APOLOGY AND PAIN
‘Internal systemic failures’ led to Wolf administration blunder that derailed child sex abuse amendment, report says
HARRISBURG — “Internal systemic failures” were behind the Wolf administration’s bungling of a statewide referendum that would provide legal recourse to survivors of child sexual abuse, according to a muchanticipated report released Wednesday.
The Office of State Inspector General found no evidence that the administration’s failure to advertise the proposed constitutional amendment as required was deliberate or the result of outside pressure or “intentional malfeasance.”
But it did find the Department of State, which oversees elections, had no formal or written process in place for ensuring referendums appear on the ballot. There was also little, if any, executive oversight or staff training — a chronic complaint from employees interviewed for the inquiry — and paltry communication between the various bureaus within the department that are responsible for getting questions on the ballot.
The Department of State, according to the report, “lacked executive oversight, written policies and procedures, proper staff training, and consistent communication of the process.”
The agency’s error meant the referendum could not appear on the May ballot, as had been planned,
devastating the state’s community of survivors who have pushed for it for nearly two decades.
Shortly after learning of the mistake earlier this year, the department’s secretary, Kathy Boockvar, publicly acknowledged the error and announced she would resign. On Wednesday, state officials said the department’s head of legislative affairs, whose job includes tracking legislation, had also resigned — although they would not say whether it was related to the mistake.
Veronica Degraffenreid, the department’s acting secretary, apologized Wednesday for the error, saying: “It was so horrifying to me and everyone at the Department of State that a grave error — at the department — added to the pain of any victim of abuse.”
Ms. Degraffenreid said her agency has instituted changes to ensure such a mistake never happens again, among them, implementing what she called a “top-down” process that puts high-level staff in charge of monitoring every aspect of getting a question on the ballot.
The inspector general’s investigation was ordered by Gov. Tom Wolf and involved interviews with nearly two dozen current and former employees and a review of electronic communications and other internal department documents. But even the report’s release Wednesday did not seem to satisfy Republican lawmakers.
“At this point, it seems to have raised more questions than answers,” Sens. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, and Dave Argall, R-Schuylkill, said in a joint statement. The two committee chairs are scheduled to hold a joint hearing on how the error occurred next month.
Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair, a survivor of child sexual abuse, said one of his biggest disappointments is that even though the report revealed major administrative failures, “resignations were accepted — but nobody was fired.”
The proposed ballot question centers on whether to allow a two-year reprieve in state law so older survivors of child sexual abuse can sue the perpetrators and the institutions that covered up for them.
A number of victims of Catholic priests say it took them years to break their silence on the abuse they endured. Without a reprieve, they say they are left with no legal recourse, even in the face of multiple grand jury investigations in Pennsylvania that revealed every Catholic diocese in the state covered up decades of clergy sexual abuse. Lobbyists for the Catholic Church and the insurance industry vehemently oppose the proposed two-year window.
The GOP-controlled Legislature had wavered over the years on the best way to offer relief to survivors. In the end, leadership decided legal recourse could be offered only by amending the Pennsylvania Constitution, a lengthy process.