Butler Co. Children Services employees report agency's failings

Staff survey criticizes Butler children agency
McGurk, Margaret. Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 23, 2007, pg. B5.

Butler County Children Services workers gave their agency dismal marks in a survey presented Thursday night.Workers painted a picture of a badly run organization plagued with mistrust and confusion. More than half questioned the agency's integrity.

A third said the agency shortchanges the children it is supposed to serve. Forty percent said biological families are underserved.

The survey was conducted by FountainWorks marketing and policy consultants on behalf of a special task force that is weighing the agency's future. About half the agency's staff took the survey, which was voluntary.

The agency contracted with a placement service that put Marcus Fiesel into the home of Liz and David Carroll Jr., where he died.

The agency's director, Jann Heffner, resigned her $125,000-a-year job this month.

In response to the survey, the Butler County Children Services Board issued a letter from University of Cincinnati research expert Sourushe Zandvakili that criticized the survey as unscientific and unreliable. Zandvakili instead recommended a retreat "where all stakeholders are represented" to address the agency's problems.

Unmanageable workloads and an oversupply of supervisors were common complaints in the FountainWorks results.

County Commissioner Mike Fox called the survey "the last straw" for the board that oversees the agency. "It's time to drain the swamp," he said.

Fox was incensed that the agency refused to provide contact information so FountainWorks could survey foster children and foster families.

"They can play the privacy card all day long," Fox said, "but the law gives them the flexibility to bring in consultants to interview their customers. To me, not wanting to know what your children have to say is a fatal indictment.

"If Marcus Fiesel's death is not enough to light a fire under the board and agency management to get opinions from the children they care for, they've abdicated their right to govern anything."

The task force also heard a report Thursday from John Steinbach of JP Consultants Inc., who interviewed workers, board members and others about what would make the agency work better.

While his aim was to find positive ideas, he did note that he heard "stories of an abusive organization" and "examples of wonderfully dedicated employees working in almost impossible situations."