The high-profile agency has been admonished for its sudden decision last week to cease operations on June 30, abdicating its responsibility to the 26,000 children it serves. Certainly the agency deserves censure for folding its tent on such short notice. But there's more than enough blame to go around.

The agency seems to have become collateral damage in a political war between city administrations, transformed from favorite to outcast overnight.

It has been a shameful episode in which public policy-makers failed every step along the way, acting precipitously and/or irresponsibly with little regard for consequences.

From John Street - primarily - to Michael Nutter and other state and city officials, all share some blame.

And all, including the agency's board members, share responsibility for the disgraceful denouement of this once-respected pioneer in children's advocacy.

They may argue they were well-intentioned - and they might have been - but that has certainly paved the way to hell this time.

Former Mayor Street started this cascade of consequences when he expanded the agency's budget with taxpayers' money that wasn't there, and insisted - so the agency says - the money be budgeted and spent.

Safe and Sound, a nonprofit agency that administers and monitors prevention programs for at-risk youth, was a favorite program of Street's and was run for a time by his wife, Naomi Post.

He ladened it with increasing responsibilities and added $21 million to its last budget, money that hadn't been approved by City Council.

How could someone with a legendary facility for budget matters allocate money that wasn't there? How could Street justify taking it from state-mandated programs that Nutter was forced to reinstate?

Was it about cementing his legacy as a child advocate? Or was it a parting shot at his rival and successor?

Worse, Safe and Sound proceeded to spend money it knew wasn't there, and was forced to later cancel contracts, creating fear and disruption in the social-service community.

What an inspiring chain of events.

But in attempting to undo Street's fiscal damage, Nutter treated Safe and Sound as if it were a purveyor of kiddie porn instead of an agency that was trying to help children.

He denounced the agency at a news conference - in what certainly seemed to be a politically motivated shot at Street's surrogates - and unleashed investigators and monitors on the agency.

Investigations by the state Department of Public Welfare and a city assessment team inevitably found problems with the agency's fiscal operations.

But none of the investigations found corruption or fraud.

The consensus is that Safe and Sound grew too fast for its own good, and was unable to create the necessary infrastructure and oversight demanded by the increasing responsibilities heaped on it by the Street administration.

"Historically when you see such rapid growth, it's difficult to put the infrastructure in place to facilitate it," said board member Michael Pearson, speaking for himself.

It's also difficult, he said, for "an organization growing and addressing those issues to be fairly evaluated."

DPW Secretary Estelle Richman told me that closer monitoring of Safe and Sound by the city's Department of Human Services - and closer monitoring of DHS by her own agency - might have prevented the agency's downfall.

Ironically, Richman helped create Safe and Sound in 1997 when she was a city official, and she sat on its board until last year.

Nutter vehemently denies any personal political agenda, saying the scrutiny of Safe and Sound was demanded by the agency's spending money it didn't have and by its failing to provide requested information to the city.

"This was not about politics," he told me yesterday, and not even about Safe and Sound.

"This is not about them; it's about how we operate in a fiscally responsible fashion."

And Nutter emphasized that no programs will be cut and no children hurt when Safe and Sound stops operating and another provider takes over.

"The end result is the most important issue. There will be no disruption of services," he said.

Maybe not.

But this whole affair has been ugly and unfortunate, and the demise of Safe and Sound a sorry outcome.

"Safe and Sound has done a lot of good work over the years, and much of that is not being focused on right now," president Anne Shenberger told me yesterday, citing the Children's Report Card and creation of the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership.

"As we wind down, I'd be interested in having people think about all the contributions we made." *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/porter