San Mateo Hd. clams up about damning CPS report

Subject: San Mateo head declines to discuss damning report
From: (Fern5827)
Date: 3/7/2004 8:23 AM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

Although she of course, advises parents to confess all to the infalliable CPS
investigators, she declines to discuss the report which indicted HSA, CPS in
San Mateo County, California.


San Mateo County Times


County vows to overhaul child welfare
Report slams Human Services agency
By Tim Hay
STAFF WRITER


Saturday, March 06, 2004 - REDWOOD CITY -- Human Services Director Maureen
Borland has declined to discuss in detail a damning report that claims her
agency is more concerned with projecting a good image than protecting at-risk
children. But other County officials have vowed to clean up the troubled
child-welfare system.

The report was commissioned by presiding Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum and
County Manager John Maltbie about a year ago, after an 8-month-old ward of the
County, Angelo Marinda, died during a visit with his mother and father.
Marinda's father now faces a murder charge.

"We're all responsible," said Supervisor Mike Nevin, who co-chairs a panel that
has been working for the past year on a state-sponsored overhaul of child
protective services.

"This kid fell through the cracks. We collectively let this kid down," Nevin
said. "We're going to work on this thing."

The panel is scheduled to hold its fifth meeting on March 25.

The report said HSA leadership had a "brittle intolerance for differences of
opinion," and that relations between the agency and the Juvenile Court had all
but broken down.

The HSA's policy of "regionalization," or decentralizing services to the needy,
had led to communication breakdowns among social workers and had "largely
failed," the report said. It also said resources were being misdirected, and it
faulted unnamed HSA directors for ignoring criticism of the system.

"I've asked Maureen Borland to review the report and comment," Maltbie said.
The report was issued Feb. 19 and made public Monday.

Days before the report was made public, HSA's northern regional director,
Stuart Oppenheim, announced he was retiring effective March 12. He said by
telephone Friday his retirement was not related to the

report, and declined to comment further.

The court- and County-commissioned investigation into HSA operations was
conducted by retired Appeals Court Justice Zerne Haning, Superior Court Judge
George Miram, retired Santa Clara County Social Services Director Richard
O'Neil, the co-director of UC Berkeley's School of Social Welfare, Jill
Duerr-Berrick and union leader Linda Gregory.

Miram said the committee met with more than 25 people, including HSA directors,
social workers and officials from other agencies that deal with Human Services.


"A number of problems are well on their way to being fixed," Miram said. "The
relationship (between HSA and the courts) needs to improve, and I can say with
some level of confidence that it is improving."

Borland said in a short press release that the recommendations in the report
were being implemented by the committee overseeing the Child Welfare Redesign,
a state-funded, five-year overhaul that has been going on for about a year.

The committee is chaired by both Nevin and Sterling Speirn of the Peninsula
Community Foundation, and has met four times since Marinda's death.

"We are taking this new information very seriously," Speirn said.

Nevin pledged "a full hearing" on March 25 on the report, which proposes
large-scale redistributions of funding and a closer look at the effectiveness
of "regionalization."

The committee is made up of more than 40 County officials, social workers,
foster parents and directors of nonprofit organizations.

Nevin said the large, disparate group would break into subcommittees and hold
more frequent meetings, in light of what the report uncovered.

But County Counsel Tom Casey said the redesign might not be the proper venue
for quick change.

"The redesign is a longterm plan," Casey said. "Judge Miram and Judge Forcum
are having meetings (every other month) with Human Services, myself and the
major players. So far, there has just been one, but there are going to be more.
We've got to talk about real issues."

Staff writer Tim Hay covers County government. He can be reached at
(650)306-2428 or by e-mail at .








DESCRIPTORS; CALIFORNIA, CPS, CHILD PROTECTIVE, IMAGE, FAMILY LAW, ADOPTION,
FOSTER CARE, CAPTA, ASFA, KINSHIP CARE, CHILD ABUSE, CHILD NEGLECT