FRESNO COUNTY – After concerns over child welfare and organizational mismanagement within the Department of Social Services have resurfaced, Fresno County plans to engage in a comprehensive review of the system’s practices.
In a 5-0 vote April 7, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors directed County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland to hire an independent auditor to look into DSS and report back to the board. Nerland, alongside County Counsel Doug Sloan, will also ensure complex cases that pass through the child welfare services division receive additional review and quality assurance.
“My goal in this audit is not to ascribe blame to anyone, but to find what changes are needed and make them with the sole goal of ensuring that decisions are being made that are always in the best interest of the children we care for,” Board Chair Garry Bredefeld said.
Bredefeld and Vice Chair Luis Chavez brought the item to the board after social worker Lorraine Ramirez spoke at a February board meeting to bring to light concerns over the department’s reunification practices and other internal issues.
Since then, Bredefeld said he has followed up with Ramirez, spoken to DSS Director Sanja Bugay, Nerland, Sloan, DSS executive team members, the chair of the Fresno County Foster Care Standards and Oversight Committee and more.
Bredefeld said concerns expressed by the oversight committee included a lack of transparency from DSS where the committee felt staff were withholding information and meeting questions with defensiveness. According to the committee, it has also been prevented from seeing data and trends necessary to understand how the child welfare system operates, Bredefeld said.
“If accurate, this is unacceptable,” he said.
Further, Bredefeld said the director of a foster family agency raised concerns that the county has not provided enough follow-up with families, parenting support or oversight of cases.
During public comment on the item, current and former social workers and foster parents spoke about children being reunited with their birth parents despite unsafe conditions, DSS staff and managers being unresponsive to repeated requests for meetings and concerns about children being shrugged off.
Commenters also said staff within DSS face a negative working culture, have unmanageable caseloads and are often given significant responsibilities without adequate experience or training.
Kevin Lisitsin, vice chair of the oversight committee, said an independent review would not just allow the department and county to identify opportunities for improvement but could help the committee understand its role.
“This audit would help us also understand what exactly we’re there to be able to help support, … like, what’s the standard that a Department of Social Services should have?” Lisitsin said. “This would allow us as a committee to be able to oversee that, I believe, very fairly, and be able to help all kids that go through our program.”
While the independent audit is being conducted, Chavez said he would also like the county counsel’s office to vet the decisions being made for children within the system, “just to make sure we have some ongoing, independent eyes on decisions that we’re making.”
Nerland said he would also engage with the California Department of Social Services to assist in the audit process.