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Mix-ups mired abuse inquiry
BILL SIMMONS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Gov. Mike Huckabee took public action in April against abuse problems in state youth facilities, saying he hadn't known earlier the depth and breadth of the problems and would have acted sooner had he known. Eight months earlier, one of his liaisons had written: "Governor needs to make a pre-emptive strike w/a news conf. prior to Oct. Outline corrective actions."
Those words are among four pages of notes that were jotted down on a legal pad Aug. 11, 1997, by Sandra Winston, the liaison, during a meeting with another liaison, Larry Toller, and two state youth services executives, Ruth Whitney and Lloyd Warford.
The notes, provided to an Arkansas State Police investigator by Winston, were attached to a recent state police investigation report on who knew what when in state government about the youth abuse problems in the Youth Services Division of the Department of Human Services.
They also contain statements that gubernatorial spokesman Jim Harris says were suggestions by Whitney that Huckabee make public statements supporting Whitney and Warford and the director of the Human Services Department, Lee Frazier. "He [Huckabee] needs to say he is supportive of Ruth and Lloyd," says one entry. Says another: "Gov. could say I support Ruth and Lee and we are planning to do ... "
The "strike," which also was a Whitney suggestion, according to Harris, was going to pre-empt a series of newspaper articles that were being developed by Mary Hargrove, associate editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Hargrove was gathering information and interviewing officials and others in preparation for the articles. At that time, her series was expected to be published in October 1997, according to the notes.
The articles eventually were published in June of this year. A few weeks before publication, Hargrove, concerned for the safety of children in state custody, briefed some state officials on the seriousness of what she was about to report. This played a part in prompting Huckabee to act. He praised her for her role in bringing these matters to light.
In light of the words that Winston jotted down in her notes last August, why didn't Huckabee learn from state officials last fall about the severity of the problems and order the sort of actions that he brought about in April of this year?
"Miscommunication," said Warford, assistant director of operations for the Youth Services Division, in an interview this week.
"I believe it was sincere, honest, unintentional miscommunication" between himself and Whitney, on one side, and Winston, on the other, Warford said.
The miscommunication involved other elements:

Warford and Whitney had been advised by Frazier to let Frazier handle communication with the governor's office, so they laid back, Warford said.

But Frazier's instruction to them to let him handle communication with the governor's office wasn't given until after they had arranged to disclose the situation to Winston, Warford said. So Warford and Whitney decided to have that meeting anyway, even though it amounted to "getting around the boss" -- Frazier -- because they thought he didn't appreciate the severity of the publicity problem that was about to occur, Warford said. "We stuck our neck out" to have the meeting with Winston despite Frazier's preference that he handle communication with the governor's office, Warford said.

During the meeting, Whitney and Warford made a plan with Winston to get information to Huckabee, Warford said. In an Aug. 13 memo after the Aug. 11 meeting, Winston reported to Huckabee that Whitney had taken corrective action and that it was a complicated issue. "The governor will probably need to have a meeting with Rex Nelson, Bud Cummins, Lee Frazier and the appropriate DHS staff to get a detailed oral briefing after we have received a summary in writing," she wrote.
But the plan that Warford said was intended to get information to Huckabee was understood in different ways by the parties involved. Winston understood -- and reported so to Huckabee in that same memo -- that Whitney would prepare written material for a briefing for the governor. Winston, therefore, waited for the information to be sent to her, and put her notes in a file to await the material.
Whitney and Warford understood that the governor's office would issue a request for information, Warford said, which would prompt them to prepare it for the governor and thus make it acceptable in Frazier's eyes despite his request that they let him handle communication. But no request for the information came from Huckabee's office, so Whitney and Warford didn't provide a briefing to Huckabee, presumably accounting in part for his lack of knowledge about the problems, according to Warford's memory of the events.

Winston was prohibited by a long-standing Huckabee policy from granting interviews about this matter. But Huckabee spokesman Jim Harris said she directed Whitney and Warford last August to follow the chain of command -- to work through Frazier, in other words.
Why didn't Winston wonder why Whitney and Warford weren't supplying the promised written material for a briefing of Huckabee? Because, said Harris, Winston also checked at some point with Frazier, and Frazier said he would take care of the problems in the youth facilities, Harris said. In other words, he would see that the problems were fixed without the governor having to be troubled on the matter, Harris said.
The governor's office was led to believe that whatever problems existed were being corrected, and there was no need for Huckabee to directly step in as long as state officials were getting the job done, Harris said.

Toller, according to the recent state police report, said Winston tried to set up a meeting to inform Huckabee of what Warford and Whitney had told the two liaisons, but for reasons unknown to him the meeting did not take place. The report stated that Toller said that within a week of the meeting with Warford and Whitney, he told Frazier about the series of articles Hargrove was developing, and Frazier said, "Yeah, I think Ruth is just over-reacting to this."
Frazier has said he didn't have a clear picture of the severity of the problems, partly because the youth services executives didn't tell him, until a few weeks ago, when he received information from Hargrove and investigated on his own.
Frazier, who has resigned as head of the Human Services Department and will take a job at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, also told the state police that Whitney could have told a legislative committee about the problems. That's not a normal reporting avenue for problems in the Youth Services Division, but Whitney could have used it when things were not being addressed, he said. If Whitney and Warford knew about personnel abusing children, then they could have and should have taken action on those employees, Frazier told a state police investigator.
Whitney and Warford have identified steps they took to discipline staffers, and further steps that were needed to prevent abuse and get control of the problems.
Calls were placed to Whitney on Thursday. She could not be reached for comment.
State Rep. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, chairman of an Arkansas House committee that monitors the well-being of children, sent a letter July 6 to Winston that targeted Whitney for responsibility for information about the problems not being disclosed. Whitney was director of the Youth Services Division when many of the problems occurred, but never disclosed them adequately in her quarterly reports to the committee, Madison told Winston.
"In all of her numerous appearances, Ms. Whitney never advised the committee of any type of problems of abuse in the DYS facilities, nor of any other personnel concerns," Madison wrote. "The committee was very disappointed to learn through the news media of the alleged problems of abuse in the DYS facilities and the other personnel concerns that have now been/are being brought to light. Mrs. Whitney was director of DYS from 1995 through February of 1998. Clearly, the problems existed throughout Ms. Whitney's leadership."

This article was published on Saturday, July 11, 1998

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