Feuding special interests
 

wexwimpy wrote: (Sept 29 in alt.support.foster-parents )
10/10/06 Reposted to alt.support.child-protective-services and
alt.parenting.spanking

DCF chaos requires answers
The Department of Children & Families owes Southwest Florida taxpayers
an accounting for its disarray.

The Florida Department of Children & Families owes the public more
than a few canned non-answers to questions about what is going on with
its contracts for foster care
and families in crisis, and with its leadership choices.

The past month has seen DCF and its contractors careening back and
forth between seemingly contradictory decisions about how to deal with
these key services under
the 6-year-old state privatization mandate.

It doesn't look like the agency knows yet how to function in this new
environment, but maybe that's an unfair conclusion.

Without any candid explanations of DCF's actions, the public is left
to second-guess the agency's behavior.

The public interest is at stake here, including the welfare of some
1,500 or so children and their families-and the interest of the
taxpayers who are still paying for the system,
whether it is privatized or not.

DCF is accountable to those taxpayers, and owes them an explanation.

Is privatization working here or not? The numbers have shown progress,
but administrative chaos calls everything into question.

Confusing

Try to follow this:

· DCF hired private, nonprofit The Children's Network as lead agency
for Southwest Florida. The Children's Network in turn contracted with
three local agencies for actual
case management, to work hands-on with children and families in need
of foster care and other services.
· This month, The Children's Network CEO Harry Propper announced he
would cancel those three contracts, and have Children's Network do
case management in-house
for greater efficiency. A furor erupted.
· Camelot Community Care, national parent of The Children's Network,
then dumped Propper and six-volunteer board members, and the three
contracts were reaffirmed.
· Monday, DCF abruptly and with no explanation, announced it was
cancelling The Children's Network's $100 million contract altogether,
just two years into the five-year
agreement.
· Tuesday, DCF announced it was hiring Propper as district operations
manager-a position DCF left vacant for six months until Propper needed
a job.

He had been DCF's program director for seven years, before his job was
eliminated by privatization - a process, which is not looking very
slick right now in Southwest
Florida.

Mystification

Nancy Langman, president of Ruth Cooper, said she's "mystified and
perplexed. It smacks of politics. Who can possibly sort out what's
going on behind the scenes here?
It's going to be very hard to help the general public understand what
the state has done when we're so mystified. "

"And ... in the midst of it all, is anybody thinking about the kids?"
she asked.

Precisely.
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Wex wrote
DCF chaos requires answers
The Department of Children & Families owes Southwest Florida taxpayers
an accounting for its disarray.

0:- (Kane) wrote
Please provide source with link, Wex, unless this is you citing your own
thoughts. Thanks.