If the build up for confirmation hearings for two high-profile nominees to run state agencies is any indicator, it may be tougher than usual for Gov. Nikki Haley to get her appointees approved.
Haley has nominated former Juvenile Justice mainstay Susan Alford to take over as director of the embattled Social Services (DSS) after its past director left last year under a hail of criticism.
Haley has also nominated former 2010 lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Eleanor Kitzman to take over the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) for the recently-departed Catherine Templeton. Kitzman is a two-time veteran administrator of state government agencies in South Carolina. She was forced out as state insurance commissioner in Texas last year.
Both candidates have to be approved by the Senate under its advice and consent powers. The Senate, thanks to legislation passed last year that created a new Department of Administration, has been charged with more oversight of state agencies and departments.
Alford and DSS
State Sen. William O’Dell (R-Ware Shoals), chair of the General Committee in the Senate that will oversee DSS, appointed a three-member subcommittee in late 2013 to investigate the agency, which experienced higher-than-expected deaths in its child protective services unit.
O’Dell confirmed this week that he will name the same three senators who have been investigating the agency and holding public hearings to sit on the five-member subcommittee that will vet Alford. The three are Sen. Joel Lourie (D-Columbia), Sen. Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington) and Sen. Tom Young (R-Aiken). O’Dell has not named the other two senator for the panel.
O’Dell said his initial opinion of Alford is very positive, but that the ongoing problems at DSS warrant the added scrutiny afforded by senators who have been looking into the agency for the past 14 months and who have held 13 public hearings on the matter.
Lourie, one of the staunchest and vocal critics of the agency and its administration for the past two years, said the paradigm has shifted, as it relates to confirming gubernatorial appointees.
In the past before the legislature had direct oversight, Lourie said senators would only vote against a gubernatorial appointee if they had “a really good reason.” Now, he said, “senators need a really good reason before they vote for a candidate.”
Young said O’Dell’s move to name the members of the investigative panel to the confirmation subcommittee was both prudent and aggressive.
Young said the confirmation panel would need to hear from Alford that she is well versed in the various missions that DSS carries out, and not just in the headline-grabbing child protective services — especially, he said, since the department has been having some of the same problems for the past 30 years.
Reviewing a 1985 audit, Young said he was disappointed to find that two main problems persist — “deficiencies in timeliness and scope of abuse [in] neglect investigations, and inconsistent and excessive caseworker caseloads both within counties and from county to county.”
Both Young and Lourie joined with O’Dell’s initial estimation of Alford, who has nearly four decades of victim advocacy on her resume. The full subcommittee could be enjoined by the end of next week, said O’Dell. Shealy could not be reached for comment.
Kitzman and DHEC
Kitzman, whom Lourie voted against the last time her name was put forward by the governor, may have an even tougher time getting confirmed, according to sources.
Kitzman had been cast as a sympathetic figure when she resigned as the director of the state’s insurance department during Gov. Mark Sanford’s tenure.
But according to several sources in the Senate, perceptions of her managerial style soured during her shortened stint as director of the Budget and Control Board early in Haley’s tenure. During that stint, Kitzman clashed with then-chairman of the House Ways and Means chairman, Dan Cooper. An angry letter sent by Cooper criticized Kitzman for publicly stating she wouldn’t confer with him and other legislative leaders.
Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler (R-Gaffney) chairs the Medical Affairs Committee that will oversee Kitzman’s confirmation hearing. Peeler said the full committee will vet Kitzman, and that a subcommittee will not be convened.
Peeler said that he has no exact timeline on the confirmation schedule, as he said the governor’s office has yet to provide the required paperwork, despite Kitzman being appointed by the DHEC board nearly two weeks ago.
Peeler also said the appointees would be handled on a first-come, first-serve basis. This could potentially put the vetting of Kitzman behind the confirmation process involving smaller boards and agencies.
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