(UPDATED 9/14/09 with full Ozmint comment)
SEPT. 11, 2009 -- State Sen. Phil Leventis (D-Sumter) this afternoon delivered a letter to the office of Gov. Mark Sanford that demanded the governor fire Jon Ozmint as the head of the S.C. Department of Corrections.
Leventis, a frequent critic of both Sanford and Ozmint, called for the latter’s removal based on a variety of reasons, mostly centering on Sanfordian themes of transparency and accountability. (Read the letter; 5.2MB PDF)
The Department of Corrections is a cabinet-level agency, and as such, falls under the scrutiny of Sanford, who can fire those agency heads at his discretion or displeasure. Ozmint, according to many involved in Statehouse politics, holds a special place in Sanford’s heart, despite running a deficit and years of legislative criticism.
Past clashes
Ozmint and Leventis have clashed harshly and publicly in the past, with both men making serious allegations about the other’s actions. Ozmint could not be reached for comment before presstime, despite several attempts to him and through his staff. But after publication of the story, he provided a page-long comment through his spokesman that denied allegations in the senator's complaint and attacked him politically, as detailed below
In today’s lengthy letter, an advance version of which was obtained by S.C. Statehouse Report, Leventis charged that Ozmint’s actions have been “marked by a lack of candor, arrogance and a poor leadership style.”
Leventis further alleged that Ozmint “has created a culture of intimidation, harassment and special favors” at the department, and has attempted to “bully his employees,” among other claimed management misdeeds.
The 2,400-word letter also included an accusation that Ozmint lied to a group of Corrections employees, spent state money defending two department employees in a civil suit outside the bounds of their job duties, and demonstrated a “dangerous lack of recognition of reality and twists and manufactures ‘facts’” in dealing with at least one other influential state official. Leventis’s letter included salvos at Ozmint for allegedly promoting employees later found in court to have sought falsification of department records.
“Your failure to remove to remove Mr. Ozmint would signal to our citizens that you are ratifying his actions,” wrote Leventis to the governor.
“Jon Ozmint’s administration reflects directly on your values, Governor. The clear bottom line is that any reasonable South Carolinian would be outraged and appalled by what you now know. There is no way they would accept this behavior; neither should you.”
Sanford, Ozmint responses
Sanford spokesman Ben Fox today responded to an advance copy of the letter:
“This is the third time Sen. Leventis has made this request, and what's interesting is that many have said the root of these requests is not any sincere concern over the operations or leadership at the Department of Corrections, but instead a personal grievance given that years ago a close friend of the senator was fired from the Department.
“As we've said before, we support Director Ozmint's efforts at maintaining safety and order at the Department of Corrections in the midst of declining revenue, dangerous deficits and what we believe to be serious under funding.
“We'd also reaffirm that we welcome the [state Legislative Audit Council] audit of this and other agencies, and have full confidence in Director Ozmint's ability to address any and all serious issues that may spring from this report."
(NEW) An advance version of the letter was sent to Ozmint's office well before publication time, but elicited a response after the story was published. In it, Ozmint accused Leventis of "childish antics" and of calling for his ouster three times.
"Leventis’ childish antics started immediately after our corrective actions in 2007, when the senator pushed for the creation of a special Senate committee to investigate false and malicious allegations provided to him," Ozmint said in an e-mail statement provided by his spokesman. (Read the full statement) More from the statement:
"As for the substance of Leventis’ most recent allegations, like so much ofhis political rhetoric, they are false. I’ve said all along that we welcome objective scrutiny of this agency, and I even invited the National Institute of Corrections to assist the LAC with its work. Accordingly, we look forward to reviewing and responding to the LAC’s report.
"As for the timing of his letter today, perhaps Senator Leventis is calling for my head again today because he fears he won’t get what he wants in the LAC report. Perhaps he thinks that the current political climate is more conducive to his retaliatory antics. Frankly, his timing does not concern me.
"In the tradition of Ben Tillman’s constitution, Senator Leventis’ is the last of the old-school legislative bullies. His retaliatory antics are well documented and will likely continue. In this case, Leventis thinks that state agencies should turn a blind eye toward racial discrimination and misconduct when committed by his friends, neighbors, and campaign workers. That is his prerogative. However, we disagree and we will not be intimidated."
Broad scrutiny over time
Leventis is far from being alone in Columbia’s focus on the Department of Corrections. Ozmint’s department has been under investigation since May 2008 by the state Legislative Audit Council. Since then, Ozmint has publicly criticized the award-winning council and its efforts as unfair, biased and worse.
His department also has been a target for criticism following headline-grabbing incidents over the last few years. Last year, an inmate shot herself in the head with a guard‘s gun during a trip to an outside hospital. Earlier this summer, a federal district court upheld a verdict against high-ranking department officials who had been found guilty of civil conspiracy against a former warden.
The Audit Council finished the first phase of its investigation earlier this summer and has exchanged draft versions of its report with the department, according to LAC head Tom Bardin. He added a final, public version of the report should be released in “two to three weeks.”
One Statehouse source with access to the draft report said this week that its findings would likely bolster Leventis’ allegations, but would fall well short of the historic findings that cropped up two years ago in a similar audit of the Department of Transportation.
Milestone call for action
USC political science professor Bob Oldendick said he couldn’t remember the last time in South Carolina history that a seated state senator has publicly called for the ouster of an appointed agency director.
While Leventis’s demand may seem to some as “piling on” an already weakened governor, Oldendick said it would open “another front” for Sanford to fight on. The professor also said the letter would further distract Sanford from issuing his continued core messages of “doing away with the Budget and Control Board and restructuring state government.”
Leventis said this week that the letter would likely be portrayed by Sanford supporters as politically opportunistic, in light of growing demands for Sanford’s resignation. But, he said such criticism would detract from what he considered to be Ozmint’s poor job performance.
“I don’t care if Sanford resigns tomorrow, as long as he fires Ozmint today,” snarked Leventis.
Crystal ball: Sanford, who has moved quickly in the past to root out management problems at other agencies, is not going to fire Ozmint based on the word of a man he likely considers to be a political enemy. But Leventis hasn’t made Sanford’s job any easier. On top of the chorus singing for his impeachment/resignation, Leventis’s letter directly challenges the job a cabinet agency head is doing, and, by extension, the governor. And should taxpayers begin to question what’s going on at Corrections, then they might start asking why Commerce, another cabinet agency, hasn’t provided the jobs needed to get the state out of its current economic doldrums. And, to butcher a phrase, if the public goes down that path, they may just find that all roads lead to Sanford.