Jack Turns Three

Jack...you have the guy thing walk down pretty well!



Happy Birthday Jack! You are our puzzle whiz kid. Sandwiched between two sweet sisters you sometimes struggle for attention. I love the way you know what you want (like the cake with the strawberries on top) and how you take time to tell us the detail of things that happen.... and how you haven't learned to share some of your toys yet. There is greater joy in giving if you have a firm belief that you are giving (even if just for a few minutes) something that is actually yours....

DSHS....Breaking Up Is Not Hard To Do

During '91 -'92 I chaired a Senate committee that was dissolved when the Democrats took control. I was one of only two chairs of the Senate Children and Family Services Committee. DSHS was under the purview of this committee.

At that time budgets were busting and I was chairing an issue area with much need. Then Senator Linda Smith (later a Member of Congress) was the first chair and I was the only other one. She moved into leadership and I took the chairmanship as an incoming freshman. Smith stayed on the committee along with Sen. Phil Talmadge.

During that time I proposed legislation to break up DSHS. I suggested four new departments and moving of some of the administrative offices to other existing agencies. I mention this as a reminder that the concept of breaking up this sometimes dangerous monolith is not a new one. Heck...I new this needed to be done BEFORE we began counting the bodies of children, the mistreatment of the elderly, and the escape of a wacko at the fair grounds.

And, the breakup may be coming.

This comes via an AP story in MYNorthwest.com, April 12th. Kessler is the retiring House Democrat Caucus Chair but has an eye to the future and next session's cost saving needs. DSHS is so big that the people at the top can not control it. They could...but their purposes are better served by turning an eye at what goes on there. Kessler said of DSHS:

"It's such a monolithic agency and the people we serve may be better served if we broke that up." Kessler said.

There it is...a glimmer....

(Breaking up DSHS is the suggestion. Not contracting out...not giving the jobs to private industry. The agency is too big to "fix." There is no leadership that wants to do that or has the skills in the first place. So...to the reader who wanted to add to what I clearly said...please just read the text.)

Business and Occupation Tax Coming Down The Pike

I thought I would bring forward a comment from my FB account:

"Bev R. is correct but it is not 'do not want' the B&O tax, it is we 'can not afford'
the increase in the B&O tax. It is WA State' punishment to local business for
daring to produce revenue with or without a profit!

Dear Readers...part of this is punishment. Small business backed Rossi...so "out the door with you!" We are killing the goose that lays the golden egg. We are in a great recession! Take a look at the downtown areas of YOUR town!

Today, I will be delivering that message at the King County 31st District caucus and at the Pierce County Republican Convention. After that I will be down the road and at my floor desk to take the votes. Presumably there will be some. Tuesday is the last day of the 30 day special session called by the governor to pass a budget. The majority party has not been able to come to agreement. There are so many of them. In the Senate of 49 members there are only 18 Republicans.

"Spokesman Review's" Jim Camden Forgets What Is Possible...Snyder Bellows And Roach Learns About Discrimination First Hand

In an article reporting the Democrat controlled WA State Legislature may have an agreement on the budget that will be finalized by the end of the 30 day special session, Spokane journalist, Jim Camden, had a few rough edges.

Camden writes:
"It’s not clear yet whether they would send the {budget} bill to a conference committee for a hearing, and anything that comes out of the committee must have a 24-hour wait 'on the bar' before it could be voted on."

First, there are no hearings in a conference committee. Two members from each majority caucus and one member of each minority caucus are appointed to a conference committee and they are suppose to haggle it out. But...in this state one party controls...the chairs just get together and by-pass the process by agreeing among themselves. There will be no hearing on the budget unless it is transferred back to a standing committee for the purpose of hearing.

But, it was "the committee must have a 24-hour wait 'on the bar' before it could be voted on," that caught my eye. The majority can do what it wants. It has the votes to change the rules. So, they have the power to suspend the 24 hour rule and vote immediately after a suspension of the rule if they want to do that. It is like creating an extra day...if you will.

To almost no one's memory but my own, this has happened before. The day it happened was one that is etched in my memory.

The Republicans held the majority in the Senate. Senator Dan McDonald of Bellevue was the majority leader and Republicans wanted to end session early to send the message that we could get the job done! (That concept was not around this year, apparently.) Long time democrat majority leader, Sen. Sid Snyder, was now relegated to the minority. Snyder was seated in the middle of the floor about where Sen. Eide sits today. His job was to fight. No matter the likely outcome...his job was to fight to the end. We see House Republicans doing that even to this day.


Sen. McDonald moved to suspend the rules...take the budget off the bar (before 24 hours) and vote the bill. This absolutely infuriated Snyder. He stood to action and .... absolutely bellowed into the mike! His face was red and he blustered at the top of his lungs. "This is outrageous...this is unpresedented...this...this...this....He continued his little boy triad and culminated with..."I quit! I will no longer be a member of this body!" And, after waving his arms he stormed off the floor to go pout in his office.

Yes, Dear Reader, this happened and it is for all to see on TVW.

The next day was a Sunday and top of the fold in the Seattle Times it read, "Sen. Sid Synder Quits Senate" or something like that. But the article began..."He started as an elevator boy...blaw...blaw to the message of what a great loss this man would be...etc.

On Wednesday of that week Governor Gary Locke returned Sid Snyder's letter of resignation. Yes, Dear Reader, he had sent it. But...why did he quit? Well, because he couldn't change the rules. He decided to storm off the playing field....He couldn't have his way and so he said, "I quit!"

Why would I remember the details of this so well?

I will tell you why.

This was the beginning of my understanding of discrimination against women and particularly conservative women. My father had told me I could do anything I wanted to and he did not mention to beware the wolves.

That same Saturday morning I walked onto the floor and a huge array of roses that had been given to me were no longer on my desk. I looked high and low. I talked with security guards.."they were here earlier," I was told. I checked with the Lt. Gov., I did everything that I could to find them. Someone had stolen something.

For the prior three days I was taking four birth control pills a day to correct a condition sometimes experienced by 50'ish year-old women. The pills worked but I was pumped. I rose to a matter of personal privilege to state that my flowers had been taken and that I demanded to have them back. (After the speech I quit taking the pills! I knew immediately what had happened.)

So...how did this end up?....The man who couldn't control the rules that he had defended for years as Secretary of the Senate....gets mad...bellows...quits...and he is venerated, honored, extolled, begged to come back....The woman who has something taken is vilified, repeatedly embarrassed, and used as media fodder for days and years on end.

I continue to love what I do. And to my children and grandchildren for whom this blog page is written:

I love you all dearly. No one can really understand why a woman would work in a field that can be so brutal. But, unlike some...I do not quit. I will continue to work to protect the Constitution and the liberties we enjoy as long as the people want me to do that. Our liberties are above any other nation on the face of the earth. I want to help individuals like you, Drew. We have an obligation to "be there" for you at a time when maybe your parents are no longer around to care for you. I want to work for the best education possible for all 13 of you and all the children of our state. I want jobs for you all. I want you all to have a chance at joy. And, I will tell you right now that I experience joy everyday. Everyday I am grateful for my blessings and for the work I have and for the future that I hope to make better. God Bless Us All.

New KING Reporting On DSHS ...Children Continue To Die!

Go the KING5.com for related links.

by SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 News
Posted on April 6, 2010 at 4:41 PM

Seattle...Updated yesterday at 4:42 PM

Related:
Read DSHS external review Executive Summary
Entire external review
DSHS response to review

In 2008 there was an unusually high number of maltreatment related child fatalities in Pierce County.

Four children who were all in the DSHS system in order to protect them from harm died in the first six months of that year. That prompted an outside reviewer, Dr. Benjamin de Haan, to be hired to look at the Pierce County (Region 5) DSHS management culture and effectiveness.

Dr. de Haan found that Region 5’s child welfare practices are not in line with statewide norms and that a renewed emphasis on child safety in the region should have occurred long ago.

Other findings include that the region historically is being resistant to outside ideas and that it operates in a "crisis-oriented culture - one that is more focused on fixing mistakes than preventing them."

Dr. de Haan also found there is a great deal of fear among DSHS workers in Pierce County who are worried that if they make mistakes their supervisors won’t be able to help manage the consequences.

Dr. de Haan gives the region three high-priority recommendations to help prevent future child fatalities: immediately focus on providing better quality social work, creation of a community outreach program, and development a system to guide better decision-making in what should happen to children who are at risk of being abused or neglected.


Here's an idea...why don't we take the resources currently used to take kids from families when there is no abuse....and use that money to save lives? As in the case of the Stuths there were lies and tricks...though never an accusation of any kind of abuse. Yet they fought tooth and nail to take Alexis.

Like the Stuths...the Willards provided well for their granddaughter but the department is still unrelenting....There is plenty of money to take children who are safe...but never enough (maybe we just need better management) to keep kids from getting killed. Where are the priorities? It is all about power.

Boys And Girls Club Auburn Breakfast

I have just returned from the Boys and Girls Club Annual Breakfast hosted in part by King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer. It was a fun event and two John Carlsons were there...KVI talk host and Seahawk tight end who was the featured speaker.

With 10% unemployment it is a difficult time to ask for donations but the community has been stepping up to the plate.Elected officials were there to lend support. U.S, Congressman Adam Smith, State Reps. Mark Milocia and Skip Priest, Sen. Tracey Eide and were seated at my table. I will see Tracey on the floor of the Senate Friday at noon when we begin the wind down of the 30 day special session.

I will soon report on the Willards and their granddaughter, "Lilly." I have had several contacts regarding this case over the holiday and the following two days including exchanges of conversation with top administrator Denise Revels Robinson.

Brown Eggs

OK...it is Easter weekend and we have 31 Rhode Island Red laying hens in full production. These brown chickens lay brown eggs. And, we get a couple of dozen a day.

We are a family that has the deviled eggs all made up BEFORE the Easter egg hunt!

In the past the kids would hunt the eggs...Mom begs a few back after the hunt...and then does up the deviled eggs for dinner. That's what I used to do anyway. But not any more!I will have two huge platters filled to snack on when everyone comes in the door.

These eggs taste the same...but they dye up a little different. Yellow is not something a brown egg does well!

Have a wonderful Easter celebration. Our family will have the church service, dinner, the hunt, and the fun. At the core of the activity will be the message of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and... the memory of grandma's brown-yellow eggs.