PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The headline is a question many state government-watchers are asking these days as revelations tumble out verifying inaction by the Department of Human Services (DHS) in foster care management.

Managing foster includes both individual placements of kids without homes, as well as group foster home administration.

The fact that DHS managers and staff apparently turned a blind eye to obvious problems in such programs as “Give Us This Day” defies explanation.

That now defunct program allegedly had pocketed upwards of $2 million meant for childcare and provided substandard living conditions at the same time. The litany of care reports – why call them “care reports;” call them “not giving care reports” — was sordid.

Despite knowing of abuse and mismanagement, DHS officials did not revoke Give Us This Day’s license.

The bizarre and obscene character of the reports prompted Governor Kate Brown to order an independent review of DHS foster care management and install a trusted state government manager, Clyde Saiki, as interim director of the agency. For a time, he combined that position with his own as the state’s chief operating officer at the Department of Administrative Services.

Saiki’s background had included a previous stint at DHS where he supervised implementation of the new Medicaid Management Information System, (MMIS), which today works to make it possible to sign up for and manage low income services on-line.

I suspect that Saiki did not want the DHS top job, but, after about two months as interim director, Governor Brown made his job permanent at DHS.

Almost immediately, he took decisive action to fire two agency managers who allegedly had been complicit in allowing Give Us This Day and several other providers to deliver substandard care to foster children over about two years.

Today, Saiki is continuing to oversee the independent review of DHS and it would not be surprising to see him take further personnel actions.

It’s part of a process to put DHS back on sound operational and financial footing. That’s critical because, for one thing, Governor Brown is running for re-election and it is likely her Republican opponents will raise questions about what’s has happened on her watch – or even before she took over as governor.

Those who watch state government have confidence that Saiki, a capable and sound manager, will be able to get a handle on this difficult-to-run agency. Often, management is a combination of experience and common sense. Saiki has both.