So it’s been more than two weeks since I started on my quest to get someone at the county to explain why they won’t release a report into allegations about a county-run program that provides wheelchairs and other medical devices to local children with disabilities.
All I’ve received is a couple of vague statements referring me to the county’s top lawyer, John Sansone. But Sansone has been comprehensively ignoring my phone calls and e-mails for the last two weeks.
True, Sansone has spoken to me before about this issue. He’s offered some vague explanations about why the county won’t release the report. He’s argued that to do so would place the county in jeopardy from potentially damaging lawsuits. But he’s had several opportunities to call me up and to have a reasonable conversation about those concerns and to fully explain them. He’s chosen, instead, to ignore me.
So has Sansone’s boss, County Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard, who hasn’t returned my calls. And so have Sansone’s boss’s bosses, the Board of Supervisors. Not one of the supervisors has seen fit to give me a call or respond to me by e-mail.
So, the investigation remains a secret. We may never know what the allegations were, who, if anyone was chastised or punished, and what the effect of any wrongdoing was on the children and parents who receive services from the program, which is funded by the state — by you and me.
What we do know, as I outlined in my story, is that the allegations were made and that they have something to do with county employees receiving gifts from medical device vendors. Beyond that, it’s all a secret — the county’s decided you shouldn’t know what it’s been up to.
If anyone at the county does pluck up the courage to place a call to voiceofsandiego.org, I’ll be delighted to talk to them.