DCF official resigns, Jeb's Florida

[r_u_stuck2]

I was going to post this in lbn but can not search and did not know if it had been posted. Some more of Jeb's excellent management of Florida.

TALLAHASSEE · A senior administrator at the Florida Department of Children & Families resigned Tuesday and another top DCF official was demoted as a result of a scathing internal investigation of the agency's handling of a lucrative, no-bid contract with an institute at Florida State University.

The actions were the latest fallout from a months-long DCF scandal that has rattled Gov. Jeb Bush's administration this election year and was a factor in the late August resignation of the department's former chief, Jerry Regier.

The new findings, stemming from a whistleblower investigation that began in secret in December, show an assortment of questionable -- and potentially illegal -- state spending practices, many of them involving James Bax, the former head of the Institute of Health and Human Services Research at FSU.

The audit looked mainly at a $623,000 contract for privatizing mental health services. It found, among other things, that Bax, who was drawing a $215,000 annual salary from FSU, and his assistant received $30,500 in "consultation and management" fees without any indication of having done such work. The inquiry also identified examples of improper purchases with taxpayer dollars, including apparent personal items at fast-food restaurants, craft stores, bookstores, a Wal-Mart and even a tanning/nail care spa.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/legislature/sfl-cdcf20oct20,0,1752415.story?coll=sfla-news-legislature

[hatrack]

1. Well, this will certainly not help Jebthro . . .

. . . assuming that it ever makes it past page B-3 of the Sun-Sentinel.

[Eye and Monkey]

2. "a $623,000 contract for privatizing mental health services"

And clearly the corruption starts before the privatization.

[young_at_heart]

3. Why does Florida seem to have more problems than any other state?

I just read that the "purged" voter problem is back again. What is going on in this state?