Minnesota -- Officials at the Moose Lake Sex Offenders Program began unbolting the two dozen 50-inch plasma television sets at the center on Tuesday, just hours after Gov. Tim Pawlenty called the purchase "boneheaded" and ordered a search to find out who made the decision.
The TVs, costing $1,576 apiece with $706 mounting brackets, were ordered last October and installed at the new $45 million treatment center when it opened in July.
State officials said the televisions, which were mounted in common areas, made it easier to supervise patients at the 400-bed facility.
But when Pawlenty learned of the purchase in a Star Tribune story on Tuesday, he ordered the televisions removed immediately and sold if possible.
"Clearly somebody just made a boneheaded decision, and I'm going to reverse it," he said.
Later, Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said that Pawlenty wanted to go even further. "The governor believes those involved should be reprimanded, at a minimum," McClung said. A spokesperson for the state sex offender program said a review is underway.
But DFLers say the episode points a finger at top officials in the Pawlenty administration -- not a low-level bureaucrat -- who have repeatedly exercised poor oversight of the state's many agencies and commissions.
"It's part of a pattern in this administration of agencies doing things without any kind of leadership or guidance from the top," said Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, vice chairman of the House State Government Finance Division committee. He said that Pawlenty "doesn't get involved in the management of his agencies until he gets embarrassed."
Pawlenty's pledge to find out who had authorized the purchase, Winkler said, was an attempt to divert attention from high-ranking officials, and showed that "the buck stops nowhere."
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