Department of Social Services director Lillian Koller has resigned from her post, after repeated calls for her resignation, the most recent of which was last week.
Complaints surfaced about Koller’s leadership as early as the fall of 2012, which was only a year and a half after she began the job. Out of 472 death investigation cases undertaken by SLED, 312 involved a DSS case investigating abuse or neglect prior to the death.
Koller was appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley, who continued to back her despite the rising tide of evidence calling for her removal. State Rep. James Smith and State Sen. Joel Lourie are among those who have been calling for Koller’s resignation.
Gov. Haley, who released a statement following Koller’s resignation saying that Koller was “a dedicated public servant and child advocate”, should have pulled the plug on her support at some point.
It would be one thing if Koller had been head of a department which didn’t center around the lives and wellbeing of children, but once it became clear that there was something wrong with the inner workings of the department, its head should have been the first person to go.
The process for choosing the next DSS director should be more in-depth. Koller had similar issues in her background, when she worked in Hawaii.
DSS claimed a 25 percent decrease in child fatalities, but as Sen. Lourie pointed out, there were still 67 child fatalities in 2013.
More detailed monitoring of cases themselves also needs to be a new step, as well as delegating the caseload more appropriately.
Koller herself said that one of the problems was a disproportionate caseload for each worker, which came from downsizing the department. This meant she closed a $28 million deficit, but it also caused the very backlog which is the source of so many problems for DSS.
Critics find the timing of Koller’s resignation to be peculiar, since she was scheduled to testify at a third hearing in front of an oversight committee on Wednesday.
In choosing a replacement, Gov. Haley needs to look through the candidates’ backgrounds with a fine-toothed comb, and then under a microscope. Whatever such scrutiny may cost, it is undoubtedly worth the lives of children in South Carolina.