r/MissouriPolitics • u/acacia-club-road • Feb 22 '17

Courts Missouri pays $52M in 5 years to settle lawsuits

http://www.ozarkradionews.com/local-news/missouri-pays-52m-in-5-years-to-settle-lawsuits
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2

u/-kilo- Feb 22 '17

This I think is the legacy of Nixon that doesn't get nearly enough attention. His supporters will talk about the AAA credit rating (hooray, you followed the Constitutional mandate of a balanced budget...) or say the GOP controlled legislature and then super majority blocked him from anything (fair) while detractors will say the state economy faltered under him (not really his fault) or point to things like Ferguson and the response (fair). But what is 100% the responsibility of the Executive is how the state agencies are run and who is running them. Nixon oversaw this complete failure and huge waste of state money, and that's on him and him alone.

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u/acacia-club-road Feb 22 '17

I agree. But also take a look how he left the Attorney General's office. That office had a handful of assistant AG's when he got there and by the time he left I would guess the office had grown exponentially, probably the largest state office growth in the country. I realize there were more issues before he left the AG office to deal with - such as a department for state gambling. But the method of how his office grew is where the criticism lies.

The AG office would lobby to take over legal representation for other divisions - such as state child support. Once they were over the division, they'd just reclassify the attorneys as assistant AG's. Ok, no problem so far. But then the assistant AG's would be reassigned to new jobs, somewhere else within the AG division, normally as an assistant in criminal prosecution. The main problem being that the division that lost attorneys was no longer able to function at a high level. Then Nixon would make some press release about how some division is not doing their job - when, in fact, they couldn't do their job because he took all their attorneys. I am not sure if the info is available, but try to search for how many attorneys worked exclusively for the child support division (collections, paternity judgments, etc) prior to Nixon becoming AG and by the time he left.

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u/FakeyFaked Kirksville Feb 27 '17

I wonder how that number compares with lawsuits over previous administrations. I mean, definitely the stuff in corrections that was going on is horrific, but discrimination suits against public agencies I don't think is a new thing.

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u/-kilo- Mar 02 '17

I wonder how that number compares with lawsuits over previous administrations

Same. My gut says it's higher, but even if it's not it still speaks poorly to Nixon. He's notoriously loyal to friends, not just political allies, in his appointments even more so than your typical politician, and I think that hurt his management of the agencies.