LAKE COUNTY — The State Senate just approved a bill Wednesday that would affect how background checks are conducted for In Home Support Service providers. It wouldn”t exactly require background checks, but it would mean the providers and the clients wouldn”t have to pay for them.
Authored by Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas (D Los Angeles), the bill would reimburse local Public Authorities (PAs), which head up the IHSS program, for statewide criminal background checks through the Department of Justice Live Scan system.
According to Press Secretary Carlota Gutierrez of Senator Ridley-Thomas” office, SB 868 met with almost unanimous approval, passing through the Senate in a 38 — 1 vote. It”s next stop is the Assembly.
Gutierrez explained in a recent e-mail to the Record-Bee that law currently requires PAs to conduct background checks, but doesn”t specify how they are done.
“This bill gives specific statutory authority for PAs to conduct statewide background checks using the DOJ Live Scan System and prevents the cost, only for the DOJ checks, from being passed on to clients or applicants. A county could still choose to use a private background check, but would not be eligible for reimbursement,” writes Gutierrez.
State and federal government would pick up “the bulk” of those costs, to the tune of $210,000 annually, said Gutierrez.
She went on to explain that “of the counties that perform statewide background checks, some use private agencies, and some use DOJ.” Gutierrez noted, “According to a survey done by the California Association of Public Authorities for In-Home Supportive Services (CAPA), at least 24 counties do not currently perform statewide background checks.”
What does that mean for Lake County?
Local provider and CUHW representative David Smith admits freely that more screening is needed for IHSS applicants.
The Record-Bee kept track of IHSS arrests over the past three months, where the person arrested gave “IHSS” as their occupation, or something similar, such as “In Home Health Services,” “In Home Service,” “In Home Care,” “In Home Support,” “In Home Care Services,” or in some cases, just “Care Giver.”
From January 20 of this year through Monday, 37 such arrests have been made on various charges to date. That”s an average of about 2.5 arrests per week.
More than a fourth of those were arrested on bench warrants for failure to appear in court on previous charges. All told, the charges included one for elder abuse, one for forgery, a few for battery and for theft or burglary, several for miscellaneous drug-related charges, a few for unlawful possession of weapons, a sex offender failing to report changes, one for spousal abuse, one for obstruction of business operations, one for vandalism, several DUIs, driving unlicensed, and some drunk and disorderly charges, one failure to appear for a traffic ticket, and a few parole violations.
“I”m not saying that using controlled substances is something people should be doing, but were they on the controlled substance while they were on the job?” asked Smith when questioned about some of the charges. “If so, they should not be on the job,” said Smith.
One man arrested for a parole violation was convicted of mayhem over 20 years ago, and since then grand theft, second degree burglary and unlawful use or possession of a prescription.
“I personally can”t support somebody convicted in a 10 year history,” said Smith, noting that state IHSS goes back 10 years in a criminal history check. Smith maintained that personally, he felt that sex offenders, abusers, murderers and those with other such violent charges should not be given jobs as IHSS workers.
“If people are out there to take advantage of our disabled and our elderly, then they should not be providers,” said Smith.
Weeding out the criminal element from the ranks of IHSS providers has been one of the areas of contention in contract negotiations between its union and the county for going on four years.
Smith questioned why IHSS was being singled out to do both background checking and drug testing, when currently that is not county wide practice.
Although he also questioned why the Record-Bee focused on IHSS arrests, Smith called the 37 arrests “a pretty small percentage.” Following a recent Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting to approve a proposed $1 raise for IHSS providers who met drug testing, background checking and training requirements to be on the IHSS registry, Smith estimated the component of IHSS workers with a criminal background at 10 percent.
He said Lake County employs over 1,300 IHSS workers, and the union wants a raise for all of them, not just those on the registry.
Michelle Dibble, adult services program manager with the county”s PA, did not return calls from the Record-Bee to confirm those numbers and answer other questions regarding the arrests and about the PA”s position on SB 868.
Smith said CUHW supports SB 868 precisely because it would remove burden of paying for needed background checks from IHSS providers and the clients who hire them.
“Give people a raise and you”re going to attract better providers to the program kids that come right out of high school or college that want to learn the trade. Better money breeds better people,” said Smith, saying the union wants to “work together” with the county to agree on the particulars of the contract.
As for drug testing, Smith echoed the words of CUHW President Tyrone Freeman in a BOS meeting last year when he said he”s all for it, but the question is who is going to pay for it.
A press release from Sen. Ridley-Thomas” office quoted a California Justice Department statistic, saying approximately one out of every 20 elders is a victim of neglect or physical, psychological or financial abuse.
It goes on to state, “In 2006, a Ventura County Grand Jury found that two of the county”s IHSS workers had criminal convictions but had not been detected because the Public Authority did not use the DOJ Live Scan system. A study in the late 1980s found that, in some counties, up to 15% of IHSS worker applicants had prior criminal records (National Center for Elder Abuse, June 2002).”
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
