Speaker of the Legislature offers plan to maintain valuable access for inspector generals

A wise, old soul once told me that "the story of government isn't that what is said isn't so, it's that what is so isn't said."

That, over and over, has proven true in years of digging into stories and actions of state government.

State agencies and constitutional officers have a bevy of public information officers whose job is to promote what that agency or office does, and overall, make that agency look good. ("Put lipstick on the pig" is another old saying.)

All too often, when you peel away the layers of the bureaucratic onion, you find out that what's being said isn't completely the case.

Which brings us to the "inspector generals" offices created by the State legislature to bird dog the functions of the child welfare system and state prisons.

Twelve years ago, the Office of Inspector General for Child Welfare was created because too many kids were being abused or were dying under state care, and questions were being raised about an experiment to privatize child welfare services – handing the work of overseeing kids in foster care and institutions to a profit-driven company instead of public employees. 

The goal of the inspector general's office was to provide an independent look at operations and incidents within that system and juvenile detention facilities, and offer recommendations. 

Later, in 2015, the legislature created the Inspector General for Corrections position to probe functions and malfunctions within the state prison system. It came after the prison system wrongly released several inmates via miscalculation of their sentences, and let go a mentally ill inmate, Nikko Jenkins, without sufficient rehabilitation work. Prisons were also grossly overcrowded and workers, due to a severe shortage of staff, were working hours and hours of overtime.

The two OIGs provided valuable insight to state lawmakers via annual reports about agency operations and via occasional special reports on incidents of death and serious injury. Those reports went well beyond the often rosy assessments from the agencies. 

Let's just say that the inspectors general often provide "the rest of the story."

While the reports weren't designed to embarrass or condemn the agencies, they sometimes laid bare malfunctions and negligence. They also offered helpful suggestions.

Fast forward to last year when Attorney General Mike Hilgers' lawyers issued an advisory opinion that, in their view, the OIG offices violated the constitutional "separation of powers" between the legislative branch and the executive and judicial branches.

Immediately, the departments of Corrections and Health and Human Services cut off access to their facilities and their records even though the AG's opinion didn't have the force of law. 

So if someone died in prison or a foster home, we were going to have to trust agency officials to explain what happened – a real "fox guarding the hen house" situation.

In February, however, state lawmakers and the governor's office struck a deal to restore some valuable access for the OIGs.

Earlier this month, the Speaker of the legislature, Sen. John Arch, unveiled a plan to solidify that access by reorganizing the legislature's oversight offices.

One sticking point might be that the OIGs would no longer have automatic access to agency computer records. Under Arch's plan, the OIGs would have to negotiate release of such records with the agency. They would have to provide such data "in an efficient and timely way" while preserving confidentiality and without being overly burdensome to the agency. 

Reportedly, state agencies have been mostly cooperative with the two inspectors generals in recent months, allowing them to continue their valuable work.

Let's hope that continues, because another old saying about government is that the best way to prevent mismanagement or injustice is to "shine a light" on it, which is what the OIGs have done.

Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. He retired in April as senior contributor with the Nebraska Examiner. A native of Ralston, he loves traveling and writing about the state.