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Friday, June 20, 2008
County going green to save green
County commissioners on Thursday, June 19, announced they were looking at creating a policy in an attempt to cut costs on fuel.
Although they expected to pay between $800,000 and $1 million on gas in 2008, they didn’t expect to pay $4.10 per gallon. And, as a result, they could blow the fuel budget by nearly 15 percent this year.
HAMILTON — In the coming weeks, Butler County commissioners hope to have a new policy in place to help save the environment and save them money.
At least three times so far this year — including the most recent action Thursday, June 19 — commissioners agreed to advance the fuel depot money to cover the rising cost of gas. This time, it was in the amount of $50,000.
During budget season, which usually takes place each fall, commissioners expected to pay between $800,000 and $1 million in 2008 for fuel. But they will likely surpass even the highest amount by nearly 15 percent, said Interim Administrator Tim Williams.
Among the ideas for the policy are requiring departments to car pool more, turn off vehicles — like police cruisers — that would normally idle, re-evaluating which county employees should be entitled to cars and how often they should be driven, according to Commissioner Gregory Jolivette, who proposed the idea this week.
“We need to start getting everybody to think about conservation,” Jolivette said. Gas prices, he said, “are going to eat into our budget and our reserves. Hopefully, we can absorb that (added cost) through growth, but I don’t think we can depend on that.”
Although the policy is more “precautionary,” Jolivette said, it could mean fewer employees would be allowed to drive county vehicles or use county gas. It could also mean eventually keeping more county cars — like those driven by department heads — in the garage.
“This is something we weren’t expecting, so we need to do more,” Jolivette said.
County commissioners are also asking that department heads submit their own ideas for the conservation of fuel and other resources.
Some measures are already being taken.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Office has eliminated 20 vehicles that were taken home by employees each night, and they’ve instituted a policy that forces deputies to turn off their vehicles — if it’s safe to do so — instead of allowing them to idle.
Still, like it is for all drivers, the price of gas is a continuing frustration.
“Every time we cut the cost of our fuel, (it) goes up,” said Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2112 or dgreber@coxohio.com.
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Children services trying to keep kids with kin
Today, June 20, we featured a pair of stories about policies in the works in Butler County Children Services in an attempt to change the agency’s culture.
Executive Director Michael Fox said he wants to improve the foster experience locally by keeping children in their care with family members instead of resorting to out-of-home placement.
Click the link below to read both stories.
Thoughts?
Here’s the first story.
In March, a Butler County foster child was removed from the Mount Healthy home of Charles V. Day after it was alleged the day care and foster care provider showed pornographic images to an 8-year-old girl.
Day, 38, who operates a day care out of a church on Compton Road, was charged Wednesday, June 18, with disseminating harmful material to a juvenile.
Although interviews conducted by Butler County Children Services found the incident to be an isolated one, the latest allegations point to a larger issue, according to local officials: That taking children away from their families should be a last resort.
According to data released this month, county children services case workers have removed 234 children from their biological parents so far this year. Of those, 161 — or about 69 percent — were placed outside their homes or families.
Slightly greater than one-third of those 234 children were placed with a relative. “I think we can do better than that,” said Michael Fox, the child welfare agency’s executive director.
The results of an ongoing study will make sure they will, Fox said.
Fox is slowly turning a ship that has had its anchor mired in redundancies, a sea of useless data, and enough cracks in its checks and balances to nearly sink the entire agency.
Operating under the shadow of the brutal August 2006 death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel, Fox — who was appointed to the position in August 2007 — said he is on the cusp of changing the way children services does business.
“But first we had to have the information,” said Fox, referring to the three-month study. “The question is, are we doing all that we can do to minimize the risk (to children)? And the answer (according to the data) is ‘no.’
“When I arrived, that question wasn’t even being asked,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2112 or dgreber@coxohio.com.
Here’s the second story.
HAMILTON — For the first time, Butler County Children Services is using its own information to create new policies and practices, agency officials said this week.
Data collected during an internal audit of placement decisions, case worker tendencies and how money and resources were spent from December 2007 through February 2008 will be used to change the culture of an organization that has influence on the lives of more than 2,500 local children at any given time, officials said.
The overall goal, according to Michael Fox, the agency’s executive director, is protecting clients’ well-being.
“Nothing has changed in this agency about what the first priority is, and that’s protecting children,” Fox said. “This is about making informed decisions about what keeps the child safe and getting the best outcome at the lowest possible price.”
Price is important, especially considering the financial forecast for children services shows a nearly $6 million deficit in 2009. And county commissioners nixed the idea of placing a levy on the November ballot because of the sluggish economy.
As a result, Fox immediately shifted more than $1 million — mostly through staff cuts — from administrative costs to resources for what they call the “front line.”
Although it’s been viewed as controversial, the new program allows children services to help struggling families with bills and other expenses to prevent intervention. And more importantly, Fox said, to prevent out-of-home placement situations.
But the change hasn’t been easy, Fox said. During the past few weeks — and as recently as Tuesday, June 17 — local foster parents, case workers and their supervisors have voiced concerns.
“It’s always been our philosophy,” said Linda Peters, children services quality improvement and information manager, about placing children with family members. But Fox has been given “the resources to do it,” she said.
Greater than two-thirds of the 234 children the agency has placed so far this year have been sent away from their families.
National studies, however — the only benchmark available at this time — suggest children have a better experience when placed with a family member.
Local studies — which are still incomplete — suggest out-of-home placements are less likely to graduate high school and find jobs, and more likely to be homeless and involved with the judicial system.
“It’s not that these kids are more likely to be molested or abused in foster homes,” Fox said. “It’s the outcome. It’s the overall experience.”
The new data also provides supervisors with yet another tool to address tendencies with case workers, analyze best practices and increase accountability regarding decisions about the lives of children, he said.
“We’re not just taking a sample (each month),” Fox said. “We’re monitoring every decision in every case.”
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