Joshua Allen Online

The Death of Jorge Tarin: DCFS FAIL?

The Business of Child Abuse.

By Joshua Allen

Sometimes the wrong call is just that, an accident, it could happen to anyone.  And sometimes a wrong call is because of fatigue, a lack of information, bad policy or all three.  Without knowing the facts, we can’t make a true assessment of what happened when Jorge Tarin hung himself several weeks ago.  As excerpted in the Times report:

“Just hours earlier, Los Angeles County mental health and child abuse investigators had visited the drab apartment building to examine 11-year-old Jorge Tarin. He had told a school counselor that day that he wanted to kill himself. After speaking to Jorge privately, the county workers left.”

And:

“Although county workers had visited Jorge in disheveled homes since his infancy — noting drugs, violence and neglect in the households — the complete history was not available to the officials who interviewed him that day. Without remote access to the department’s computer system, the social worker at the scene was unable to fill in some blanks that may have changed the decision to leave Jorge at the home.”

You can read the full article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-death-20100725,0,939247.story

The facts are tragic and pathetic, and represent a breakdown in the very system designed to protect our children.  Clearly there is fault, there is guilt.  It is the “who,” which represents the complication.  This is not an easy call beyond whatever culpability exists with the parents.

Assigning blame to the DCFS investigator who left the troubled adolescent in the home is too easy and possibly, not fair.  However clearly he/she made the wrong call.

What we know now is the investigator did not have sufficient information, was unable to, or could not use the expensive tablet computers with a modem to connect to the DCFS network.  And therefore they did not have information regarding the stepfather’s previous record, or the history of allegations towards the home, birth parents and step-father.

Further, the second investigator had little information regarding what was said during the interview with Jorge at the school.

You see; the majority of Tablets and wireless modems that may have been used to access information regarding the step-father continue to sit unused, either because of training difficulties, workers refusal to use this new technology (that is if you could call 3-year-old computers “new technology”) or a lack of funds allocated to fully implement the necessary infrastructure.  I take the easy route and tend to go with all three.

The result was a dead child.  Beyond the referenced article, we now know that Jorge was treated differently than other children in the home, being made to sleep on a sofa for example instead of having his own bed.  Nothing new here I suppose, Cinderella also was treated differently from her half siblings. Only it’s not a fairytale.

No happy endings here.  Just calls for audits and heads to roll by the usual suspects.  Jorge had originally been in foster care for 15 months and then returned home about 2 year back during a time when DCFS was keeping children out of foster care at a record rate.

This policy saved money and answered critics claims that Los Angeles was putting too many children into foster care.  I suspect the nonsense program of Family Preservation had a role at one point or anther too.  And as far as “saving money,” goes, remember, the budget is almost the same amount of billions of dollars only with about a third of as many children placed into foster care.

Does anyone believe we are getting more services for our dollars?  That money is going somewhere.  Knock knock, administrators, apparatchiks, SEIU, anybody home?

Now DCFS in a temporary change in policy refuses to discuss child fatalities connected to the department with reporters in a misguided attempt to circle the wagons.  All on advice of lawyers of course.

The party line changed the next day when a different lawyer attempted to walk this back, but yes, we get the message.   It’s the era of transparency right?  And little information continues to be forthcoming.

To our utter shame as a society, many children and teens interviewed by social workers say they want to die at one time or another.  Red-flag-city every time too.  Nobody plays around with this.    Yet in the end it is always a judgment call.  It has to be.  There is no cookie cutter solution.

The school did the correct thing. (As far as this single issue of notifying DCFS)  They called the hotline and reported it.  A mental health social worker came out, interviewed Jorge but let him go home on the bus.

There were enough concerns however that the department sent another investigator out to interview the young man at home.  But as seen above, this last investigator didn’t have all the information to make a proper assessment.

If we had a nickel for every therapist who wishes they had done it differently, who had this happen to them…it is about as common as getting through your entire career as a lawyer or doctor without being on the wrong end of a malpractice suit.  It happens.

The second DCFS investigator went in there half blind, perhaps tired and at the end of their shift, and now a child is dead.

The parents?…We will have to let a higher power deal with whatever role they had concerning their moral culpability.  Social workers or for that matter therapists don’t use the word “moral,” too often during their day to day business.

But we know it when we see it.

Joshuaallenonline.com

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

Who Watches the Watchmen?  The Board of Supervisors has decided to audit DCFS!

The Business of Child Abuse

By Joshua Allen

Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?  Who watches the Watchmen?  The Latin phrase from the Roman poet Juvenal not Alan Moore although the ‘Watchmen,’ was a cool comic when it first came out.

So here is my advice should the Board of Supervisors go this route.

Audit the auditors.

You know, the guys who go around and superficially talk to foster parents and kids to make sure everything be okay.

The young folks who come to the agencies and check out the cooked books allowing millions to be misspent year after year after year…

The people who have allowed DCFS to get by on the same billions of dollars budget they have had for years while serving perhaps a third of the amount of kids in foster care.  Where is all that extra money going?  (Do we really have to ask)?

The same folks who have allowed Family Preservation to become a big joke, allowing “Paraprofessionals,” to collect moonlighting income year after year knowing full well the program does little of what it is supposed to do.

The same folks who have allowed double and triple dipping executives without college degrees to run agencies into the ground or to continue drinking nectar from the golden goose year after year when everyone who gets near these places knows that something funny is happening.

The same folks who have allowed elders in their dotage to continue on full salary while they putter around the office a day or two a week on full tax payer salary because they were one of the original investors of the seed money and now know where the bodies are buried.

The same folks who bought antiquated equipment that is little used because training is too complicated for retired-in-place-investigators who can barely use their cell phones.  Or because by the time the IT department actually gets around to using the stuff the price for the infrastructure has increased to the point where there isn’t money left to implement the majority of the devices.  (Or do I have it wrong?  I think not).

Yes certainly, audit the department.  What’s a few BILLION DOLLARS a year among friends?  Amazing they never thought of this before!  Why should DCFS be any different from our schools or MLK hospital?

Thank heavens for the love and decency that come from our foster parents.  There are a lot of good ones out there and they are all that stands between the enshrinement of mediocrity that currently typifies our foster care system.

A loving foster parent is our best defense, and the rest is commentary.

Joshuaallenonline.com

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

LA Foster Care:  The City of Bell Model

The Business of Child Abuse

By Joshua Allen

The most recent dust-up in Bell brings to mind…well just about everything I have been writing about the past several months.  For those of you who don’t know, Bell is a small city with a bit less than 40 thousand in population.

Close to 20% of the city is below the poverty level.  I’ll let you read the dirty details here, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/bell-officials-to-ask-state-controller-john-chiang-to-independently-audit-city-finances.html but the parallels to what has been going on with agency foster care is striking.

First of all you have a small cadre of elites running things, making salaries many times more than similar jobs with same population cities across California and the nation.

One guy was earning close to a million dollars and the police chief of this small city was earning almost double the salary of the chief for Los Angeles.

These guys also have iron clad contracts so even after Bell is rid of them they will continue to earn several hundred grand per year in perpetuity in pension payments from California for the rest of their lives. Millions and millions of dollars!

“You get what you pay for.” Stated the arrogant city administrator; Well he’s close; actually you get who you vote for, in this case the corrupt city council members.

It was the city council who was supposed to be earning about 10 grand a year but instead was making that per month.

They got around the law by paying themselves the majority of their ill-gotten income through a scheme that put them in charge of sham committees that met for as little as a couple of minutes per month.

These council members were the wink and a nod stooges who voted the salaries and other benefits to the police chief and city administrators who between the 3 of them were taking in close to 2 million per year.

The city council then fired their police force who they believe leaked the salary information to the Times when the council threatened to contract out law enforcement services to the County Sheriffs.

But back to foster care.  Let’s examine the parallels.

1. A hand-picked board of directors (like the Bell City Council) who get favors and under the table deals votes on huge and extraordinary salaries to CEO’s, assistants and other cronies who work for a Foster Care agency.
2. The city council …er  (Agency)Board of Directors meets monthly to ratify and vote on pretty much whatever the CEO wants in exchange for undocumented under-the-table swag that snooker eagle-eyed county auditors that need a tree to hit them in the head before they spot the forest.
3. This goes on for years or decades and both CEO’s, cronies and Board Members are considered pillars of the community, raise charitable donations from local businesses and individuals, and do radio and print interviews with journalists who couldn’t in a million years imagine anything shady going on.
4. The money is siphoned, sucked, stolen from our most vulnerable, in this case Abused and Neglected children.
5. The CEO’s run their agencies like a personal fiefdom, firing ‘at will’ employees whenever they get too close, too greedy or too lazy, and put the whole scheme at risk.

Indeed it is increasingly difficult for some agencies to prove (beyond scribbled time cards) that some of the executives are actually doing and working the hours they are supposed to.

Some of these “full time paid – semi-retired executives,” know where all the skeletons are.  They can’t get them out so there remains an uneasy truce with all sides waiting for the other shoe to drop year after year.  (In this case the shoe is a competent forensic audit).

And it rarely drops.  And when it does the reprobates will only be mildly penalized for the year or two they are audited.  The decades of misbegotten payments remain theirs to keep.

This is tax money.  These are not for profit businesses.  If it was a normal business, – all the power to ya… Free enterprise, we love it.

Maybe it’s just me, but taking money from abused children is like “putting stumbling blocks before the blind.”  It bothers me.  It bothers me a lot.

This is the pattern in Los Angeles County.  This is the history.

So, if I were one of the top dogs at Hannah’s Children’s homes, America Care, Homes of Hope, Wings of Refuge,  Children’s Way, Futuro Infantil Hispano, Nuevo Amencer,  and frankly, perhaps a dozen or so others…well I’d be a bit concerned.

We know who you are.

Joshuaallenonline.com

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

Authors Note:

Kiana Barker the alleged killer of Viola Vanclief is back in jail.  So is her boyfriend James Julian.  You can read the story here:  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-death-20100720,0,611562.story

If I were a lawyer or investigator I’d like to know a few things:

Did disgraced United Care administrator Tamara Komashko tell the foster care social worker to only visit Viola and family at the United Care office since the social worker didn’t think Barker’s home was a safe and proper location?

Did the foster care social worker warn Ms. Komashko in an email that the foster home had significant and dangerous problems?  If there is an email we should see it.

Did Ms. Komashko and disgraced CEO of United Care Craig Woods know that Kiana Barker was living with a felon?

Exactly how complicit or negligent is the staff from United Care and DCFS in Viola’s death?  Would this angle still be alive had they done their jobs?  And is that a fair assessment?

A Simple Trade:

How a Humble Graduation Celebration for Foster Children turned into a Propaganda Coup for Scientology:  Names were Taken.

The Business of Child Abuse:

By Joshua Allen

I first heard about this story a couple of days after the soon to be described event.  I was more than a little surprised but I shouldn’t have been. The circumstances were such that I wanted to find more than a couple credible sources to confirm what can only be described as an unintelligible breach of ethics and downright stupidity by the organizers of a recent graduation celebration for foster children.

At the celebration, foster teens and a few adolescents received a donated bag filled with various sundries lotions and gift cards and as we see below, much more.

The breach took place a bit less than 2 weeks ago on Wednesday June 30^th, and was by organizations that for the most part have a reputation for sincerely wanting to help graduating foster teens – but instead sent them, foster parents and ignorant administrators and CEO’s on a road paved with good intentions to the usual destination.

Surely the event organizer Pam Woods, (Ex Wife of disgraced former United Care CEO Craig Woods) and the current administrator of a group home that was forcibly split off from United Care a couple of years ago must have understood the obvious impropriety when she allowed the Headquarters of Scientology in Los Angeles to partially sponsor a graduation ceremony for foster teens at their banquet hall located within the Scientology Los Angeles compound.

The participants who were willing to speak reported that Scientologists (recognized by their uniforms among other things – you can Google it) handed out leaflets and interacted with foster parents, foster teens and foster children with nary a peep of concern or outrage from the organizers and various administrators who should have known better or at least said something at the time about what is clearly a violation of common sense, title 22 regulations and confidentiality laws regarding foster teens and foster children.  Oh, and a little thing called Church and State but let’s not quibble.

One individual who would only speak off the record said,  “…I was shocked when the pretty Scientologist in her blue uniform came to the podium, spoke for perhaps 20 minutes about L. Ron Hubbard and his book, and then screened a 5 or 10 minute clip of a film.  The clip… depicted an abusive father who berated and verbally abused his young boy and then smashed the child’s various art work several times while growing up until finally the now older boy painted a mural which the horrible father couldn’t destroy.”

When asked about the content of this clip, others at the event confirmed the above description as true.  Said another, “…It seemed inappropriate for foster children to be exposed to this… Many of the children and teens had parents who did things like this or much worse and it certainly wasn’t the time or place for such a depiction.”

After screening the clip and speaking a bit more about the success Scientology in New York had working with violent teens, the Scientologist at the podium announced a surprise for everyone in the audience.

Each and every person in the ballroom was set to receive free of charge a DVD of the entire film, a book or literature about scientology and joy of joys and absolutely free of charge!!!! an introductory class for anyone who chose to stay after the event!  And some including the kids may have done just that!

To facilitate this, a blank contact list was passed around by various Scientology adherents to every adult, child and teen participating in the event asking for name, address and telephone number so that additional information can be provided at a later date. The blank lists was passed around to the various tables while the individuals encouraged everyone more than once (including the foster children) to write down their names and contact information.

Many of the foster parents who had never heard of Scientology innocently put down their contact information and allowed the foster teens whom they had brought to the graduation to do so thinking the organization (Scientology) something like the various coalitions and organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs that help foster children and teens graduate, emancipate from the system and apply for colleges, vocational schools, and independent living facilities as well as loans and grants for their continuing education.

In other words, the foster parents believed it was something that would offer material help to the foster children in a manner approved and sanctioned by DCFS, Community Care Licensing and the various group homes and foster organizations who attended.

In fact, many of the foster parents had no idea that Scientology is considered to be a religion.  Some of the teens were a bit more “hip,” to this, having seen the depiction of Scientology on one of the more famous episodes of South Park.

(The author will allow the famous episode of South Park as well as numerous Google references to Scientology  speak for itself should the reader have more interest in the subject matter.  The reader can therefore judge for themselves if exposing vulnerable foster teens that are emancipating from the system with few possessions and even less adult guidance, received an appropriate and ethical as well as a legal tradeoff by enjoying the use of the Ballroom facility as well as receiving other free goodies for their graduation ceremonies).

And it should be noted that many of the graduating teens had their foster brothers and sisters at the celebration who were much younger and who were also provided with, and encouraged to fill out the blank contact list.  This is especially disturbing.

Again, to stress, many of the foster parents allowed this to happen as they assumed the organization had been cleared to do this by their foster agencies, group homes and event organizers, and did so as they believed the foster teens and children would receive further benefits, goods and services. Something that everyone associated with foster care in Los Angeles believes is sorely lacking.  One questions therefore what the Scientology Institute in Los Angeles plans to do with this information?

The foster parents, the teens, as well as many of the attendees originally arrived with an invitation that included a pleasant graphic, a date and time about the event.  More than one participant was shocked when they realized the location of the event upon arrival.  And even that would have been acceptable (but perhaps still questionable) had there been no proselytizing, propaganda and collection of confidential information by an organization that remains controversial to say the least.

What were Pam Wood and the other organizers thinking?  One hopes that they were simply sandbagged and really had no idea but what does this say about their collective intelligence and common sense?

And think about the double standard.  Imagine if at this event, (which to repeat was a graduation celebration for foster teens) a Christian organization had screened a clip about the Gospel of Jesus, passed out Christian Literature, gave out a free film that advocated for their particular denomination, and then took down contact information of everyone in the room including foster children and foster teens while offering a free class right after the event to trusting participants.

Or to add to this point, what if the Mormon Church had done this, or an Islamic organization, or a Jewish group?  This is not neuroscience, although apparently certain individuals involved with this fiasco should avail themselves of such practitioners.

Or in lay terms, they should have their heads examined.

Joshuaallenonline.com

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

It’s not the Truth, it’s the Narrative.

By Joshua Allen

The Business of Child Abuse.

The County lets us know that everything is in hand.  CSW’s have been given a ‘new’ tool that enables them to check every home that is in the FFA system. (The tool is a check list. I feel better, don’t you)?

Homes have been checked and rechecked, officials from state and county agencies have visited homes from the disgraced agency United Care a half-dozen times by various workers ensuring that foster children remain well cared for and that homes at FFA’s are acceptable.  (The majority of Los Angeles foster homes are run directly by the county and visited less than once per month by CSW’s but don’t worry, they have the check list for them too).

Homes with other agencies have  been checked much more than usual, and compliance with title 22 regulations is now ensured.  Audits of agencies are now much more intensive (Hooray!).  Agencies have to prove that rules are followed and that foster homes are appropriate and foster children have their needs met.  (The check list again.  But dat’s okay).

The county shall now require appropriate proof (beyond checking time cards) that CEO’s with little or no mental health expertise or credentials as well as family and friends are no longer on county payroll with salaries incommensurent with their duties and responsibilities. (They have always done this right?  Right..?  Well one can hope…)  The county will ensure to the best of their ability that there is no Falsifying Time Cards which is considered fraud and has legal consequences.   (“Consequences,” said the FFA.  “What are those?”)

Board members (of course) shall no longer be allowed to work for agencies, vote on their on salaries and work performance, and appropriately, shall be held responsible for the mismanagment of agency funds and ethically breaching the public trust by giving contracts to themselves for unaudited services. (Uhh, sounds like a good idea right)? (Then why aren’t you doing it?!!!)  What does it take to change this?

Los Angeles Board of Supervisors including Mark Ridley Thomas and Gloria Molina (and staff member Martha Molina-Aviles) will  as always, perform due diligence before assisting or looking the other way for disgraced or suspect agencies such as United Care, America Care, Fred Jefferson Homes, Wings of Refuge, Homes of Hope, Hanna’s Foster Agency, Nuevo Amencer and Futuro Infantil Hispano.  (There are others but you get the idea).   (It’s the money stupid!)

County auditors shall continue to diligently assure when examining the above and other agencies, that no tax money is used on mostly absent executives who receive full salary despite being semi-retired, wholly involved in outside business activities, or frequently absent from the office because they can do it with impunity.  (If auditors would just talk with underlings from various agencies they may learn a thing or two).  It’s the money stupid.

If auditors want to interview an ‘at will’ employee to determine ethical violations or financial malfeasance, they will do so under circumstances that protects the worker from retaliation.

Any taxpayer money used for consulting services from executives of concern such as Craig Woods, Louise Fernandez, Joe Steinberg and George Gutierrez will be monitored to assure proper usage.  The county will assiduously assure that any monies owed to the county by these and other agency executives be returned without preconditions.  Any laws previously violated shall be prosecuted.  Consulting fees shall not be used as a cover for steering foster parents to a particular agency.

Having a reputation for serially sexually harassing female employees (including settling financially with several-many-mucho-a lot) should probably be enough for the county to insist that you can no longer work with or in the vicinity of abused and neglected children.  (Ya think?)

The county will admit to turning a blind eye (perhaps unintentionally) to malfeasance and strongly assure that taxpayer monies go towards the care and maintenance of abused and neglected children.

The county shall stop obsessing on “measurable goals,” in reports and “disaster plans et al… and instead ascertain how taxpayer money is being spent towards the children’s benefit.  (Just like students who are taught to pass the standard test, social workers write what auditors want to see which is a win-win  for everyone but the foster child.  Ask any social worker if they are thinking about “measurable goals,” when they try to help foster children to the best of their abilities.  Does the county really believe that requiring Social Workers to write about such things actually helps the child?  Who comes up with this stuff?

Intentionally making false allegations of child abuse is a crime and will be prosecuted.   The making of false allegations of child abuse by an individual with an agenda has done more damage to children placed in foster care than just about anything the author can think of.  Indeed, the author cannot think of one time where an intentional false allegation has ever been prosecuted in Los Angeles.

Next:  Letters from Foster Children…

Joshuaallenonline

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

Things I lose sleep over:

By Joshua Allen

The Business of Child Abuse.

How come some Agency CEO’s allowed to pay themselves six figures while working very little?  And when office employees know this person is rarely in the office or involved in the day-to-day dealings, why do county auditors do nothing more than glance at the CEO’s time cards if there is any question?

After agencies are shut down for gross mismanagement, how come CEO’s who paid themselves millions of dollars over their term of administration are allowed to simply walk away without further consequences?

And…Why are these CEO’s allowed to continue to consult, and or work with abused and neglected children after numerous ethical breaches?

Why are agency CEO’s allowed to use taxpayer money to rent buildings and land from themselves?  Why has this practice been allowed to continue?  Does anyone think this is proper?

When an agency CEO has settled many-many claims of sexual harassment before reaching trial, then tried to use taxpayer money to pay attorney fees in at least 3 of these cases, then continued to serially sexually harass ladies of all types; (and within the industry this is all common knowledge), well why is he still given clearance to work around abused and neglected children?

When an agency is closed down for mismanagement and there is money left over, what happens to this money?  Is it true that some CEO’s are allowed to continue on their same salary for quite some time doing very little beyond perhaps running a simple parenting class or putting on picnics for kids?

When somebody is reportedly warned that there are major problems with a foster home, does nothing, and a child dies – why are the involved individuals allowed to move on to other agencies to consult and supervise?

When a CEO brags several times in front of witnesses that a Los Angeles County Supervisor helped him personally get his agency off of administrative hold, and apparently does this without talking to the county officials who know of him and the circumstances of the hold, and then a child dies – how come the Supervisor won’t answer the question if what the CEO said was true?  And if it is true, what exactly did the Supervisor do to help the CEO get his agency off of administrative hold?

Why is there seemingly never any consequences for Board Members of grossly mismanaged agencies who vote huge salaries for disgraced CEO’s, do little deals with the CEO’s, and know the whole time this is unethical if not illegal?

If the county because of a change in policy, is now substantiating a much higher percentage of child abuse allegations, what happened to all the children (before the change in policy) who were previously abused when the allegations against their abusers were incorrectly found to be unsubstantiated?

The last one haunts me the most…

Joshuaallenonline.com

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

Redemption

By Joshua Allen

Dear Birth Parent,

Hey I know it wasn’t your fault for having your kids taken away.  That damn social worker bitch what’s her name – she’s the real criminal.  What’s a little tweaking anyways?  You’re a good parent, the kids love you don’t they?  They always say it when you ask.

And that judge!  Who the fuck is that SOB to tell you that you need to be drug tested?  The hell with those dirty tests!  It’s the God damn system that destroyed your family.  That judge is paid a big hunk of change to rip families apart.  They all make money from messing with you.

And that mother-of-all-fights the two of you had that night.  God was that a bitch of a fight or what!  You were both messed up good remember?   But you gave as good as you got.

But the kids weren’t touched, so what’s the big deal? God Damn neighbors ratting to the cops, I bet you know which one too.  Always so nosy, asking about the kids.  Who the hell was she to offer to take care of them?    Why can’t people just mind their own fucking business!  Lots of people do worse and they still have their kids, so why you?

They should go after the real criminals.  You know the freaks that do those unspeakable things to their kids?  You’ve never did anything like that.  Neither did babydoll;… well he said he didn’t.  Pricks, it was all lies.  The middle girl was always trouble.  Why did they make her lie?

What did those county assholes say?  The allegation was substantiated?  Unsubstantiated?  Who the hell knows?

He should be getting out of the joint soon anyways.  And yeah they said he’s got to stay away but they can’t really be there all the time.  Man do you miss babydoll…

You love your kids, why can’t they see that?  Okay so you shouldn’t have missed those visits.  Especially the youngest ones birthday.  Anyways she’s just 3 so she doesn’t really care about such things.  But yeah, you shouldn’t have told her you’d be there, but you’ll make it up, you always do.

But why is the older one so angry?

Damn foster parent!  Who the hell is she to say you can’t talk to your kids when you call any time, day or night.  She’s poisoning them against you!  That’s why they’re so angry.  They’d probably be back with you by now if that lady hadn’t been speaking smack about you to that bitch CSW.  And don’t get started again about that excuse for a human being.

Okay, it probably wasn’t too smart to yell at her those times, especially when you need your kids back.  I mean you admit it, that wasn’t too smart.

But can’t they see how much the kids love you?  How they cry when it’s time for you to leave the one hour weekly visit at McDonald’s?

What’s the foster parent so mad about anyways, so you missed a few visits when you were supposed to be there – the kids ate real good didn’t they?  They love McDonald’s.  You took them there almost every day when you had money before losing that job for tweaking during the lunch break.

Man that shit is gnarly, and yeah it was uncool to use before the baby was born.  But you know better now.  Next time you’re pregnant you’ll do it right.  You’ll have the kids back too.

They need their mommy.  Especially the baby.  She’s got all sorts of problems but you’ll take her to the best doctors.  You still got the Medi-Cal card, you never lost it.  Doesn’t that prove something?

Anyways all that’s behind you.  You’re barely using these days, not for a couple of days anyways.  And you are taking your parenting classes.  Haven’t missed a single one and you have the papers to prove it.

The judge said you’d get the kids back soon if you could just string together a few clean tests and your grandmother gets a bigger place.  That’s what your mom did when you were a kid and you and your brothers came back home after a few months.

And when your babies come home it will be different this time.  You and babydoll will do it right.  No more partying.  No more tweaking.  And you’ll be a happy family this time.

Or not.

Joshuaallenonline.com

Joshuaallenonling@gmail.com

Community Care Licensing has announced to various foster agencies they will now be cross referencing contract social workers who work for 2 or more locations to ensure that foster care social workers will have a total of cases that does not exceed 15 foster children at any one time.

This is a relatively simple thing to do,  easily done with a pencil and ledger.  And while the intent is to insure that a contract social worker gives their full attention to a limited caseload there remains a significant flaw with this concept.

A contract social worker may still have many other jobs with county agencies.  Therefore while a worker is limited to having 15 abused and neglected children on their caseload, other county funded jobs they may have will continue to undermine the intent of this enforcement of previous policy which was ignored for over a decade.

And why exactly was this ignored for so long?  Perhaps because foster agency management as well as DCFS at all levels have a vested interest in allowing the current non-enforcement to continue as is.

The contract system is a significantly cheaper way for foster care agencies to provide case management services to foster children, allowing revenues to be diverted to higher and higher management salaries, especially the salaries of the CEO’s (as well as their assistant CEO spouses, bookkeeping family members and cousin Vinnie who is the I.T. specialist who maintains all the floppy drives).

If one examines those agencies which make the highest use of contract workers (as opposed to full-time salaried social workers) you will likely find the highest paid CEO’s and family members in the entire foster care agency system.

We know of no other way a contract social worker can survive on a living wage without having other employment.  Since caseloads remain variable, income from such activity is limited to monies well below the typical salary of a kindergarten teacher.  And recall the teacher has health and other benefits which the contract worker is completely lacking.

So apparently the county expects contract workers to have other jobs, just not with case managing foster children beyond a total of 15.  We’re not sure therefore how this does any good and while we clearly do not advocate a social worker being allowed to burden themselves professionally to the point where they are no longer effective at their job, it would be foolish to think this new preoccupation with caseload will do anything to improve the lives of foster children.

But then that’s not the intent.  The intent  here is to demonstrate that the ineffective and unnecessary bureaucracy called Community Care Licensing is finally doing something to prove their worth in regulating foster agencies, guarding taxpayer finances and, oh yeah, ensuring the proper care and nurturing of abused and neglected children caught up in the system.

CCL’s position to this seems to be “Don’t worry, we looked into it, nothing to see here.”   I wish this was true.

Joshua Allen

Joshuaallenonline@gmail.com

Did disgraced CEO Craig Woods contact you? Did you help United Care Foster Agency get off of Administrative hold before the death of Viola Vanclief?

If you made any calls or contacts on United Cares behalf, did you research first the kind of people you were helping? Did you contact county auditors, quality assurance or Anthony McDaniel’s who knew very well what was going on with this agency?

Oh, and about the remaining $200,000 that is still owed to us the taxpayer, who will pay?

Remember, United Care reached a settlement reported to be around $200,000 or over with the previous accountant in a best practices lawsuit.

However, instead of returning the money to the county, it was instead used for bonuses, the largest of which went to disgraced CEO Craig Woods.  A lot of the employees interviewed had no idea why they were getting such a large bonus, larger than anything they had ever seen.  Now we know it was most likely because that was the only way Woods could give a bonus to himself!

So do Woods and the Board of Directors have to make good on this still owed money?  Or do they just get to slink away, as Chicky Baby says… “No harm no foul.”

By the way, what about that?  Will anyone actually serve time? I know if I shoplifted a pair of shorts I would, but hey, what’s a quarter million amongst friends.

Silence speaks volumes, but well, I’m just asking.  Because um, I would like to know.

So please oh please Supervisor Mark Ridlely Thomas.  Tell us you were too busy planning your almost million dollar office renovations and 25 grand ads in Who’s Who in Crenshaw to have helped United Care in it’s hour of financial desperation.  Desperation that caused them to overlook all sorts of things…  Say it ain’t so.

PS:  Oh, and I got a question for you, and it may have nothin to do with nothin…so I’m gonna ask it hypothetically.

If a guy – lets say a guy who has a contract to provide services for abused and neglected children – anyways, lets say this guy has a perfectly legal business that sells for example, sex toys, or porn, or similar stuff imported from Brazil…well what I mean is, would this guy still be allowed to have a contract to run a foster agency?

How does that all work?  Because people keep asking me that.