Maintaining his crucial watch on state mental health services, federal Magistrate Kevin Chang again has railed against the state Health Department for its sluggish progress toward adopting a community plan — this time by pointing out the chilling consequences in a report released this week.

The price we've paid, Chang said, is the lives of 16 mentally ill Hawai'i residents, whose death through suicide or other means resulted in part because the system failed them.

Officials said they are still preparing a formal response to the report. Gov. Linda Lingle's strongest action so far has been to praise Thomas Hester, head of the adult mental health division and a primary target in Chang's latest scalding review. She also has accused the federal court of trying to "insert" itself in the state mental health division.

That's entirely unsupported by the facts. There was no evidence of a federal push to oust Hester, who submitted and then withdrew his resignation. And the state has had ample input in the process of bringing mental health services up to standard. Given how much time and opportunity the agency has had to correct the problems, Lingle's charge is unwarranted and not productive.

What's needed now is disclosure, not more excuses. The public deserves to hear from Hester a full accounting of whatever impediments he's faced in carrying out a community plan, as well as his ideas on how to overcome them. That level of accountability is the least taxpayers can expect from the division chief, who earns $300,000 a year.

Certainly, building a comprehensive system for outpatient mental health services that can handle a long roster of clients is the most difficult aspect of the state's challenge. Officials worked hard and completed improvements at the Hawai'i State Hospital, achieving enough success that federal oversight was lifted from the facility.

But now the hard job lies ahead. Roughly 9,000 people in need of mental health outpatient services live in the community.

It's going to take vision and drive to develop a system that can properly meet their needs.