The Kansas City Star celebrated the one year anniversary of E.Coli-Gate by looking at how the Department of Natural Resources has changed, and how the Nixon administration has stayed the same. A year ago, the Nixon administration and some of its high-level appointees decided to 'sit on' tests revealing exceedingly dangerous E. coli levels in the Lake of the Ozarks. The full extent of the cover-up took months to unravel. The Kansas City Star summarizes:
The article rocked state government.In the ensuing fallout, the DNR’s new director was suspended for two weeks, others also were suspended and several employees lost their jobs.
Lager’s committee investigated the DNR to determine, in part, what Nixon and his staff knew, and it came to light that at least two staff members had known about the cover-up.
Since then, the Department of Natural Resources was targeted for layoffs in a hastily enacted plan devised by the Nixon administration. It was a perverse act of punishment.
The contrast between this year and last is a testament to two things:First, to the dedication of the career (non-political) employees of the DNR, who got caught up in Nixon's politics and ended up paying for it. A year ago, the test results were concealed over their objections, and afterwards they were stuck with the task of cleaning up after Nixon. Any credit for the DNR's improvements in the last year belongs to them.
Second, to Nixon's continued inability to do anything right related to safety and Missouri's water. The Kansas City Star describes his promises as being caught up in a "legislative mire" - the only actions he has taken in the past year have been exclusively to the detriment of the DNR.On a tangentially related point, the Kansas City Star might just win the quote of the day award:
“I don’t think there is a person (at DNR) who isn’t taking this seriously,” said Judd Slivka, DNR’s communications director, who was hired after the previous spokeswoman resigned during the E. coli scandal.
We'd certainly hope his predecessor’s resignation is a good reason to take something seriously.
Comments