A legislative committee refused to approve a plan to hire 60 additional employees to handle child abuse and neglect cases. NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein reports.
The joint House, Senate fiscal committee, which approves some state spending, voted along party lines not to decide on whether to hire more staff for the Division of Children, Youth and Families. The plan before the committee was to spend 3.3 million dollars to hire some 60 additional employees at DCYF.
In 1991 the class-action lawsuit, known as Eric L., was filed against New Hampshire accusing the state of inadequately protecting children. The court appointed a panel which filed four reports evaluating the effectiveness of DCYF. The panel issued their final report this week and noted some improvements but found the state needed more staff.
Democratic Senator Katie Wheeler says the fiscal committee missed an opportunity to avoid an expensive lawsuit.
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2:04 we are out of compliance with Eric L. We know we are out of compliance with Eric L, these 60 positions were part of a settlement agreement. Without the positions we go back to court, and we are going to lose?The lawyers from AG?s office came and told us we are in an incredibly weak position if we go back to litigation...I can?t believe that the fiscal committee that prides itself on its frugality would prefer to spend money on legal services rather than protecting children.
But some of the seven Republican fiscal committee members laid the blame at Governor Shaheen?s office. If hiring more DCYF workers was such a high priority, they asked why didn?t that make it into the governor?s budget.
Governor Shaheen?s spokesperson Judy Reardon accused the Republican members of putting politics before people.
3:11 why does what Jeanne Shaheen do two years ago, or what the legislature did two years ago matter? Isn?t the job of elected officials to do what is right, not try to figure out how to cast blame?
Fiscal Committee Chair Representative Neal Kurk doesn?t see the vote as a matter of politics. The Republican agrees DCYF has some problems. But after reading the 59 page analysis of the Division, he isn?t sure hiring new workers is the best way to solve them.
1:13 of the five or six bulleted items, most of them dealt with management issues. How the organization is structured, how it is being run. Decisions that are being made to allocate resources, including human resources, these are the things that need to be looked at. You just don?t throw more money at a problem and expect it to be solved. That?s the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result. You have to look at the entire division.
4:36 that?s just politics. He knows, and everybody has pointed out is that at its core, that DCYF was given inadequate tools to do the job in terms of staff and resources?
That?s Ronald Lospennato, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Eric L. case.
?You can fiddle all you want with management, but if you don?t have the people in place..if you have high staff turnover, you are going to end up with the kinds of results you end up with.
Given the legislature?s vote, Lospennato expects to consult with the plaintiffs council on next steps. He says there are few options, one is of course going back to court to enforce the agreement reached five years ago.
Republican fiscal committee members are calling on the attorneys to work with the new legislature to, as Representative Kurk says, evaluate the whole division. That process wouldn?t begin until January. Attorney Lospennato says waiting is the most unlikely scenario.
11:59 I don?t think our clients can wait that long. We have an agreement that is scheduled to terminate in December further of agreement of the parties.
The Fiscal Committee is expected to meet again before January at which time they could revisit their decision.
For NHPR News, I?m DG.
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