such deserate need for professional competence, it's telling that Heineman would instead look to a longtime political loyalist to head the largest state agency with an annual budget of $2.9 billion and 5,500 full-time employees.
We've seen it all before. Nothing has changed, and Heineman's made sure that nothing will change. Winterer's guiding principle will be covering for the Governor, shielding him from controversy, and protecting his bid for re-election. He is Heineman's CEO - not the CEO for those Nebraskans who are so desperate for a DHHS that will live up to its commitments and assist those in crisis. |
