Massive regulatory failure and its effects on those who were served was the subject last week of a Philadelphia Inquirer headline two-part series with front page placement. The expose of Philadelphia ’s Department of Human Services and the Local Germantown Settlement as one of those failed providers is a must-read for area residents.   Mr John Sullivan’s compelling story of failure to provide quality care and contracted services by the recipients was only matched by the failures of those with delegated oversight responsibility.

 

Renewing contracts year after year with the same failed providers, missing records with excuses that parallel “the dog ate my homework”, apparent fraud on the part of social workers, and little or no follow-up on critical cases that may have led to premature deaths are only a part of the story told here with frightening detail.  None of this is new to those of us who have been active in this community, for similar patterns of failure and non-natural deaths in state licensed and regulated Personal Care Homes have been exposed by citizens; not the agencies themselves.

 

For those of us in the larger community, that would be the 8^th Councilmanic District, the prime example of failure exposed in this article, the Germantown Settlement, should not be a surprise.  This organization and its multiple affiliates, both non-profit and for-profit, have long been consumers of millions and millions of taxpayer and private grant dollars channeled there by Donna Reed Miller and her predecessors in a relationship that needs much more exposure, but this is no secret to the informed, particularly in Germantown .

 

Complaints about substandard care in “Settlement” controlled facilities have been ongoing.  Massive tax delinquencies make the “worst offenders” list year after fiscal year. Required Federal Tax reports go unlfiled. License and Inspection violations in owned and controlled enterprises are manifold, yet nothing changes and the money continues to roll in; all controlled by our local political leaders.  Don’t expect to find any published listing of how much money and who received it. Outrage would be the only reaction one could have to the statistic in the Inquirer article where a panel formed to study these issues concluded that in the area of child care more is spent per individual child in this city than in an other city in the nation and yet the results are substandard.

 

The Charter School operated by the Settlement fails in an environment when almost no one fails at a charter school.  Multi-million dollar renewal projects such as Freedom Square go insolvent, are posted for sheriff’s sale, and mysteriously get refinanced under the radar.  With continuous non-performance under its belt, Settlement gets city funding to purchase the Woman’s Y building when no private lenders would touch them.  All this happens after Mayor Street , Donna Reed Miller and Herb Wetzel of the Redevelopment Authority, take a walk through the building, we are told in press reports.  According to the Inquirer article contracts are renewed with Settlement agencies despite documented failures and recommendations to the contrary.  Should not someone, at some level, ask why?

 

Not in this city.  Our District Attorney stated on the record in the last election that she “Does not investigate municipal corruption”.  I think the last Comptroller to challenge a city contract may have been Alex Hemphill in the 1959-1967 period.  The City Solicitor’s Office record in prosecuting criminal activity regarding violations of many statutes is laughable at best and most informed folks consider it a political arm, not an investigative one.

 

Then we have the court of last resort, our political leaders.  These are the ones who can, if they ever care to, stop all that process, energize oversight activity, demand accountability, and, most important of all, cut off funding - - -ARE YOU KIDDING!  - - - They do the exact opposite.  They force feed and continue funding many agencies despite complaints and recorded failure. On top of the million plus that Settlement got from the City to buy the Women’s Y, through Donna Miller’s Office, the State is giving Settlement another million plus for renovations through the efforts of John Myers, State Representative and Dwight Evans, Chair of the Appropriations Committee. (What is particularly interesting here is that the Women’s Y building being financed is not in Rep. Myers district  - - no matter - - this is Philadelphia ).

 

Residents and voters of the 8^th District in particular take notice.  The laughable results of the just-completed primary election are putting the same local machine in power for another four years thanks to shortsighted challengers who delivered the power back to Miller with only about 30% of the vote.  The general election is 6 months away.  There will be other options and from what we have seen so far, I would bet on more investigations.

 

We have to do more than hope.

 

Jim Foster

Mt. Airy