Taxpayers
should not have to pay for the
mistakes of other people
Charleston Daily Mail,
TWO recent settlements
by state officials show how far off the trolley tracks
The first example is
the case of Joe Jankowski. He was suspended from his job as executive director
of the Consolidated Public Retirement Board in February, after an investigation
began into a no-bid contract he awarded a
The state had a
contract with Wachovia Securities. Jankowski ignored that and gave the business
to GWFS Equities, a subsidiary of Great-West Life and Annuity Co. of Greenwood,
Jankowski was suspended
-- with pay. He has collected $76,000 in pay from the state over the past eight
months. He now lives in
Huh? If the state was
at fault for dropping this contract, then the executive director should be
fired, not rewarded with an eight-month paid vacation and a $100,000 bonus.
On top of that,
Jankowski wants a letter from the retirement board saying his actions were not
"detrimental" to the state.
Rubbish. His actions
seem to have cost the state $185,000. If anything, he should have been suspended
without pay.
Then there is the
state's payment of $850,000 to the family of a 5-day-old baby who froze to death
at home last December. The child's mother is mentally disabled and the heat had
been turned off.
But where was the
uncle? Where was the family that sued? Surely, the relatives knew of the
mother's condition and should have intervened.
And the family is to
get $850,000 because the state dropped the ball?
For lawyers,