'Internal systemic failures' blamed for child abuse constitutional amendment blunder

May 27—A state inspector general's report released Wednesday lays the blame for the Pennsylvania Department of State's failure to advertise a constitutional amendment helping child sex abuse victims on an unorganized agency where many employees did not know their responsibilities or were unfamiliar with the legislative process.

Inspector General Lucas Miller's 68-page report released Wednesday outlines the State Department's shortcomings under former Secretary Kathy Boockvar, but concludes that there were no intentional actions to derail House Bill 963, which was an amendment to give child sexual abuse survivors a two-year expanded window under the statute of limitations to file civil suits.

Instead, Miller's report found that "a combination of internal systemic failures" within the Department of State "led to its crucial error."

At a press conference on Wednesday, Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid again apologized to abuse survivors, who were horrified to learn in February that the department's failure to advertise the amendment would keep it from going to a statewide referendum on this month's primary ballot.

"I want to sincerely apologize to the victims for the additional pain and the distress we have caused them," said Degraffenreid, who replaced Boockvar after she resigned when the blunder came to light.

Degraffenreid vowed that the department would now have a "top-down" approach to handling legislation, with bureau directors taking responsibility rather than relying on staff.

Although Degraffenreid confirmed that the legislative affairs director has submitted his resignation, she would not comment further on personnel matters, or additional resignations or firings related to the report's findings.

"It was truly just a systemic breakdown," Degraffenreid said.

The Legislature passed the constitutional amendment in November 2019, and the Department of State was required to advertise it.

However, as the Legislature was poised to again pass the amendment, as it is required to do in consecutive sessions, it was revealed that the legislation was not advertised when it was first passed.

That not only left survivors and their families crushed, but it threw the Legislature into turmoil as lawmakers scrambled to try and salvage the effort and get the amendment on the May ballot through an emergency process.

Those hopes, though, were snuffed in March when Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward said the issue did not meet the criteria for an emergency amendment.

A bill was passed by the House to statutorily give abuse survivors an expanded litigation window, but Ward has not allowed it to run on the Senate floor amid constitutional concerns, which fueled a tense meeting on Tuesday with survivors who demanded she allow a floor vote before tossing props at the senator and walking out of a meeting with her.

The Inspector General's Office said it interviewed 22 current or former State Department employees, including Boockvar, and reviewed 227 gigabytes of electronic communications.

Within the Department of State, the entities responsible for receiving, processing and advertising constitutional amendments are the Office of Legislative Affairs, Bureau of Elections and Notaries, Office of Chief Counsel and the Business Finance Office, the report states.

Despite its obligation to handle the constitutional amendment process, the report found that the State Department "lacked executive oversight, written policies and procedures, proper staff training, and consistent communication of the process."

"Further, the lack of executive oversight created internal confusion regarding roles, responsibilities, and accountability," the report states, adding that the initial notification processes "functioned from the 'bottom up,' rather than from the 'top down' and were not in any way linked to DOS' other bureaus and offices responsible for actual publication."

In one case, the report says that an email distribution list used by the Bureau of Elections and Notaries for the constitutional amendment had only eight Department of State employees on it and none were involved in the publication process.

One unidentified employee called the bureau a "functioning dysfunctional office."

Employees were so undertrained that some were nervous about handling legislation and at least one said they felt so anxious that they became physically ill.

"I hate doing bills. They make me nervous," an employee told investigators. "It just — the whole process of the bills and being responsible for that just makes me so nervous and gives me a pain in my gut and makes me cry, and they all know that but, you know, that comes with the job."

Following a Nov. 26, 2019, email from clerical staff about the constitutional amendment legislation being filed with the State Department, there was no action taken until Jan. 28 of this year when the Chief Counsel's office called Boockvar to ask about the bill's status.

A subsequent review determined that the legislation had never been advertised, although several others had been in recent years.

Initial changes implemented by the Department of State were not enough, the report says, particularly the lack of executive level oversight of procedures and the multitude of responsibilities placed on the Legislative Affairs Office, which would be "potentially creating another single point of failure like that seen with HB 963."

Degraffenreid said that the changes she's making include having the department's executive deputy secretary be responsible for overseeing proposed constitutional amendments.

"We have mapped out a very comprehensive process," she said.

Now, Degraffenreid said there will also be a written process for handling amendments, written training materials, training requirements for new and current staff and an electronic tracking system for amendments.

"We will continue to think about our procedures and protocols and ensure that we're following those to make sure that this will never happen again," she said.

Boockvar's response

Boockvar said she agreed with some findings, specifically that the failure to advertise the amendment was unintentional, that staff responsible for tracking legislation did not notify executive level staff, that the incident was an "anomaly," and that multiple responsibilities should be implemented to track legislation.

However, in a footnote to her response, Boockvar said she would "not address the inaccuracies and unsubstantiated misstatements of fact and law throughout the report" because she agrees with its findings.

"I have dedicated my life's work to advancing issues of equity and advocating on behalf of the voiceless, and this delay is heartbreaking to me," she wrote.

"It is my fervent wish that victims of abuse succeed in their continuing fight for justice."

Marci Hamilton, the founder and CEO of advocacy group Child USA, used the report's findings to argue for action on House Bill 951, a bill to expand the statute of limitations that is sitting in the Senate.

"It's past time for a statutory window to further prevent the ongoing re-traumatization of child sex abuse victims and to finally identify Pennsylvania's hidden predators. There is absolutely no reason to wait until 2023," Hamilton said.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement also targeting the state Senate and Ward.

"They continue to fail child sex abuse survivors as they seek justice, accountability, and [to] expose the truth," the group's statement said.

"We urge Leader Ward and [Senate] President Pro Tempore [Jake] Corman to use this opportunity as amends for this devastating failure that reflects all in a position of power in the state's capital."

J.D. Prose is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Pennsylvania State Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jprose@gannett.com.

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