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In Camden debate, Bristow attacks Huckabee on Youth Services problems
RACHEL O'NEAL
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

CAMDEN -- Allegations of abuse and mismanagement within the state's Youth Services Division consumed much of the first debate Monday between Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee and his Democratic rival, Bill Bristow of Jonesboro.
Huckabee said he inherited the problems within the division from his predecessors. Bristow criticized the governor for not taking action last year.
An Arkansas State Police report showed that Huckabee was briefed as early as August 1997 on reports of abuse at the division. The report included an Aug. 13, 1997, memo to Huckabee from one of his staff liaisons outlining problems within the division.
Huckabee has said he didn't know the specific allegations of the abuse and mismanagement until April 23.
Bristow likened the situation to a military general or a chief executive officer of a company who learns such allegations. "If they didn't ask questions for eight months, that general would be court-martialed and that CEO would be fired," Bristow said.
Huckabee said officials told him last year that the problems were being corrected. "I made a real serious mistake," Huckabee said. "I trusted some people who I thought were telling the truth. I asked questions.
"The answers I got turned out not to be the truth."
Keith Carle of Jonesboro, the Reform Party candidate, was expected to participate in the debate but did not show up.
On June 14, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette began a six-part series on the division's problems, including the physical abuse of delinquents in the state's care. Boys have alleged they were beaten or sexually assaulted at the Observation and Assessment Center in North Little Rock, which houses juvenile delinquents in the state's custody. The center is run by the Youth Services Division, a division of the state Department of Human Services.
On June 19, Huckabee ordered North Little Rock center closed. Human Services Director Lee Frazier resigned Wednesday, attributing part of his decision to problems within Youth Services.
After the debate, Huckabee said that the "highest-level" employees at Human Services told him the problems were being corrected.
Huckabee would not specify who told him that, but he did mention the department's former director,
Tom Dalton, and Ruth Whitney, former director of the Youth Services Division.
But Huckabee wouldn't say that Dalton and Whitney were the people who told him the problems were being corrected. Dalton now is Huckabee's special assistant for welfare reform, and Whitney is interim director of Human Service's Division of County Operations.
"I'm just going to tell you we were given assurances from the highest level. ... Why were we told that they were being corrected when they weren't? I don't know the answers to that," the governor said.
"But what you do have to look at is that from the time we knew what the issues were, we took them head-on and we made serious changes."
During the debate, Bristow said that Human Services should be divided into several smaller agencies.
With about 7,400 employees and a dozen divisions, Human Services is the state's largest department.
One issue that Huckabee and Bristow agreed on was the repeal of the state's sales tax on groceries.
Bristow said the tax should be repealed in a "revenue-neutral way," adding that he would work with the Legislature to find a replacement for the lost revenue.
Huckabee said the tax should be phased out over a number of years.
The debate was hosted by the Golden Triangle, a group made up of officials from Camden, El Dorado and Magnolia that concentrates on economic development and tourism.

This article was published on Tuesday, June 30, 1998

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