Shoulda Coulda Woulda

This time last year he said it was "a daunting challenge that precedes my time as governor," now its just a problem in the rear view mirror.
Jim Galloway reports that Governor Sonny Perdue felt real bad about some things as he packed up his office in the Capitol last week.

Need for Improvement: Mental Health Ombudsman's Year One Report

Former AJC writer and current Georgia Health News CEOAndy Miller brings us the story that's being missed amidst all the press coverage of the settlement agreement between the US Department of Justice and the State of Georgia concerning the treatment of persons in its mental health system. An interim report summarizing Georgia's Disability Services Ombudsman Jewel Norman's first year on the job cites the need to improve clients' access to timely care and concern over the continually growing role of Law Enforcement in the lives of many Georgians who are living with mental illness. Miller writes that despite the high profile of the settlement between Georgia and the Feds, there are many issues that need addressing in the state's network of mental health service providers:

A little-noticed state report says an independent review team found poor medical care in the deaths of 23 patients at Georgia’s mental hospitals during the past fiscal year.

The report, from Georgia’s disabilities services ombudsman, also shows that the state’s mental health system remains plagued by other major problems, despite more than a year of scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice. Many patients still sit for hours in general hospitals’ emergency rooms, waiting for mental health treatment. And jails across the state still house a high percentage of people with psychiatric illnesses, the report adds.

Still, the state ombudsman who produced the report, Jewel Norman, said she sees improvement in the seven state-run psychiatric hospitals.

The report, itself, addresses the critical issue that there are not adequate resources throughout the state to assist people when they are experiencing a mental health emergency:

Georgia law requires the sheriff’s department of each county to transport mentally ill persons who are a danger to themselves or others to an emergency receiving facility. State policy requires medical clearance before any state hospital or Community Services Board Crisis Stabilization Program (CSP) can accept such a transfer. Most of the time the closest destination to achieve the required medical clearance is a general hospital emergency room (ER)...

In a late spring meeting of the Psychiatric Council of the Georgia Hospital Association, the Ombudsman discovered that many people with mental illness were experiencing excessive periods of waiting in the emergency rooms after medical clearance...

The average wait time for these patients, many of whom were experiencing an acute episode of their illness, was 36 hours... The average time for those persons exceeding the 36-hour mean time was 64 hours or 2.67 days.

These long wait times do more than put Georgians living with mental illness at risk, they have a multiplier effect on society as they tie up vital law enforcement, emergency medical services and hospital resources while these placements are being made. And then there is the worst-case scenario--an unfortunate societal situation that happens far too often in Georgia and elsewhere around the world--in which mental health consumers are adjudicated and incarcerated until a suitable placement can be made in a state forensic unit .

Preliminary data suggests that the corrections system, both local jails and our state prisons have become major providers of mental health services. For example, the Chatham County Sheriff provides data that, on any given day, he has between 200 and 250 people with mental illness in his jail. The Augusta Chronicle, in a July 11, 2010 article reported by Sandy Hodson, stated, “184 men and women who have been deemed mentally incapable of standing trial are locked in jails for weeks and months because there isn’t enough room in the state’s seven mental health hospitals [Forensic Units].” "That's what jails have turned into -- mental hospitals," said Richmond County Sheriff's Maj. Gene Johnson, who oversees the county's overcrowded jail. The Georgia Department of Corrections reports that 15.6 percent of the inmate population is receiving mental health services.

The settlement agreement with the federal government is forcing Georgia to make revolutionary changes to the way people receive treatment in the state's mental health system. In order to realize those anticipated outcomes, Georgia will have to conquer some of the most challenging sets of circumstances seen in the history of the treatment of mental illness. The Justice Department is requiring Georgia to allot the resources necessary to meet the federal government's benchmark of providing care in the most integrated setting appropriate to an individuals’ needs, but it will take the dedication of the Governor-elect, the entire General Assembly, many departments of state government and the people of the State of Georgia to decisively bring an end to this sad chapter in the state's history.

Transportation Board Comes Full Circle

Kiss any major federal transportation money goodbye until voters can decide on a constitutional change in November.
I have yet to hear what will probably be a brusque retelling of how this went down, but I'm sure it will be excellent.
From the AJC:

“I had never been over to the state capitol where I saw so much consistency in the disbelief of what the board did, and anger,” Transportation Board Chair Bill Kuhlke told his fellow board members.

No Parham quotes in this one.

Lame Duck or Not, Perdue is Swinging for the Fences

State Representative Rusty Kidd turned me on to this article in the AJC this morning.
It seems Governor Sonny Perdue has some more far-reaching plans to expand power in the Governor's office by proposing a constitutional referendum to allow subsequent governors the ability to appoint the Agriculture, Insurance and Labor commissioners, as well as the state School Superintendent.
The change, should it be adopted by two-thirds majorities in the state House and Senate and a majority of voters in the November election, would go into effect in 2014.
AJC is reporting that the Governor is looking to other states in his decision to move to appointing these state officers.

"Georgia is one of only five states that elect a labor commissioner and one of only nine states to elect its agriculture commissioner. Twelve other states elect an insurance commissioner and 14 vote for state school superintendent."

The measure is being sold as a way of ensuring that commissioners are staying focused on state issues and not out chasing higher offices.
Kidd wonders whether the Governor has the political capital to move forward on a sweeping change like this his last year in office. But he added that House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons Island, told him he is contemplating the idea of packaging Perdue's proposal with Kidd's proposed constitutional amendment to limit the governor to one six-year term.
Expect to hear more about this in the coming week

Fight Over Transportation Spilling Out of state Capitol Complex

AJC's Political Insider is saying that Perdue is now colliding with Congressman John Lewis over the state's inability to lockdown federal monies for high speed rail.

A Transportation Blunder?

Although you can't read the story without penetrating the paywall, you can see from Insider Advantage's homepage that Dick Pettys thinks the state Transportation Board's action to reinstate accrual accounting may be a sizable miscalculation.
Now I haven't read Pettys' story either, but some conversations I had last week (before the other shoe dropped on the state's mental health system issues) led me to the same perception.
I don't gather that many under the Gold Dome disagree with the desired outcome, but it is the way the Board is going about doing it.
Chuck Clay, a former state Senate minority leader and current lobbyist for one of Georgia's largest transportation contractors C.W. Matthews, said the state's leadership cannot delay in finding a way around this constitutional question because it wants to argue about why it happened in the first place.
"We cannot jeopardize this because we are getting into a dispute," he said. "For the good of Georgia—not GDOT, the Governor or the legislature—please let these people sit down and get behind the effort [to resolve this issue]. Because once that [federal roads] money goes to Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina, it cannot go back to Georgia. It is not simply sitting in an envelope in Washington with Georgia’s name written onto it."
I had seen this earlier Friday, and Clay mentioned it when we talked. There is a Senate Resolution to place a referendum on the ballot to amend the state constitution to allow the practice of signing multi-year transportation contracts without having the entire cost of the project in the treasury at the time.
This seems like the best thing, but on an issue like this, I imagine it's going to take quite a get-out-the-vote effort for people to mash yes on this one.

Governor Reacts to DOT Board Accounting Changes

This story seems to be getting more complicated all the time. An auditor I talked to yesterday said that the change in accounting practices--from accrual to cash and back to accrual--should not be the main issue here as the two practices are really just different ways of looking at a budget and spending plan, and are commonly used interchangeably to give a more holistic view of an organization's financial well being.
Yes! That means I was wrong, I think?
But this clearly shows that the parties in Atlanta are circling the wagons and getting ready for a showdown.
From the Governor's Office:

Statement of Governor Sonny Perdue Regarding DOT Board Action on Accounting Methods
Thursday, January 28, 2010 Contact: Office of Communications 404-651-7774

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue issued the following statement today regarding actions by the DOT Board in defying the State Auditor and voting to change the department’s accounting methods:

“Today’s action by the DOT Board exhibits a clear defiance of state law and a frightening lack of concern for our state’s financial systems.

The state’s finance team, along with SRTA, identified an opportunity to refinance outstanding bonds for road projects and save DOT a total of $22 million in debt service, including $16 million in FY 2011. Given the uncertainty that has now been unnecessarily created by the Board, we cannot proceed with the refinancing at this time.

The Board is refusing to heed the sound advice of the State Auditor and the department’s own legal and financial staff. Previous Attorney General opinions also make it very clear that the department must follow the same accounting procedures as the rest of state government.

While I am incredibly frustrated that we are forced to pass up a substantial savings opportunity, I am more concerned that this Board continues to act irresponsibly and show such little regard for the state’s conservative fiscal management policies.”

###

Parham Stirs the Pot

State Transportation Board member Bobby Parham showed up again in the AJC late last week. If you didn't catch that, you can check it out here. (The best part of the story, and the most illuminating, is found in the comments section.)
Parham also stopped by the Union-Recorder offices Monday to defend a State Transportation Board decision to reverse a former DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham (Evans)-era accounting change that he says has slowed the DOT's ability to keep Georgians at work building and maintaining the country's best state highway system.
Parham said the change, from a cash to an accrual method of accounting, would allow the DOT to borrow money to fund the state's portion of federally-backed road projects on the promise of the federal government making good on their end of the investment.
Evans, a perennial Perdue appointee, implemented the cash accounting procedure after a 2008 DOT audit accused a DOT treasurer of purposefully intending "to hide the true state of GDOT’s finances."
As the AJC and ATL Bizness Chronicle reports say above, the state Transportation Board has already passed a motion to move back to the accrual form of accounting in last week's meeting. But Parham said Trans Board Chair Bill Kuhlke called a special meeting for this Thursday, and he (Parham) thinks Kulhke will try to get the board to reconsider the motion, or at least postpone the change until the next fiscal year, which begins in July.
Board members are asking Attorney General Thurbert Baker to decide whether or not it is constitutional for DOT to use the accrual accounting.
Parham says there is more to this story, so watch it grow legs Friday.

Out of My League

I think you'd be surprised to hear that I'm blaming my recent absence from the blogosphere on the fact that I was not One Capital Removed this week, but actually reporting for The Union-Recorder from under the Gold Dome. Well not so much Thursday, but definitely Wednesday for the Governor's final State of the State Address.
But maybe that's in keeping with the witty blog title.
Either way you look at it, I'm not sure if we're much more informed following the news items of the week.
Governor Perdue delivered his final session-opening speech Wednesday and the verdict from the peanut gallery was all about the same.
I think this sums up my take on the speech:

"In a 37-minute-long speech that was long on style—quoting at liberty from the works of great thinkers such as Thomas Paine and Alexis de Tocqueville—and short on substance about how he would like legislators to tackle the challenges facing Georgia in the here and now, Perdue gave the General Assembly a pep talk to send them into the session."

But the real meat of the thing won't come out for another hour, when Perdue drops his proposed budget.
I unfortunately missed Perdue's press conference about his proposal for transportation funding because I was in a Georgia Press Association conference across the street from the Capitol. But much like his proposal to tie teacher pay to student performance, most of the heavy lifting will be done by his successor.
As I said above, today is going to be the big news day, and it is already delivering, with Perdue's budget at 11:45 a.m. and, possibly, the announcement of House Speaker David Ralston's committee assignments. Not the committee's he'll be on, of which I think tradition holds that there will be none, but the committee assignments he'll be doling out because he's got that right.
We'll, of course, be interested in this because Rep. Rusty Kidd will be getting his first assignments today.
I'm hoping for Appropriations and Health and Human Services assignments, and maybe State Institutions and Property, but that may make him too much like state Sen. Johnny Grant.
In other news of the day, I'm glad to hear Speaker Ralston has kept his promise to do away with the hawks system. I know I was a doubting thomas on this, but being a contrarian is my job.
I'm off for the rest of the day, so check in with my One Capital Removed approved bloggers (scroll to the bottom) for up-to-the-minute updates on everything that's going on in Georgia Politics, and I'll tell you something you already know later (please keep reading).

Idiocy @ Eggs and Issues

Lucid Idiocy has two posts covering today's Eggs and Issues breakfast, which brings the state's administration together with the leaders of the legislative branch for a preview of the session ahead.
LI's Travis Fain reports that Governor Sonny Perdue focused on education, rolling out a new plan for teacher pay, and said that the state's beleaguered mental health system will receive the only budget increases this year.

"Perdue told reporters that the mental health funding would "probably be the only budget news you'll get out of me this week," signaling that the final state-of-the-state speech of his two terms in office, scheduled for tomorrow morning, will not focus on the budget."

The View From Here

Day one of the new legislative session is over and all of the things we’ve been presuming have come to pass—and a few other things.

“Personal integrity is the very touchstone of public responsibility.”

The Glenn Richardson era is over. Jim Galloway of AJC’s Political Insider told us that Speaker Temporary Mark Burkhalter brought in a Catholic archbishop in to lay the rules of engagement. You can see that rule quoted above.
Burkhalter also did other things. He welcomed all new members of the House, including 141st District Representative Rusty Kidd, and he, again, paid tribute to outgoing Speaker Glenn Richardson, who was not there to hand deliver his resignation letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Again from Political Insider:
“He’s a great man, and he’s getting better,” Burkhalter said. “He wishes he could be here today, but doesn’t think that was the best thing to do.”

History in the Making

The House had two real—somewhat—leadership elections yesterday.
The House elected Jan Jones, R-Alpharetta, Speaker Pro Tem. The former House Majority Whip, Jones is the first woman to hold the Lower Chamber’s number two position.
And the history making didn’t stop till the top yesterday either.
House Republicans, and some Democrats, voted in David Ralston as the new Speaker.
House Democrats decided to resume their role of opposition party yesterday by putting forth the same opposition candidate for Speaker for the same reasons they should have run an opposition candidate last year.
House Minority Leader, and goobernatorial candidate, Dubose Porter, D-Dublin, nominated House Democratic Caucus Leader Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, saying that Smyre has connections to the White House and will end the hawks system.
I noticed some backlash to Porter’s comments that Smyre would end the hawks system, which allows the Speaker to stack committee meetings with representatives that will ensure votes reflect the Speaker’s wishes on a bill.
Pundits reminded everyone that David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, ran for the Republican nomination for the Speaker’s gavel saying he would end the hawk system as well. But I didn’t see any reports indicating that Ralston reaffirmed those promises in his acceptance speech.
Although Ralston did adhere to Ronald Regan’s 11th Commandment, “Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican,” he didn’t go farther, as Burkhalter is quoted as doing above.

One Last Ride?


AJC’s Political Insider, which I guess wins my award for most information on day one, also reported hearing murmurs that Gov. Sonny Perdue will once again try to use his powers to move the legislature forward on transportation funding.
Now I want to think I remember some pictures of Perdue, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and now defunct House Speaker Glenn Richardson huddling up on some transportation plan last year. If that is true, I might also be able to trust my memory to think that Richardson was the one who broke rank late in the session, effectively scuttling any possibilities last year.

So there you have it. I culled this information from AJC's Political Insider, AJC's Gold Dome Live, Georgia Legislative Watch, Peach Pundit and Lucid Idiocy.
So now you know where I go.

Troubling News Out of Central State

We in Milledgeville all have to be concerned when we read headlines like this*.
But what I gathered from reading the three available stories on the subject--I'm not counting the AP blurb the UR site has--scares me a little more.
Vaishali Patel, our new reporter, says that the 2,500 jobs at CSH are safe for now. Read into that whatever you'd like.
The AJC reports this:

The state's move will thin a patient population that stands at about 450 and free up staff to undergo training, implement new policies and procedures, and change potentially dangerous conditions at the hospital, Wilson said. Overcrowding is not an issue driving this action, he added.

And then we have the Telegraph reporting this:

Central State has had staffing problems for years and that remains a challenge, Wilson said. Current figures were not immediately available Thursday, but in 2007 state figures showed a 23 percent vacancy rate in the hospital’s staff and nearly a 42 percent vacancy rate in licensed practical and registered nursing jobs.

Excuse me, but what on earth is going on with the staffing at the state's largest mental health facility?
2,500 employees seeing to the treatment of about 450 mental health consumers, and the hospital is running an overall 23 percent staff vacancy rate, with licensed practical and registered nurse positions exhibiting a 42 percent vacancy rate.
I'm just not smart enough to tell you what that means, but if you can, please leave a comment to clue me in.


*Is anyone else bothered by the fact that I have to link to competing news sites to provide compelling content about events happening in our own community?

Other Georgia Cities Got Our Back

The Rome News-Tribune featured this editorial about the plight of Milledgeville in this dire economy.

"In November 1864 Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman arrived in Milledgeville, then Georgia’s capital, with 30,000 soldiers. He left a couple of days later after sacking the statehouse, destroying the state arsenal and powder magazine, burning the state penitentiary, railroad depot and Oconee bridge, and taking everything edible or of value from the surrounding countryside.
Now the national economy, aided by the forces of Georgia government, appears intent on seeing if they can finish the job."

It's reassuring to see that despite the troubles facing their own communities, civic leaders around the state are aware of what is going on in less-fortunate cities like Milledgeville and are willing to speak out against it.
Thanks to Travis Fain at Lucid Idiocy for linking to this editorial.

Perdue announces Special Elections

The Governor finally issued the Writ of Elections to fill Parham's 141st District state House of Representatives seat.
No between 30 and 60 day period here. I guess this means the law really is that vague when it comes to special elections outside of the legislative session.
The election will happen November 3, along with municipal elections.

And we thought it was just going to be about the budget

In addition to warning legislators that this lame duck governor has nothing to lose in the next two years of governing, Gov. Sonny Perdue issued a warning to school board officials who can't seem to keep their school systems in the press for the right reasons.
Perdue announced a legislative proposal to ensure that school board officials keep the priorities of the local school system's students at the top and not their own personal agendas.
“Never again, do I intend for the state to be handcuffed by our current law and powerless to help students who are being failed by the adults in their community,” the Governor said.
According to his Eggs and Issues press release, Perdue wants legislation that will "standardize board ethics policies and board training, clarifies law delineating the roles and responsibilities of superintendents and board members, creates minimum qualifications for board candidates and gives the state the ability to find responsible citizens to serve on school boards when existing members fail to serve the interests of their students."
Everyone in the former state capital has known that this session of the General Assembly was going to be pertinent on the local level, but I think we all failed to see just how pertinent.