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Child Protective Services [Public Enemy Number One]: She went afterCPS -- but now the state of arizona may be coming after her...



 
 
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Old March 27th 07, 08:08 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default Child Protective Services [Public Enemy Number One]: She went afterCPS -- but now the state of arizona may be coming after her...

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-...my-number-one/

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Public Enemy Number One
She went after CPS -- but now the state may be coming after her
By Sarah Fenske
Published: March 22, 2007
Mark Taylor Residential

Robin Scoins is the perfect face for the argument against Arizona Child
Protective Services. And she believes that's exactly why she's drawn the
ire of state representative Pete Hershberger.

Robin Scoins got involved fighting CPS after her son was taken from her
in 2003.

Three years ago, Scoins lost her newborn son to CPS custody. The agency
claimed, falsely, that she'd tested positive for crystal meth; it took
nine months to sort out what proved to be a sloppy mistake and get her
little boy out of foster care.

Today, Scoins devotes her time to parenting her four kids — and to
fighting CPS. As the founder, executive director, and sole staffer of
the Arizona Family Rights Advocacy Institute, she helps families with
their custody battles, inveighs against legislative efforts to increase
CPS funding, and pushes for laws that increase parental rights.

She's had some victories. Typically, the Legislature will renew an
agency's mandate for 10 years; with Scoins on the attack last year,
CPS's parent agency, the Department of Economic Security, was renewed
for only two. She was also able to draw attention to social workers who
raised complaints about the agency's operations in Kingman (see "Suffer
the Children," October 26, 2006).



And Scoins knows how to work the bully pulpit. If nothing else, her
story provides great political cover for CPS critics like Senator Karen
Johnson, a Mesa Republican. It can be difficult, politically, to
criticize an agency that fights child abuse. It's a lot easier when you
have an example of a non-abusive mom, like Scoins, caught in its
bureaucratic net.

But despite her success at the Capitol, and despite the fancy title,
Robin Scoins is no Jack Abramoff. She lives on Social Security and does
her advocacy work from the bedroom of her Section 8 apartment — because,
as she explains, "I don't even have a kitchen table." She has no
funding, not even from the families she advocates for, although
sometimes they'll help out by babysitting. She's never wined or dined a
legislator in her life.

But is she a lobbyist? That's the question that could cost her up to
$1,000 or even a misdemeanor conviction.

Under Arizona law, lobbyists must register every two years and pay a $25
registration fee. They must also file annual reports.

Scoins never did any of that. And last month, Representative Pete
Hershberger, a Republican from Tucson, wrote the secretary of state to
request that the office investigate whether Scoins is "properly
registered for the activities she is undertaking." He then forwarded the
letter to the attorney general and Maricopa County attorney.

Hershberger chairs the House's Human Services Committee and is one of
the Legislature's most outspoken CPS supporters. While many Republicans
harshly criticized the agency's Napolitano-era mandate to prioritize
child safety above family preservation, Hershberger applauded it. When
Napolitano asked for $34 million for the agency in 2003's landmark "CPS
reform" special session, House Republicans countered with $1.7 million.
Hershberger crafted the compromise that got CPS $17 million instead.

As Hershberger pointed out in his letter, Scoins has signed in at
committee meetings as a representative of her family rights institute.
The secretary of state's "lobbyist handbook" suggests that could be
enough, in and of itself, to trigger a violation, although an actual
penalty would require Scoins to have "knowingly" failed to follow the rules.

Joseph Kanefield, the state election director for Secretary of State Jan
Brewer, acknowledges that complaints like Hershberger's are highly
unusual. "I can tell you that it's the first one we've gotten this
session," he says. It'll be up to his office to determine whether
there's "reasonable cause" to suspect that a violation occurred. If
there is, he says, the case would go to Goddard.

Kanefield sent a letter to Scoins on March 8 with two questions: Was she
paid by the family advocacy institute to lobby the Legislature? And had
she spent any money to woo legislators — say, buying them lunch?

Scoins has done neither, as she explained in her reply to Kanefield last
week.

"At no time have I ever presented myself as a lobbyist, and in fact
stated in public hearings, that I am NOT a lobbyist and I am not paid by
anyone to speak in support of or in opposition of any bill," she wrote.
"I have not been paid to provide testimony at the request of a
legislator as a citizen expert on CPS issues. I am a mother, who
volunteers time to help others exercising my right to participate in
government processes."

Kanefield says it's too early to say whether Scoins must register just
because she represents a group. The law is complicated; Kanefield
doesn't want to comment on the merits of the complaint until his
office's investigation is done.

But others are crying foul on Hershberger.

Dan Pochoda, legal director of the Arizona chapter of the ACLU, says
he's waiting for the secretary of state's decision before he gets
involved. But if lobbying laws are used to stop a citizen from speaking
in front of a committee, even if that citizen is part of a bigger group,
he believes it "would raise significant First Amendment issues."

And Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for
Child Protection Reform and an outspoken critic of CPS, calls
Hershberger's complaint "absolutely unheard of."

"Most legislators," Wexler says, "at least pick on someone their own
size. I've never heard of anyone going after a grassroots activist like
this."

Even if Hershberger is right about the law, it doesn't help that he and
Scoins disagree so vehemently on the issues. If nothing else, this looks
like an attempt to harass a dissenting voice, and one of a low-income
single mom at that.

Nor does it help that, in the private sector, Hershberger is getting
paid by a company with strong ties to CPS. Before he was elected to the
House, Hershberger was a full-time employee at a Tucson social service
agency called Open Inn. Tax records show that Open Inn gets the bulk of
its funding — more than $3 million annually — from government contracts.
As Hershberger acknowledges, some of those contracts are with CPS's
parent agency.

It's not clear just how much he's being paid. The personal disclosure
form that Hershberger has on file with the secretary of state shows only
that the total is over $1,000. He claims he hasn't billed Open Inn in
months and that the company's ties don't factor into how he feels about
CPS. (And what he's doing is not a legal conflict of interest, according
to Arizona's rather lax laws regarding legislators.)

Hershberger insists that his letter wasn't intended to silence a critic.

"I was just curious," he says. "My understanding is if she's
representing someone other than just herself, paid or unpaid, she has to
register. That's to protect the public and let them know who's
representing who. . . . Now it's up to them. If she didn't do anything
wrong, okay, I'm done with it."

Richard Wexler, for one, doesn't buy it. If Hershberger was just
"curious," he asks, why not just talk to Scoins and ask about her funding?

"That's what he would do if he was curious," Wexler says. "But if he
wanted to bully her, he'd send a letter to the secretary of state — and
then he'd forward it to the county attorney."
 




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