LA cw's committing fraud-off jobs while *on clock*

Date: 22 Jun 2003 13:11:47 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.support.child-protective-services
Size: 4,032 bytes

AND, I believe that LA, CA has the largest child welfare caseload in the United
States.
Just as in Rilya's case--we find ABSOLUTE FRAUD. Indeed, someone blew the
whistle on these *dedicated caseworkers* who are NOT OUT HELPING FAMILIES.
They are running on the treadmills in their health clubs. And going to the
movies.
Make sure you call the behavior in to the Fraud Hotlines in your town.
Maybe their dereliction of duty is one reason that UPSET FAMILIES can never
reach these slackers.
BTW, one *overworked employee* handled 4 cases, ONLY.
As the song goes "Nice work if you can get it....."
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Child agency employees found 'off job, on clock'
Anonymous tip launched probe
By Michael Gougis
Staff Writer
Thursday, June 19, 2003 -
Social workers in an elite unit assigned to care for some of Los Angeles
County's most-troubled children spent their work hours jogging at the gym,
running errands and even going to a movie theater, according to confidential
reports.
The report details an 11-day undercover investigation of Pasadena employees in
the Start Taking Action Responsibly Today program, or START, launched in the
mid-1990s to help the county's neediest children who are court dependents.
As a result of the probe, officials from the Department of Children and Family
Services have called for firing three social workers and creating a task force
to determine whether troubled youths actually are being helped.
"The workers were clearly off the job and on the clock,' John Oppenheim, DCFS
chief deputy director, said in an interview.
Longtime critics of the department seized on the report as further evidence of
the county's failure to look after children in its care.
"The fraud in the department is shocking, particularly because START is aimed
at the children with the most significant problems,' said Amy Pellman, legal
director for the Los Angeles-based Alliance for Children's Rights.
A multidepartmental program, START has 39 employees 27 from the Department of
Children and Family Services, three from the county Probation Department and
nine from the Department of Mental Health. They serve nearly 100 children,
whose problems range from criminal activity and violent behavior to drug abuse
and mental illness.
At a time when other county social workers are swamped under caseloads of 30
children or more, those in the START unit handle a maximum of 10 cases at a
time to let them give more attention to each child.
The undercover investigation was prompted by a tip on the county's Fraud
Hotline that three employees in START's Pasadena office were engaged in
"work-hour abuse.'
Investigators from the Auditor- Controller's Special Investigations Unit tailed
the three employees during work hours and found that one brought her child to
school and then spent 90 minutes at a gym while supposedly on the job.
A second employee started his workday by visiting a gym. He then went back home
until he left at 1:15 p.m. to visit a Pasadena high school for 35 minutes. Just
before 3 p.m., he drove to a movie theater in Upland, according to
investigators.
"Mr. B worked on county business for no more than one hour, but reported nine
hours worked,' the investigators' report states.
The third employee was assigned to work nine-hour days, but did so only once in
the four days he was tailed. He worked as few as three hours one day and
usually arrived home by 3:30 p.m., although his shift was supposed to end at 6
p.m., investigators said.
Workers in START's Pasadena office also carried an average caseload of only
four children, investigators found.
Sources said START workers had made it so difficult to qualify a child for the
program that many caseworkers outside the program had given up on referring
children to it.
Oppenheim said it is clear the program needs to be re-evaluated.
"There is a necessity to do some modifications,' he said. "But at its core I
think it has merit.'
-- Michael Gougis can be reached at (818) 713-3636.