LAKE COUNTY — The county board of supervisors approved a formal response to the 2006 ? 2007 Grand Jury recommendations at its Tuesday meeting. One of the highlights in it, for the county is its lengthy lists of recommendations for child protective services (CPS).
This year”s final report includes recommendations in 32 areas, encompassing oversight of county departments and elected officials, facility visits and complaints. The county board of supervisors” response includes letters from 16 department heads.
A letter accompanying the thick stack of papers, signed by chairman Jeff Smith, says that while the board agrees with most of the Grand Jury”s recommendations, several are too expensive to implement. “The Grand Jury evidently did not understand the county”s budget limitations and the fact that we must prioritize how the county”s limited amount of discretionary funding is expended,” letter says. The jury”s public health and social services committee recommends that a paid ombudsman and an independent advisory board oversee CPS, that the county Board of Supervisors “face head-on the staffing and management problems at Lake County CPS,” and “not assume that everything is being done from within the department or that the state is effectively overseeing Lake County CPS,” that the eight empty social worker positions in CPS be filled using “a realistic pay scale” to attract talent, that partnerships be formed locally for educating both future and current CPS social workers, and that the CPS after hours hotline for emergencies be rearranged so callers don”t have to listen through a lengthy message to find out what to do in an emergency.
In a letter attached to the board”s response, social services director Carol Huchingson wrote that CPS is supervised by the California State Department of Social Services (CDSS) and is not self-governing, as she says the Grand Jury report assumes.
“According to the Grand Jury report, when contacted in December 2006, CDSS officials reported our CPS operations to be satisfactory,” Huchingson writes.
Huchingson disagreed in her letter with the Grand Jury recommendations regarding staffing and pay. Huchingson says county CPS takes one and a half times more referrals per capita than other areas in the state as a whole, and substantiates abuse one and a half times more often. “These numbers are not indicative of a system in great distress,” Huchingson said.
Her letter states that the department actively engages in employee recruitment and retention efforts.
Huchingson answered a Grand Jury recommendation that social workers “personally answer their hones or designate a callback period each day” by stating in a letter that workers are required to return messages within one working day, and that management will periodically remind workers of that requirement.
The Grand Jury committee also found a lack of compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The law was passed by U.S. Congress in 1978 to prevent Indian children from being placed or adopted out of their Indian communities without input from their tribes when they are removed from their homes by county entities.
The committee again recommended shoring up the resources available to county social services in order to comply with ICWA, including a list of personnel, work groups and trainings available to the county for ICWA compliance.
“We strive to comply with all of the laws and regulations required of us, including ICWA and will continue to do so,” Huchingson writes.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
