If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Privatized CPS, DCF. Would u let 'em in your house?
Yes, I would let "Privatized CPS, DCF" in my house. However, I'd be a whole lot more cautious than I would be with public CPS, CCP, or DCF workers. "Privatized" workers have no guidelines, general guidelines to follow, and that would scare me. For goodness sakes, I might be sent to jail for refusing to burn my child's trachea with the famous "hot pepper as an alternative to spanking" discipline. Remember that one that you supported, Fern? LaVonne Fern5827 wrote: NO, NO , NO...... These folks need customers to survive. Be polite. Decline to talk to the folks who hold the contracts to KEEP THEIR JOBS. be DESCRIPTORS; ACS, FIA, DFPS, DYFS, DFYS, DSHS, DSS,FAMILY LAW, DCFS, SRS, DHS, CYS, CYF, DCYF, DCS, CHILD PROTECTIVE, TDPRS, CYFS,DHR,ILDCFS, SCF, SoSCF, ACF, DHHS, PRS, CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT Subject: Cozy over contracts From: wexwimpy Date: 7/20/2004 6:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time Message-id: Cozy over contracts DCF woes start with friends in high places Last update: 19 July 2004 Last fall, about 100 local employees of the Department of Children & Families gathered in a Daytona Beach conference room to hear Deputy Secretary Ben Harris make his pitch. Things were getting better at the troubled agency, he promised. But there would have to be adjustments. Chief among them: Employees working in the DCF welfare-to-work office would be given the "opportunity" to compete for their own jobs against private-sector companies vying to provide the service. Some of their functions might be outsourced, possibly even sent to call centers overseas. It was clear from the expressions on the faces of the workers that they were dubious -- both for themselves and for their clients. Their suspicions were grounded in the understanding that "competition" and privatization have not worked well, thus far, at DCF. What they didn't know was that the competition principle only reached so high. Thursday, Harris and Glenn Palmieri, another top DCF official, resigned after admitting they accepted gifts and trips from businesses with lucrative state contracts -- including hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of business awarded with no competitive process. Gov. Jeb Bush said the gifts and trips violate his tight anti-corruption policies, and launched an investigation that resulted in an inspector general report released this week. The report is a step in the right direction. But Bush needs to look further and higher -- and he should have done it sooner. That closer look should start with Jerry Regier, the head of DCF, who apologized Thursday for his role in the mess but did not resign. Regier has been shrugging off reports of cronyism long before he came to Florida, and the governor should have been on guard for similar problems here. Regier came to Florida trailing accusations that, as Oklahoma's secretary of health and human services, he funneled state funds to friends and skirted state competitive-bidding laws. The record should have been a red flag. Yet, Bush stuck to his pick, and Regier was confirmed by the Senate. Two years later, the same kinds of allegations are surfacing. The gifts uncovered, so far, and the contractors who gave them are relatively small potatoes compared to the massive fiscal black hole surrounding HomeSafeNet, the computer system that is central to the state's child-abuse prevention system. The state is already $100 million-$200 million over budget on the system, and few are confident that it will be finished by its 2005 completion date. The system is so unwieldy that it might actually be putting children's lives at risk, state auditors have warned. That makes it hard to understand why Regier hired a company to "fix" the problems with HomeSafeNet that was ranked lower -- and bid nearly $5 million more --than the nearest competitor. Did it make a difference that the winning company had Regier's old boss, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, on its board when it got the $21 million contract? Regier says no and that the low bid didn't meet specifications. If so, why was it ranked higher to begin with? Those questions have yet to be answered, but state officials have seized Regier's computer and other records. Even if the investigation turns up no further problems, there's plenty of cause for concern. Entry-level DCF employees are being told they will have to "compete" with the private sector just to keep their jobs (though the state has yet to ask for outside bids). Meanwhile, companies with ties to top DCF staffers are scooping up millions of dollars in state contracts, often without competitive bids. And Florida's children still aren't safe as they could be. Families aren't getting the help they need to stay afloat. That's DCF's real bottom line, and it's dangerously close to red http://www.news-journalonline.com/Ne...Editorials/03O pOPN67071904.htm Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Review: House of Sand and Fog (****) | Steve Rhodes | General | 0 | December 17th 03 09:20 PM |
Review: The House of the Dead (*) | Steve Rhodes | General | 0 | October 23rd 03 07:58 PM |
SAFETY WARNING: Pottery Barn Halloween House Tealight Holders | DeliciousTruffles | General | 0 | October 2nd 03 11:04 PM |
SAFETY WARNING: Pottery Barn Halloween House Tealight Holders | DeliciousTruffles | Pregnancy | 0 | October 2nd 03 11:04 PM |
Pregnant (Legally Blonde) White House staffers... | Todd Gastaldo | Pregnancy | 0 | July 22nd 03 04:36 PM |