March 23, 2006
How incompetent is DSHS?
The AP reports today that "Washington state settles disability bias case for $325,000" The irony of this is that the disabled person awarded the settlement works as
a reasonable accommodation manager in state Department of Social and Health Services.
Nevertheless,
In January a jury found that the agency had denied Gautier a reasonable accommodation
What's going on here, is the DSHS so incompetent that it denies reasonable accommodations to its own reasonable accommodation managers, or is this case similar to the
recent case in Lodi, CA where a city employee sued the city after he ran into his private vehicle while driving a city truck?
Meanwhile
The Department of Social and Health Services put a man convicted of embezzlement and fraud in charge of a $32 million program and -- surprise, surprise -- he ended up stealing more than $125,000.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 23, 2006
10:31 AM | Email This
1. 1) DSHS has a strong record of incompetency going back to 1986 and prior
2) The lawsuit in Lodi, CA sb thrown out, and Mr. & Mrs. Curtis Gokey and their attorney sb fined for filing a frivolous lawsuit
3) Arthur Krontz of Walla Walla embezzellment could have been prevented if DSHS had done a standard reference and background check.
4) 20 years ago the Wall Street Journal had a front page story of a convicted embezeller who stole repeatedly from his employers a la "robbing Peter to pay Paul". The embezzeller had a pattern of stealing from an employer, getting caught, crying and promising never to do it again, getting a good reference from the victimized company so he could get employeed again, and then stealing from his new employer to repay his previous employer.
5) The individual went thru 10 to 20 companies b4 someone got wise.
6) I guess the HR office called in sick that day at DSHS and missed the story
2. The alcoholics' apartment house funded by taxpayers needs stricter requirements for entry into the place as well as continuing requirements for remaining there. They need to stop treating the alcoholics with kid gloves and get tougher with them. If they don't like the rules and requirements throw them out! There are undoubtedly several more to take their places.
It's been a poorly thoughtout and executed experiment from the start & will probably turn out to be less than successful. Unfortunately, once these programs start, it's almost impossible to rescind them even when the results are neglible or invisible.
You'll notice that most of those quoted in the article are very careful not to say much or give neutral comments so as not to rock the boat & get on the wrong side of the promoters of these programs.
Alcoholism is a learned, voluntary action by people who have weak wills. No one forces an alcoholic to drink. Some would like to call it a disease but it doesn't meet the requirements for being labeled a disease. This experiment in providing housing is like pouring money down a rat hole & the result will probably be the same.
3. Actually, on the face on it I think the guy in Lodi has a pretty decent case. If he hits Joe Blow's car while driving the dump truck on city business, the city will be held financially responsible. The fact that, in this case, Joe Blow happens to be the same as the guy driving the truck may not change that. Of course, the city might have an argument if they can show he deliberately hit his own car.
4. I want a job, where if I do a bad job of making accomodations for myself, I can sue all the taxpayers and get a windfall.
I sue and get a lot of money for doing a bad job that affects only me.
That is a great setup.
5. DSHS is the agency that Performance Audits should specifically target. Go to it, Mr. Sonntag !