Where I Stand -- Mike O'Callaghan: Bill O'Donnell's actions add a glow to Mother's Day

MIKE O'CALLAGHAN is executive editor of the Las Vegas SUN.

TODAY WE CELEBRATE Mother's Day and hundreds of Nevada children without mothers should feel fortunate that Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, cares about them. This is the same Bill O'Donnell who did everything possible to prevent Gov. Bob Miller and his director of Human Resources, Charlotte Crawford, from closing the homes for children in Carson City and Boulder City. The Irishman went down to defeat but found some strong help from a few senators like Lawrence Jacobson, R-Minden, and Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas.

The legislators and administrators supporting the closing of the Southern Nevada Children's Home last year reassured everybody that foster homes are better than the state-operated homes for children. They also made clear that the operation of such homes is too expensive. Crawford and her handpicked hatchet man, no longer in Nevada, went before the Boulder City Council to spread this line of baloney. So last October, they closed the home and now there is no longer a children's home at either end of the state. The Carson City home had been closed by this same administration a few years earlier.

Assembly Minority Floor Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, who also helped shut down the Northern Nevada Children's Home, pronounced that foster homes are the "preferred system." Longtime legislator, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, followed along and announced her intent to help close the home. One senior senator admitted he went along with the Miller administration in closing the home in Boulder City because northern voters, who had earlier lost the Carson City home, would be upset if it weren't closed. It was a real mess from which the final conclusion proved ignorance, selfishness, meanness and cold hearts had carried the day. No matter how many times the legislators and the Human Resource people were told about the importance of keeping brothers and sisters together, they shrugged it off and told us that's the way it would be done in their foster home placements. They didn't want to discuss the stability and security the home gave the children. They also ducked facing up to the terrible practice of moving children from one home and public schools to another like they are only numbers.

Last Wednesday, before a legislative committee in Carson City, Stephen Shaw, Crawford's new director of the state Division of Children and Family Services, reflected the mentality of his organization. "We've split sibling groups for economic reasons. It upsets me and my workers. But you mandated us to keep a balanced budget," he told the gathering. This is when O'Donnell's ears perked up and he refused to sit quietly. "This disturbs me to no end. We need to find how much (is needed) to keep them together. This tears my heartstrings out," the Las Vegas senator remarked. That's when Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, the most powerful man in the Legislature, told Shaw that "policy ought to be revised." It's a shame the Reno senator didn't protect the very facilities that had provided care and comfort for brothers and sisters when the administration advocated they be shut down. O'Donnell later told me that this is the terrible example of what he had feared would happen when they closed down the home in Boulder City last year.

How do you like the reason that Shaw gave to the legislators for tearing brothers and sisters apart? These are the same legislators who found $30 million dollars of pork to divide after voting to close the children's home. Also, the key administrators of the Human Resources Department and its division of Children and Family Services received healthy pay increases. They even put away $100 million for the state's "rainy day" fund, but at the same time destroyed the home for children.

The 1997 Legislature had plenty of money to pass around and when it adjourned, this column pointed out that in addition to tax breaks for art lovers and gaming, the legislators with juice got more than salt pork. Several of them, including Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, and Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, took home the choice cuts of the fat hog. Rawson, dental director at CCSN, brought home the ham and bacon in the form of $3.8 million for a dental residency program at UMC. Dini, who took home $1 million for a road to a pet food plant two years ago, gobbled up another $1 million for a bridge to a planned industrial complex in Storey County. When put together with $36,000 for a cemetery and a fence around a station, Joe's take this year can't be considered dog food.

Eight hundred thousand dollars for Mormon Fort improvements, $190,000 for an historic stage stop in Elko, $650,000 for moving a University of Nevada, Reno fire-protection training facility to Carlin and $100,000 for the California-Nevada Super Speed Ground Transportation Commission to piddle away are but a bit of the millions divided up. They even found $10,000 for construction of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Oh yeah, then there's the $32,500 for the "We the People" program, which is designed to improve public understanding of the legislative process. I'd be happy to teach the public about that process at no cost. The legislators had better pray that the program isn't successful at teaching the truth, or they all will be out of a job. At least the $200,000 the legislators slipped to the MeFiYi Foundation for athletics and recreation won't be a threat to their jobs.

The 1997 Legislature cut up a $30 million fat hog but couldn't find it in their hearts to protect brothers and sisters who have been abused and neglected.

Last week, the champion of these children again was alert and spoke up to help them. Bill O'Donnell probably feels that few other people really care about those most needy children. I'm sure that by speaking up he has again brought their plight to the attention of the public and maybe some of his fellow legislators will also be awakened.

To all of those brothers and sisters in foster care, don't give up hope. You may feel abandoned or abused by your own parents and shuffled around by the state, but remember you do have a friend in high places. His name is Bill O'Donnell and he won't abandon you.

Happy Mother's Day, Bill.

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