Oct 7, 2021 2 min read

I must respond to the conclusions drawn by Washington County Commissioner Nick Sherman in his Oct. 5 letter to the editor that my recent commentary, which discussed county human services, was an attempt to “vilify attempts to fix a problem.” He laments that we are a divided country and that “fixing” human services should be above partisan politics.

There is nothing partisan about my position; it is simply a bad idea. In March, Republican District Attorney Gene Vittone called and urged me to investigate the plan for the county to absorb existing human service nonprofits that were functioning well, outside of county government. I contacted several of these organizations and all agreed that the county plan was ill-conceived and would cause havoc.

Vittone provided me with a three-page letter he sent to the Commonwealth Department of Drug & Alcohol Programs on March 17. The correspondence begins: “I write to express my strong objections to the proposal to move the Washington Drug & Alcohol Commission back within the ambit of county government. Doing so will significantly reduce our ability to provide services to people with substance use abuse and will needlessly add a useless layer of bureaucracy to our delivery system.” Other county nonprofits do not have a white knight with the influence of the DA’s office, but their story was the same. There is no human service problem that needs fixing.

Sherman points to the county’s changes to the food pantries as an example of successful tampering with existing programs. I have heard from qualified sources that the new food delivery system is fraught with confusion, double deliveries to the same household and wasted resources.

If Sherman is serious about bipartisan government, he should support the Government Study Commission. This would give independent county citizens the opportunity to review the delivery of human services along with other aspects of local government.

Gary Stout

Washington