Open Letter To Senator Lesko Demanding Accountability and Consequenses
Senator Lesko,
I am writing to you about your presentation Thursday night concerning the Department of Child Safety. You sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee and last night you gave your briefing regarding the department of Child Safety received an additional $45 million dollars to specifically address a back log of over 14,000 children with open cases that haven’t been seen or verified as needing service. The director admitted they have no idea what the status of these children are and in fact the back log as grown according to your presentation. Now here is what is really problematic according to your briefing, the director admitted that they “misspent the $45 million dollars”, thus not addressing the over 14,000 children’s cases and in fact increasing the number of children on the back log!
During your presentation, no one interrupted despite the gasps of outrage and let you continue with your short presentation. Your explanation was that the Director is a “really nice guy” and that it is a “really difficult job” blah blah blah… These are excuses and not a responsible reaction to the situation in my opinion.
I asked if you knew what the $45 million dollars was spent on and you said you didn’t know, but “we were all angry, republican and democrat both”. I also asked why is there not a request or demand for a forensic audit on this agency and you said you didn’t think they could do one and asked Bob Stump, former Senator, if one could be done and he said nothing or made a gesture that I could see.
You also suggested the possibility of the state contracting with a private company to investigate these cases. This is in my opinion completely wrong logistically, financially and is not in the best interest of those thousands of children needing immediate service or intervention. Plus it doesn’t address the immediate problem with the agency at hand. This suggestion is an admission that the current agency is incompetent and unable to do the job for which you say they receive over $900 million dollars to do.
I would really appreciate a reply with what is currently being done publicly to make this situation improve after years of incompetence and a waste of money. Please address the following questions for me so I can understand your position on this matter and what your are doing as a committee member to encourage reform and an investigation.
- Why is Gregory McCay still the head of the department as well as those directly responsible for the spending and planning of departmental services in accordance with the department budget. He may be a “nice guy” but frankly is irrelevant. There are lots of nice guys but not all of them are qualified to do their job. Being a nice guy isn’t one of his job descriptions so this isn’t a qualifying excuse or reason to dismiss his actions, despite your anger. Can you honestly imply it is somehow not his fault? If so some explanation is in order on this.
- Why can’t or shouldn’t an audit be done on this department with the results being made public?
- What is the purpose of the Appropriations Committee when they get reports from directors that admit being incompetent with tax payer money? Can’t you withhold future appropriations pending an outcome of an investigation to extremely large issues such as this?
- What has already specifically, if anything, been done to address this at the governors level?
Additionally, I searched the recent Appropriations Committee meeting minutes and agendas and couldn’t find the topic of Department Child Safety. Can you direct me to the date of this meeting and minutes please?
For 17 of my 20 years working as a Probation officer in California I worked with juveniles. I have a lot of experience with working caseloads, appearing in court, working with grants, and working with agencies such as this one. In those 20 years I have never heard of this type of situation occurring, especially after a “major” overhaul that was supposed to correct the ongoing problems in the first place. To see this happening and not hearing about it until now and there being no accountability on anyone’s part including legislators who are charged with fiduciary responsibility with tax payer money is an outrage.
This being an election year is important timing to address this issue immediately and appropriately, not just for justice of incompetence but for the safety of the children the agency is supposed to be protecting.
Sincerely,
Randy Miller
LD 21 PC